The Perfect Recipe: Getting It Right Every Time Making Our Favorite Dishes the Absolute Best They Can Be - Hardcover

Anderson, Pam / Illust.by Judy Love

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0395894034 ISBN 13: 9780395894033

Publisher: Shelburne, Vermont, U.S.A.: Chapters Pub Ltd, 1998

Synopsis

Which comes first when mashing potatoes--the butter or the milk? How do you roast a turkey so the breast is as moist and juicy as the legs? Is it possible to create a fudgy, cakey, chewy brownie all in one? Pam Anderson, executive editor of the highly successful magazine COOK'S ILLUSTRATED, painstakingly conducted test after test to arrive at not only the best recipe but frequently the most convenient and sensible one.

About this title

Review

Have you ever felt a little besieged by recipes? Ever opened up the newspaper to the food page and found yet more recipes that may or may not taste like anything you might want to have in your mouth? Ever longed for simplicity, for that one recipe you know is going to work time and time again? And not a recipe for some weird combination of foods that don't belong together on a plate, but for the kind of dishes you put on your table over and over again? Ever wondered what cookbook to send off to college with your child, the one who has been eating you out of house and home but for whom cooking is pouring milk on cold cereal? Pam Anderson, executive editor of Cook's Illustrated, has your answer.

"I wanted a stir-fry formula that I could commit to memory and make with meat, vegetables, and flavorings I had on hand, and a number of different sauces," Anderson writes. "I wanted a chicken pot pie that I'd actually have time to get on the table on weeknights, and macaroni and cheese that both my kids and I would eat. I wanted foolproof coleslaw and potato salads that would go with all sorts of dishes.... I wanted answers to questions that had been dogging me for years. Which cut of beef is best for stew? When mashing potatoes, which comes first: the butter or the milk?"

The Perfect Recipe answers these and many, many more questions. Anderson sets herself the task of finding the perfect recipes for, say, chicken stock, and explains how she got to her result. You end up learning a little bit about the science and chemistry of cooking. Then she gives you several delicious, and perfect, recipes for chicken soup. Or clam chowder. Or beef onion soup. She walks you through chicken and, after having roasted 40 turkeys, she shows you how to get perfect results every time. Her brownies are every bit as fudgy, chewy, and cakey as she claims. Her muffins are divine.

While most of these recipes are for everyday foods (and what could be more important?), there are a number of recipes dedicated to entertaining--how to cook the perfect prime rib even though you only do it once a year, for example. Anderson truly delivers the building blocks of good, sound, flavorful cooking--the kind of cooking you can always count on. --Schuyler Ingle

From the Author

The most satisfying moment of the process comes after the endless testing - after I've tinkered with each ingredient, tried every feasible cooking method - and still haven't found exactly what I'm looking for. Just when I start to think 'the perfect recipe' exists only in my mind, the answer comes to me through a neighbor's tip, a grandmother's secret, or a crucial piece of advice from a colleague (Pam Anderson).

About this edition

• Publisher: Shelburne, Vermont, U.S.A.: Chapters Pub Ltd
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0395894034
• ISBN 13: 9780395894033
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 372