Carl Tremblay

These people know their stuff! Every recipe I have tried from this book has been fabulous (barring one, and I think it was my error, not the books!) This book has a version of all the classics, from quick weeknight meals, to Sunday roasts. It has an Italian, French, Tex-Mex. It is very thorough. The only reason this book gets a 4.5 out of 5 is because it can be very technical, and challenging for novice chefs. Also, I feel like often my cook times are longer than listed, but that could be because I have an old stove.
Here is what I've tried so far:
Farmhouse Vegetable and Barley Soup, pg 23: I was pretty disappointed in this recipe, there weren't a whole lot of levels of flavors built up, and in the end it just tasted like veggies and water. Not even veggie water.
Caldo Verde, pg 27: We couldn't find spanish style chorizo, so we had to use kielbasa instead, but this soup was great and my small children kept asking for more, which was great since it has collard greens.
Corn Chowder, pg 28: This is also a great recipe, and catches summer corn flavor very well. However, scraping corn pulp into a towel and squeezing out the juice is a little fiddly, I omitted that step the second time I made it. Sometimes you have to sacrifice flavor for time!
Creamy Coleslaw & Buttermilk Coleslaw, pg 44-45: Both were good, though a little plain. I liked that the weren't so sugary as store bought coleslaw dressings.
Macaroni Salad, pg 46: Same as the coleslaw recipes, it seemed a little plain, but at the same time it's a great basic recipe to jump off from.
Antipasto Pasta Salad pg 48: This one is really good, very Italian and a little spicy!
Skillet Baked Ziti, pg 55: Made this recently. It is a quick recipe that is all made in one pan, and a good choice for Meatless Mondays.
Skillet Chicken Fajitas, pg 58: Just made this an hour ago! The marinade for the chicken is fantastic. This is an example of a recipe being a little fiddly, you have to cook about 4 separate steps in the same pan. I eliminated some of the steps, and maybe it wasn't as good as they wanted it to be, but I thought it was great!
Skillet Jambalaya, pg 65: This is my 6 year olds' most favorite meal, which is surprising since it has chicken, sausage and shrimp! It convinced both of the kids that they like shrimp. It's a delicious Jambalaya that is made quickly and all in one pan.
Shepherd's Pie, pg 77: This is the first thing we made from this book, and it changed everyone who tried it's opinion of shepherd's pie forever. Every time one of us orders it somewhere, we hope it will be as good as this recipe, and are always disappointed.
Pan-Seared Steaks, pg 160: A really solid basic recipe to make steaks on the stove top.
Pan-Seared Thick cut Pork Chops, pg 174: This recipe was interesting because you bake the pork chops first, and then brown them at the end. It made our kitchen really smokey, but the pork chops did taste really good.
Herb-Crusted Salmon, pg 225: This recipe was really good because you get a crunchy topping, but the fish stays moist from some mustard and mayo that adheres the breadcrumbs.
Garlicky Shrimp with Breadcrumbs, pg 237: I LOVE THIS RECIPE! The shrimp turns out so well, and the garlic flavor is soooo nice.
Fresh Pasta without a Machine, pg 282: This is a good, solid noodle recipe. Rolls nicely in the Kitchen Aid pasta roller.
Great Vegetable Lasagna, pg 324: This lasagna was great, except my sister accidentally used 2 garlic BULBS instead of two cloves. And it was still good!
French-Style Chicken and Stuffing in a Pot, pg 392: This is one of my favorite recipes from this book. The stuffing includes a little sausage roll that you make yourself, wrap in parchment paper and cook with the chicken. It was delicious!
Braised Red Potatoes, pg 591: This is a great recipe for cooking super crispy-but-also-soft potatoes in a pan, but I felt it took a lot longer than the recipe claimed.
Crispy Smashed Potatoes, pg 593: This is one of my family's favorite recipes for potatoes. Like a thick potato chip!
German Apple Pancake, pg 627: Very good flufly apple pancake, though it was a lot of work, so it seems best for a special occasion.
Waffles, pg 629: Their waffle recipe requires whipping an egg white and folding it into the batter, which is not what I want to do on my Sunday morning. They are really good though. They also have a quick recipe, but I haven't tried it yet.
Blueberry Scones, pg 634: A good way to use a glut of summer blueberries. These scones were very good, though mine were kind of dark on the bottom. Keep watch of the bottoms!
Blueberry Muffins, pg 641: This was the first America's Test Kitchen recipe I ever made, from the show before I every knew there was a book. It is the perfect example of a recipe that is fiddly (you have to cook a jam), but the extra steps make it the best muffin it could possibly be.
Cream Biscuits, pg 660: This is an great example of America's Test Kitchen making a recipe much more simple. Instead of grating frozen butter, you use heavy cream, which is like butter in liquid form! A good, easy recipe.
Best Drop Biscuits, pg 661: Similar to the one above, they have made a simple recipe with great results. Add cheddar to the dough, and make an herb butter to brush on it, and you have Red Lobster Biscuits!
Rustic Dinner Rolls, pg 669: THIS IS MY FAILURE. They were awful. I am going to chalk it up to my very beginner bread skills, and will try it again later, but mine were bad bad bad. Super hard. Leathery. not chewy.
Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies, pg 692: Everything you could possibly want in a chocolate chip cookie. Crunchy and also chewy and wonderfulllll!
Cream Cheese Brownies, pg 719. Very good swirly brownie.
Classic White Layer Cake, pg 748: This is what I use for every birthday cake!
Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream, pg 796: The perfect, full vanilla flavor, very good ice cream.
Basic Pie Crust, pg 824-825: Good, standard pie crust.
Foolproof Pie Dough, pg 827: I never really had a problem with the basic pie crust, so I'm not sure why this one is added, but it is interesting that there is vodka. I have only every used the for pie, and the crusts seemed much the same.… (más)

I really like this book. If you're a fan of the Cook's Illustrated process of exhaustive testing and reduction of a recipe to its basic elements, and a fan of vegetables, you'll be in heaven.

It covers 53 different vegetables, and is organized by vegetable, not by recipe type. So you look up the veggie you are interested in and find general preparation and cooking instructions, followed by a 'master recipe' and several variations.

This organization rewards discovery and experimentation - I intend to work my way through it systematically.… (más)

America's Test Kitchen comes from the folks of Cook's Illustrated magazine (THE best cooking mag on the market), and part of what makes them so great is that they start out with the product they want to achieve (chewy chocolate chip cookies, for example) and fiddle around until they get it perfect. They also detail what they tried and why it did (or didn't) work. About 4 pages are spent on each recipe, a great thing if you want to understand WHY you should use certain techniques. And if you don't, you can skip all that and get right to making perfect food. My suggestion is to leaf through each book in this series to find the recipes that most appeal to you. While I refer to some of my more techinical cookbooks when I need to fix recipes, it's the America's Test Kitchen series I turn to for new ideas.
… (más)