The America's Test Kitchen Cooking School Cookbook: Everything You Need to Know to Become a Great Cook

A landmark book from the test kitchen that has been teaching America how to cook for 20 years.

We launched the America's Test Kitchen Cooking School two years ago to teach home cooks how to cook the test kitchen way, and since then thousands of students have taken our interactive video-based online courses. The America's Test Kitchen Cooking School Cookbook shares the same goal as our online school and brings all our best practices—along with 600 all-time favorite recipes—into one place so that you can become a better, more confident cook. There is no better way to learn than seeing an expert in action, so we've included over 2,500 color photos that bring you into the test kitchen so you can see how to prepare recipes step-by-step. The book starts off with an exhaustive 46-page Cooking Basics chapter that covers everything from what equipment you need (and how to care for it) to test-kitchen tricks for how to make food taste better. Then we move on to cover all the major cooking and baking categories, from meat, poultry, and pasta to breads, cakes, and pies.

Illustrated Core Techniques, like how to whip egg whites, roast a chicken, or bake flawless pie dough, focus on the building block recipes everyone should know. Recipe Tutorials that each feature 20-35 color photos then walk readers through recipes that are either more complicated or simply benefit from the visual clues of step photography, like Extra-Crunchy Fried Chicken, Sticky Buns with Pecans, and Deep-Dish Apple Pie. Every chapter ends with a library of the test kitchen's all-time favorite recipes, such as Pan-Seared Steaks with Red Wine Pan Sauce, Meatballs and Marinara, Best Vegetarian Chili, Memphis-Style Barbecued Ribs, and New York-Style Cheesecake—more than 600 in total—that will allow home cooks to expand their repertoire.

The America's Test Kitchen Cooking School Cookbook is a how-to-cook book that also explains why recipes succeed or fail, which makes it the ideal book for anyone looking to cook better.