Cooks Illustrated... any followers?

[Tha Baron]

Fellas-

A friend has let me access to their online account at Cook's Illustrated, which has an abundance of recipes, equipments reviews, "how to" videos and articles, etc. Any of you check out the site? I've been quite impressed and find their equipment reviews to be pretty thorough and helpful.

Just thought I would see if any of you have tried them out?

TB

 

[rummwa]

I get the magazine and love it good reviews and recipies.

 

[Rik]

Thoroughly enjoy their site, magazine, and shows on PBS. They are my first choice when looking for ideas.

 

[Uncle Erik]

Cook's Illustrated is excellent. I've read their magazine for years.

A cousin is a professional chef (he turns up on the Food Network every few months and has won a few international awards) and he gives Cook's Illustrated a big thumbs up. So do his friends - a James Beard Award winner among them.

 

[JPM]

I get the magazine and have a couple of the cook books. Good stuff.

 

[The Knize]

Absolutely. Have read the magazine since the beginning. TIVO and frequently actually watch America's Test Kitchen and now, to a lesser extent, "Cook's Country." Have at least one of their books.

These days seems by far the best cooking magazine. I understand most cooking magazines are read mostly by women, but Cook's Illustrated has majority mens' readership and/or subscribers.

Very reliable and expert work. Overall I would probably prefer some more elaborate restaurant syle recipes, but I know that is not what they are about.

 

[Jim]

Fan here.

 

[Walter Sobchak]

Huge fan here, too. I think I'm going to let my site membership lapse as I just don't have a lot of time to spend perusing anymore. I look forward to the magazine every time though!

The show's great, too, when I can catch it.

 

[beginish]

Fan here as well.

 

[Shane]

I like it a lot. Their offerings on public television, in my opinion, are the best food-related programming you can watch.

 

[royalcrown]

Absolutely love it and recommend their stuff to anyone I know looking for a cooking magazine or cook book.

*edit*
Post #666, the cooking magazine endorsement of the beast.

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsmcDLDw9iw[/YOUTUBE]

 

[KnoxPhil]

SWMBO and I are both big fans of the PBS show, the magazine, and the cookbooks. Loads of good information.

 

[The Knize]

Their methodology of testing numerous recipes and numerous techniques to see what really works is very efffective. So many times they have come up with better ways of doing things that the favored traditional method. They really advance the ball in cooking technique.

 

[Chickpea McGee]

Love Cook's Illustrated. I thoroughly enjoy the PBS show, the butcher paper & hand illustrated magazines are both unique and very informative, and I use their large cookbook, The New Best Recipe, more than any other of the 50+ in our collection.

 

[TacoBell]

Fan here. How about you Scotto?

 

[clubman]

Hate to be a contrarian here, but put me down as "not a fan". The recipes I've tried have been needlessly complicated (they really have a thing about adding step after step after step after step to even the simplest of dishes) without great results. To me, it's the sort of thing that SEEMS like it should work (i.e. cooking via the scientific method) but somehow doesn't. I do like watching the show though, and the equipment reviews definitely benefit from their "Consumer Reports" style of evaluation.

As far as current cooking magazines go, I very much enjoy my subscription to Saveur and each issue is generally a good read.

 

[Duamuteffe]

Love it. My folks get it, and we borrow theirs. It'll be great when we can have our own subscription.

 

[perry]

I watched a few episodes of ATK, signed up for the website, and then they became VERY VERY annoying with their marketing. They even went so far as to send me a copy of the magazine and an invoice. I would have never asked for that because I don't do magazines. And LOTS of emails that they wouldn't stop. I ended up having to go in to my website account and change all the contact details. Completely turned me off from the show.

 

[BobS]

I am also a fan and their best recipes cookbook is excellent. It takes the mystery out of things like risotto and polenta and makes them a lot easier with excellent results.

 

[The Knize]

I watched a few episodes of ATK, signed up for the website, and then they became VERY VERY annoying with their marketing. They even went so far as to send me a copy of the magazine and an invoice. I would have never asked for that because I don't do magazines. And LOTS of emails that they wouldn't stop. I ended up having to go in to my website account and change all the contact details. Completely turned me off from the show.

I'm not saying you are wrong. Among other thiings my experience was a whle back now. But I had quire the different experience. They had deal where they would sell you a cook book for the particular seasons stuff, along with DVDs of each show. If you decided you did not like the book for any reason you got to keep the DVDs. I pretty much told them I not want the book but would not mind having the free DVDs. I sent back the book right away and got no grief at all. No hustle, etc. Also my subscription to CI expires all the time and is expired now, and I do not seem to face any great pressure to renew. Unlike most magazines which seem to be after me to renew after sending one issue. But who knows. Maybe they have changed their policies. I do subscribe to the web site. Seems like a great deal.

Hate to be a contrarian here, but put me down as "not a fan". The recipes I've tried have been needlessly complicated (they really have a thing about adding step after step after step after step to even the simplest of dishes) without great results. To me, it's the sort of thing that SEEMS like it should work (i.e. cooking via the scientific method) but somehow doesn't. I do like watching the show though, and the equipment reviews definitely benefit from their "Consumer Reports" style of evaluation.

As far as current cooking magazines go, I very much enjoy my subscription to Saveur and each issue is generally a good read.

I like Saveur and susbcribe to it, too. But it is more a magazine about food, than a magazine about cooking/how to cook.

"Pleausures of Cooking" was my all time ffavorite cooking magazine. I have something of a recollection that there is a connectionn between CI and PofC. That CI may have taken over PofC or at least filled out the subscription I had to PofC.

Again, I am not questioning you either, but I would be curious to know what specific recipes you tried that seemed needlessly complicated for somethng simple. I think more of ATC/CI helping make difficult things foolprooof. But if may be that a really skilled cook can eliminate some of the steps that are designed to enhance the "fool-proofness" of recipes relying instead on skill, experience, and judgement.

As i indicated earlier, I would probably be interested in more complicated recipes and techniques--less good home-cooking dishes, and more mind-bending top chef exercises in difficulty and excesss. I am not saying that I am a great cook or highly skilled.