September/October 2021

Cook's Illustrated

Your go-to source for foolproof recipes that work.

Cook's Illustrated2 min read
Cook's Illustrated
Editor in Chief Dan Souza Editorial Director Amanda Agee Deputy Editor Rebecca Hays Executive Food Editor Keith Dresser Managing Editor Elizabeth Bomze Deputy Food Editor Andrea Geary Senior Editors Lan Lam, Annie Petito Associate Editor Steve Dunn A
Cook's Illustrated2 min read
Muscle−bound
Most food television shows would have us believe that the best professional cooks are explosive and erratic, speeding through tasks with squirrel-like energy. That’s simply not true. Peer into any kitchen, find the calmest cook, and you’ve likely spo
Cook's Illustrated3 min readDiet & Nutrition
Quick Tips
When they need to beat eggs, John and Denise Goodman of Oak Park, Calif., turn not to a whisk but to a handheld milk frother. The tool buzzes the eggs into an airy, uniform mixture with minimal effort. When scoring poultry skin or the fat cap on meat
Cook's Illustrated6 min read
Blackened Chicken
During the 1980s, the red drum population along the Gulf Coast was decimated by overfishing. Demand for the fish (also known as redfish) had soared to such unprecedented levels that the National Marine Fisheries Service was forced to ban commercial h
Cook's Illustrated2 min readChemistry
The Art (and Science) of Blackening
Whether you’re searing meat, frying potatoes, baking bread, or caramelizing sugar, color is a pretty good indicator of flavor development, and a rich shade of brown is usually the goal. It’s a visual cue that proteins and/or sugars in the food have u
Cook's Illustrated5 min readRegional & Ethnic
Plush, Meaty PastelÓn
My Puerto Rican grandmother stockpiled plantains in the pantry of our New York City apartment like preserves in a root cellar. While they were green and as starchy as potatoes, she’d double-fry them for tostones or pound them into a mash with flavorf
Cook's Illustrated2 min readDiet & Nutrition
Latin Cooking’s Top Banana
In the United States, the dessert banana dominates supermarket shelves, but in the Caribbean Basin and Latin America, its starchier botanical cousin, the plantain, proliferates. The fruit is so integral to the cuisines of these areas, “we think of it
Cook's Illustrated5 min readRegional & Ethnic
The Lightest, Most Delicate Gnocchi
Pate a choux has been a workhorse of the French culinary canon since the 1500s, serving as the foundation for a number of airy pastries, including gougeres, profiteroles, eclairs, and beignets. But my favorite use for the eggy dough is as the base of
Cook's Illustrated1 min read
Thrice-Cooked Dough
The pate a choux for our Parisian gnocchi is cooked three times, resulting in beautifully inflated puffs that hold their shape. First, the water, butter, flour, and egg dough is cooked in a saucepan, where the starch in the flour hydrates and then ge
Cook's Illustrated1 min readRegional & Ethnic
A Franco-italian Merger
The provenance of gnocchi à la Parisienne is not well documented, but Maryann Tebben, professor of French and head of the Center for Food Studies at Bard College at Simon’s Rock, said that’s likely because the dish came about gradually as the French
Cook's Illustrated4 min read
Make Omelets Like a Pro
For a year and a half during my early 30s, I worked the brunch shift at Craigie on Main, a French-inspired restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts. My charge was the egg station, where I turned out the kitchen’s variant of a classic French omelet feat
Cook's Illustrated4 min readRegional & Ethnic
Briam Is for EVOO Lovers
Making the Greek dish briam feels like a magic trick. A rainbow of summer produce—tomatoes, zucchini, bell peppers, onions, potatoes—enters the oven simply sliced, seasoned, and bathed in olive oil and emerges a meltingly soft and velvety melange, ea
Cook's Illustrated4 min readRegional & Ethnic
Catalonia’s Anytime Snack
Whether you know it as pan con tomate, as many Spaniards do, or by its native Catalan name, pa amb tomaquet (“pam two-MAH-cat”), the dish is bread with tomato, and it’s as simple as cooking gets. “If you have a piece of bread, you have a piece of bre
Cook's Illustrated7 min readRegional & Ethnic
The Silkiest Soup
In his classic 1944 cookbook, Dinner at Omar Khayyam’s, Armenian American chef and restaurateur George Mardikian explains step one for making yogurt at home in the United States: “Just open any telephone book and find a name ending with ‘ian.’ Go to
Cook's Illustrated1 min readDiet & Nutrition
Key Ingredients
Vinegar is the main source of flavor in quick pickles, and it also provides acidity that helps preserve them. Distilled white and cider vinegars are the most common types for pickling; both usually contain moderate acid levels (about 5 percent). Wine
Cook's Illustrated3 min readRegional & Ethnic
Make Quick Pickles Part of Your Routine
We should all be making more pickles. They’re the ultimate pick-me-up for a sleepy sandwich or braise, and the quick kind can be dashed off on a whim while you’re cooking something else. Unlike lacto-fermented pickles, which require carefully calibra
Cook's Illustrated1 min readRegional & Ethnic
How to Quick-Pickle Anything
Recipes are great when you’re aiming for a particular flavor profile, but the beauty of quick pickling is its flexibility. With the following basic brine formula and method, you can turn just about any produce—in any amount—into a punchy condiment. F
Cook's Illustrated1 min readRegional & Ethnic
Don’t Forget To Pickle Fruit!
Vegetables get most of the glory, but pickled fruits are a pleasure all their own. The fragrant sweetness of peaches and mangos; wine-like nuances of plums and cherries; and complex aroma and crunch of apples, pears, and quince naturally complement v
Cook's Illustrated1 min read
It’s All Usable!
Chris Smith, gardener and author of The Whole Okra (2019), thinks his muse deserves more recognition: “[Okra has] all these benefits that no one is currently recognizing on any kind of scale.” For one thing, he told me, most parts of the lush plant—n
Cook's Illustrated5 min readRegional & Ethnic
Okra: A Vegetable Superstar
There are many ways to reveal okra’s charms: The fresh pods can be breaded and deep-fried, pickled in a vinegary brine, charred over fiery coals, gently stewed, or used to thicken soup, to name just a few. The vegetable is even good lightly steamed;
Cook's Illustrated1 min readRegional & Ethnic
Using Science to Dictate Texture
Okra can have two distinctly different characters, depending on how it’s cooked. Its slick texture is formed by polysaccharides that dissolve in water to make a slippery gel. Thus, slowly stewing the vegetable exploits its gooey properties, eventuall
Cook's Illustrated8 min read
Layered Pastry for First-Timers
According to legend, about 160 years ago in Douarnenez, a small seaside town in the northwest corner of France, Yves Rene Scordia ran out of goods to sell in his bakery. The resourceful baker looked around his shop and spotted lean bread dough, sugar
Cook's Illustrated1 min read
Butter Block Reform
Unless you’re a kouign amann pro, incorporating sugar into the folds of the pastry can be a messy business. Sugar is abrasive, so scattering it over the butter block, enclosing it in the dough, and rolling it out (per the traditional method) causes i
Cook's Illustrated1 min readRegional & Ethnic
Kouignettes: Not Just Mini Kouign Amann
If you’re familiar with the term kouign amann (“KWEE-nyah-MAHN”), you might think it refers to the flaky, cupcake-size confections that show up occasionally in American and Parisian bakeries. But this diminutive style is actually a kouignette: a riff
Cook's Illustrated4 min read
Bringing Betty Back
When I found myself nearing the end of an autumn cycling vacation with too many apples to cram into my saddlebags, Betty came to my rescue. I was only vaguely familiar with the retro apple dessert—my aunt Kathy may have served me one once—but I had a
Cook's Illustrated1 min readRegional & Ethnic
One Mixture, Two Textures
The two layers of buttered, lightly sweetened bread crumbs sandwiching the fruit are the same, but during baking they take on two different textures. The bottom layer captures the exuded fruit juices, plumping and caramelizing in the oven floor’s hea
Cook's Illustrated5 min read
Professional-Level Pizza at Home
The blazing-hot oven of a real pizzeria can produce pizza with a flavorful, crisp, deeply browned crust and melty, bubbling cheese all in a matter of minutes. At home, though, pizza rarely reaches those heights. We’ve learned that heating a good baki
Cook's Illustrated1 min read
How Goat Cheeses Change as They Age
Young goat cheeses start off fairly dense, firm, and uniform in texture. As they ripen, a gooey band called a “creamline” forms and gradually widens toward the center of the cheese. A good cheesemonger will be able to tell you if a wedge or slice is
Cook's Illustrated4 min read
All About Goat Cheese
You can make a lovely, eclectic cheese plate using only goat cheese. That’s how much this category of cheese varies. Logs of fresh chevre are lemony and spreadable. Some styles of goat cheese age for several months and are much firmer and quite compl
Cook's Illustrated4 min read
Domestic Goat Cheeses
PRICE: $40.00 per lb AGED: About 2 weeks TASTING NOTES: This American original is instantly recognizable due to the thin layer of ash that runs through the cheese’s bright-white center. As it ages, the outer edges become lush and satiny, while the ce
Cook's Illustrated2 min readDiet & Nutrition
Imported Goat Cheeses
PRICE: $23.00 per lb AGED: 1 to 2 months TASTING NOTES: Bucheron is initially fairly dense and uniform. With time, the edges become delightfully gooey and creep toward the snowy-white center, which remains firmer and crumbly. It’s salty, with lemony
Cook's Illustrated8 min read
Kitchen Notes
In the 1950s, the Langner Manufacturing Company introduced its “Hostess” kitchenware line, a dizzying array of cooking and serving gadgets that I can only describe as delightfully kitschy. (Think: a butter curler, a cheese knife, and a “frozen food s
Cook's Illustrated5 min read
Equipment Corner
Electric can openers are meant to make opening cans simple. There are two styles: small countertop appliances and petite, battery-powered models that sit on top of cans. We assembled a lineup of nine models, ranging in price from about $15 to about $
Cook's Illustrated1 min read
Butter That’s Worth Its Salt
Elaine Khosrova, author of Butter: A Rich History (2016), says Breton butter, like a fine wine, exhibits strong “terroir.” “Great soil, good water, clean air, the right animals, beautiful salt—Brittany just has the perfect combination,” she says. Tha

Cook's Illustrated

More Issues From Cook's Illustrated