January 2011
23 posts
Make Your Own Taco
Taco Bell now claims their tacos are 88 percent beef. Others say it’s 35 percent. Answer? Make your own tacos.
We’ve decided to free up our beef taco recipe to encourage this taco-making effort.
Get it here.
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Blizzard Food
For our friends in the Midwest, we’ve made a few recipes free to help you get through the blizzard.
Our Best-Ever Hot Cocoa Mix
Our Simple Beef Chili
Our Lighter Chicken and Dumplings
Stay warm, folks!
Welcome to kitchen equipment heaven. →
It's National Chocolate Cake Day. Time for our... →
How do recipe reviews get processed?
Our recipes go through a thorough testing and reviewing process before they are published. Many of our readers sign up to be recipe testers through our website. April B. wondered, what happens to those reviews?
Here’s the response from one of our editors:
“The survey results are looked at on a weekly basis by senior staff of both magazines. If there are comments that are ...
Free Recipe: Chicken Pot Pie with Savory Crumble...
Do you really want to spend hours cooking chicken, sautéing vegetables, and making pastry dough—even for the best results? Neither did we.
The Problem Between cooking and breaking down the chicken, making a sauce, parcooking the vegetables, and preparing, chilling, and rolling out pie crust, this dish is a production. And recipes that try to shortcut the process only serve up uninspiring...
What's the best dutch oven?
A good Dutch oven (variously called a stockpot, round oven, French oven, or casserole) is a kitchen essential. They’re heavier and thicker than stockpots, allowing them to retain and conduct heat more effectively, and deeper than a skillet, so they can handle large cuts of meat and cooking liquid. These qualities make Dutch ovens the best choice for braises, pot roasts, and stews,...
Equipment Test: Best Can Opener?
Traditional can openers cut through can lids from the top, leaving sharp edges on the lids (which sit atop the contents and must be fished out).
Safety can openers, on the other hand, cut from the side and remove the entire top part of the can (lid and all), leaving dull “safe” edges behind. In a previous testing featuring both types, our favorite was a $35 safety can opener by Rösle. Hoping to...
WatchAmerica’s Test Kitchen Radio: “Olive Oil” Episode 3 Teaser
Jack, holding olive oil: “Stick your nose in it…tell me what you think.”
Chris: “Of you or of the olive oil?”
If you enjoy watching America’s Test Kitchen or Cook’s Country, you will love America’s Test Kitchen Radio.
Hosted by America’s Test Kitchen founder Christopher Kimball and TV co-host Bridget...
Need a dinner idea? Free Recipe: Penne with Spicy...
Don’t know what you’re making for dinner tonight? How about this quick and easy pasta dish?
This meal highlights spicy shrimp in an easy tomato sauce. Here’s what we discovered:
A mixture of chopped, jarred cherry peppers (a mildly hot, slightly sweet pepper), cherry pepper brine, olive oil, salt, and pepper proved perfect as a fast marinade, giving our shrimp a spicy,...
WatchCan mushrooms go rotten?
If you have cooking questions for us, ask away on our VYou channel.
Behind-The-Scenes: Finding flavor
Another iPhone snapshot from the test kitchen for you. Last week, one of the test cooks was trying to figure out how much flavor actually comes from the bone during cooking.
To be able to taste the flavor from the bone alone, he removed the bones from the meat and put it onto a bland mashed potato mixture (which mimicked the fat and salt content of pork).
No results yet, but here are some before...
Equipment Test: Which is the Best Electric...
If you’re cooking for a crowd, you can’t beat the efficiency of a griddle. But what makes one brand better than another? A great electric griddle should be roomy and easy to handle, heat quickly and cook evenly, and clean up effortlessly. We tested seven nonstick models, cooking countless batches of French toast, bacon, and pancakes to determine which griddle was best.
In our tests, we...
Can't get yeast to proof? What's going on?
We received this question @testkitchen:
@anne_themmick: @testkitchen help. Making kolache and can’t get yeast to proof. Have tried 5 different packages. What’s going on?
One of our test cooks responded:
You can try testing the yeast by stirring it in some water and a bit of sugar. If it foams or bubbles after about 10 minutes, then it’s active. Also, if the dough isn’t...
Free Recipe: Almond-Crusted French Toast
You want French toast that is crisp on the outside and soft — not soggy — on the inside.
First, we had to find out which bread fared best with basic batter. We tried making the recipe with French bread, Italian bread, regular sandwich bread and hearty bread. Once we decided on a bread, we discovered that we needed an extra step to crisp up the bread…
Read about our testing....
WatchAmerica’s Test Kitchen Radio: “Restaurant Business” Episode 2 Teaser
Join Chris Kimball as he learns about the riskiest business in the world.
If you enjoy watching America’s Test Kitchen or Cook’s Country, you will love America’s Test Kitchen Radio.
Hosted by America’s Test Kitchen founder Christopher Kimball and TV co-host Bridget Lancaster, ATK...
Quick Tip of the Week: Testing Baking Powder
Olga Pitel of Wayland, Massachusetts, suggests that infrequent bakers check the potency of baking powder that may have been sitting in the cupboard for too long. To do so, mix 2 teaspoons of the baking powder into a cup of water. If there is an immediate reaction of foaming and fizzing (right), the baking powder is okay to use. If the reaction is at all delayed or weak (left), throw it away...
Behind-The-Scenes: What's this blue meat?
What’s this wacky blue meat? Nope, not a new recipe. It’s an experiment they’re running in the test kitchen that looked so strange, I just had to snap some photos with my iPhone.
I stopped one of the test cooks and asked them explain to me what was going on.
What’s going on? The test cooks are trying to see, visually, how salt penetrates meat over time. Salting meat...
Chipped Enameled Cast Iron Dutch Oven: Okay to...
We received this question over Twitter:
@rpidrivestick: @TestKitchen Enameled cast iron dutch oven: if the interior chips, still okay to use? Google reveals much discussion, no clear answer.
I checked with our equipment team, and here’s what they had to say:
Hey, a chip is a badge of honor. It means you’ve been cooking! In your pot!
If you use metal utensils, don’t bang...
Taste Test: Extra-Sharp Cheddar Cheese
So what is extra-sharp cheddar? It depends on whom you ask. The USDA’s only requirement regarding cheddar is that the final product contain at least 50 percent milk-fat solids and no more than 39 percent moisture by weight. As for what distinguishes different varieties of cheddar—mild, medium, sharp, extra-sharp, and beyond—that is left in the hands of the cheese makers. Our research...
WatchChris Kimball answers your questions: What do we do with all the extra food in the test kitchen?
Equipment Test: Which Carafe Will Keep Your Coffee...
Whether you’re entertaining guests at home or clients at the office, an insulated thermal carafe is a practical and stylish way to keep coffee hot. There are several almost identical stainless steel models on the market that promise to keep liquids hot for hours. Most are sharp-and modern-looking and offer comparable capacities. So which, we wondered, was the best one out there?
We tested 6...
Free Recipe: Chocolate Blackout Cake
It’s been over 35 years since Ebinger’s Baking Company in Brooklyn closed its doors, but for those old enough to remember the once-renowned bakery, their fondest memories are usually reserved for its Chocolate Blackout Cake. We set out to re-create this well-loved recipe in our test kitchen.
Test Kitchen Discovery: We added our cocoa powder to the butter we were already melting for the cake....