The editors at America’s Test Kitchen, based in a Vermont farmhouse and stars of a PBS television series have a new for 2008 cookbook out. The Cook’s Country Cookbook, a new 2008 release features five hundred “classic, regional and heirloom recipes”. It is an ambitious book which attempts to chronicle a wide variety of American regional cuisines. While I sometimes find their very contemplative and methodical musings on what the perfect recipe, procedure, equipment and ingredients are and their careful testing to come up with recipes they guarantee to be foolproof a bit much to take, giving credit where it is due I have to say that I whole-heartedly approved of their directions for some classic Cajun and Creole dishes. (I also appreciated greatly the trouble they took to explain in some detail the meaning of these two often confused and misunderstood terms.)
Whether you’re looking to make chilli in Texas or have an authentic New England clambake, the Cook’s Country team is ready with detailed and very well thought out instructions for just exactly What you need to buy and How to go about preparing it. This book would serve well both experienced and aspiring cooks seeking a good general recipe volume to go to whenever questions about “how do I make such and such” arise. The Cook’s Country Cookbook is Highly Recommended.
Esther Brody’s 1500 Best Bars, Cookies, Muffins, Cakes & More was considerably less satisfying. There are literally hundreds and hundreds and Hundreds and Hundreds of recipes included in this volume. Page after page after page after page of muffins, muffins, muffins, muffins, muffins, et cetera, et cetera ad infinitum. In the end, for me at any rate Brody’s sheer bulk and volume left me wishing that like the other book she had instead presented me with 500 very well chosen recipes instead. Not Recommended.
