365 Quick Tips

365 Quick Tips is a collection of our editor's favorite picks from thousands of kitchen tricks and shortcuts submitted by our readers over the last eight years. One of the most popular sections of Cook's illustrated magazine, quick tips are easier (often surprising) ways of performing a kitchen task which either saves time, money or just makes you a better cook. Inside you will find truly original ideas for getting the lumps out of polenta (use an immersion blender), knowing when your steamer is out of water (add marbles to the bottom of the pot), and melting chocolate without a microwave (use the burner of an electric drip coffee machine). The quick tips are organized alphabetically and beautifully demonstrated through hand-drawn illustrations.

What's the neatest way to pit an avocado? How do you grate mozzarella without mess? How best to release flavor from dried herbs? Cook's Illustrated magazine's 365 Quick Tips has definitive answers to these and many more kitchen quandaries. Containing top tips, shortcuts, and time-, money-, and sanity-saving advice from the magazine, the book is an immediately useful data trove. (Answers to the above, in order: lodge a knife in the avocado pit, twist and remove the seed; coat the grater with nonstick cooking spray before applying the cheese; place the herbs in a sieve over a small bowl and push them through with your fingers.) Cooks wanting to be faster, better, and cannier kitchen operators should find the book a true boon.

Proceeding alphabetically from anchovies (mincing) to zucchini (shredding), 365 Quick Tips tackles an impressive array of culinary queries, all accompanied by precise how-to illustrations--more than 600 in all. Other examples of quick tips? Use a paring knife to sharpen a swivel vegetable peeler. If you want lumpless polenta, stir it with an immersion blender. Fluff cooked rice by covering it with an absorbent towel, putting the lid back on, and allowing it to steam for 10 minutes. Voilà! Grain-by-grain splendor. Readers will not only enjoy poring over the book, they'll use it often. --Arthur Boehm