The Perfect Recipe
This book and the next one are great - they suit my way of thinking.
Pam Anderson roasted more than 40 turkeys, steamed and boiled more than three dozen lobsters, cleaned and cooked more than 100 pounds of greens,
baked more than 50 cobblers — all so you can have the perfect recipe . . .
Which comes first when mashing potatoes — the butter or the milk? What grade and grind of meat make the best hamburgers? How do you roast a turkey so the breast meat is as moist and juicy as the legs? For the tenderest muffins, should you use buttermilk, yogurt or milk? At what temperature should you cook prime rib for the most succulent results? Is it possible to create a fudgy, cakey, chewy brownie all in one?
Most of us don't have time to figure out the answers to questions like these. We need somebody to do the work for us and get our favorite recipes just right. In this book, Pam Anderson, the food editor of USA Weekend magazine, does just that. Painstakingly conducting test after test, Anderson arrives at not only the best recipe but frequently the most convenient and sensible one:
• A simple formula for a stir-fry that can be varied with different combinations of meat, vegetables and sauces
• French bread so easy it can be baked every day
• Chicken pot pie for weeknights, made with convenient chicken breasts rather than a whole chicken
• Macaroni and cheese as effortless as boxed, but three times as satisfying
• Pizza dough that rises in just one hour or throughout the day
• A cobbler that can be prepared with dozens of different fruits, making it 40 desserts in one.
THE PERFECT RECIPE includes more than 150 recipes in all, with dozens of step-by-step illustrations of techniques, comparisons of products and useful tips.
Simply the best cookbook you will ever buy!5
This book is full of test kitchen recipes that you really can use daily. The ways that they are explained and the mistakes they have made and show you how to avoid are priceless. My sister loved my book so much I had to buy her her own copy! Don't miss this one it is my favorite cookbook on the shelf and I collect them in the dozens!
Very nice "entry level" book for potential "Cook's Illustrated" fans4
This book's style and editorial format has a lot in common with Shirley Corriher's "CookWise" and the output of the Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen group, which isn't surprising since Anderson was once affiliated with CI. Anderson brings much of that same chatty, educational style to "The Perfect Recipe"; some people will like it, some people will hate it, depending on what they want from their cookbooks. I happen to really enjoy this kind of cookbook style, so I quite like it.
Other reviewers have mentioned that "Perfect Recipe" is practically a remake of CI's "The Best Recipe", but has far fewer recipes and represents a lesser value for the reader (although it also costs less). The criticism has merit, but I think this book still has a place if the libraries of some cooks. I am thinking here of novice and middling cooks who find the dense, cluttered potpourri layout of the CI books unappealing or intimidating. There are also cooks who couldn't care less about ingredient and appliance brand reviews that pad out every variation of CI/ATK books. For these reader, "The Perfect Recipe" offers a contrasting format with a much simpler and easier-to-follow style - even the typeset and margins are larger and any given page is usually only devoted to one variation of a recipe.
A good example of the cookbook's value is Anderson's chapter on roasting chicken. She shows how to "butterfly" a chicken for quicker/easier roasting, and gives several variations of the recipe, any one which will yield excellent results. I was basically afraid to try this method before reading this chapter (even after seeing Alton Brown's excellent show on the subject) , but Anderson's detailed instructions removed those qualms and left me raring and eager to try it. If a cookbook empowers me to try one new thing, I consider it worth the purchase price...so I am happy with "The Perfect Recipe". I am confident that other readers may well find that Anderson's style is just the ticket to help them get past their fear of other basic topics in food prep.
Weaknesses: For my taste, the chapter on "Special Occasion" foods (crown roast, Thanksgiving turkey, etc) was both too long and too short. Most of these recipes are of little use for a single bachelor - but if you are going to have them, you need more than just a few standards). But I understand that Anderson was making a judgement call on how to structure her book, and that other people will regard the chapter as a Godsend.
So if you are a hardcore cook with 200-300 volumes in your library (including some or all of the "Best Recipe" volumes) you probably won't need (or want) "The Perfect Recipe". But if you are a newer cook trying to upgrade your recipes to the next level, Anderson may provide you the entry you are looking for.
Pam Anderson roasted more than 40 turkeys, steamed and boiled more than three dozen lobsters, cleaned and cooked more than 100 pounds of greens,
baked more than 50 cobblers — all so you can have the perfect recipe . . .
Which comes first when mashing potatoes — the butter or the milk? What grade and grind of meat make the best hamburgers? How do you roast a turkey so the breast meat is as moist and juicy as the legs? For the tenderest muffins, should you use buttermilk, yogurt or milk? At what temperature should you cook prime rib for the most succulent results? Is it possible to create a fudgy, cakey, chewy brownie all in one?
Most of us don't have time to figure out the answers to questions like these. We need somebody to do the work for us and get our favorite recipes just right. In this book, Pam Anderson, the food editor of USA Weekend magazine, does just that. Painstakingly conducting test after test, Anderson arrives at not only the best recipe but frequently the most convenient and sensible one:
• A simple formula for a stir-fry that can be varied with different combinations of meat, vegetables and sauces
• French bread so easy it can be baked every day
• Chicken pot pie for weeknights, made with convenient chicken breasts rather than a whole chicken
• Macaroni and cheese as effortless as boxed, but three times as satisfying
• Pizza dough that rises in just one hour or throughout the day
• A cobbler that can be prepared with dozens of different fruits, making it 40 desserts in one.
THE PERFECT RECIPE includes more than 150 recipes in all, with dozens of step-by-step illustrations of techniques, comparisons of products and useful tips.
Simply the best cookbook you will ever buy!5
This book is full of test kitchen recipes that you really can use daily. The ways that they are explained and the mistakes they have made and show you how to avoid are priceless. My sister loved my book so much I had to buy her her own copy! Don't miss this one it is my favorite cookbook on the shelf and I collect them in the dozens!
Very nice "entry level" book for potential "Cook's Illustrated" fans4
This book's style and editorial format has a lot in common with Shirley Corriher's "CookWise" and the output of the Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen group, which isn't surprising since Anderson was once affiliated with CI. Anderson brings much of that same chatty, educational style to "The Perfect Recipe"; some people will like it, some people will hate it, depending on what they want from their cookbooks. I happen to really enjoy this kind of cookbook style, so I quite like it.
Other reviewers have mentioned that "Perfect Recipe" is practically a remake of CI's "The Best Recipe", but has far fewer recipes and represents a lesser value for the reader (although it also costs less). The criticism has merit, but I think this book still has a place if the libraries of some cooks. I am thinking here of novice and middling cooks who find the dense, cluttered potpourri layout of the CI books unappealing or intimidating. There are also cooks who couldn't care less about ingredient and appliance brand reviews that pad out every variation of CI/ATK books. For these reader, "The Perfect Recipe" offers a contrasting format with a much simpler and easier-to-follow style - even the typeset and margins are larger and any given page is usually only devoted to one variation of a recipe.
A good example of the cookbook's value is Anderson's chapter on roasting chicken. She shows how to "butterfly" a chicken for quicker/easier roasting, and gives several variations of the recipe, any one which will yield excellent results. I was basically afraid to try this method before reading this chapter (even after seeing Alton Brown's excellent show on the subject) , but Anderson's detailed instructions removed those qualms and left me raring and eager to try it. If a cookbook empowers me to try one new thing, I consider it worth the purchase price...so I am happy with "The Perfect Recipe". I am confident that other readers may well find that Anderson's style is just the ticket to help them get past their fear of other basic topics in food prep.
Weaknesses: For my taste, the chapter on "Special Occasion" foods (crown roast, Thanksgiving turkey, etc) was both too long and too short. Most of these recipes are of little use for a single bachelor - but if you are going to have them, you need more than just a few standards). But I understand that Anderson was making a judgement call on how to structure her book, and that other people will regard the chapter as a Godsend.
So if you are a hardcore cook with 200-300 volumes in your library (including some or all of the "Best Recipe" volumes) you probably won't need (or want) "The Perfect Recipe". But if you are a newer cook trying to upgrade your recipes to the next level, Anderson may provide you the entry you are looking for.
