Carol Mighton Haddix - Good Eatings Best of the Best: Great Recipes of the Past Decade from the Chicago Tribune Test Kitchen

Great recipes of the past decade
from the Chicago Tribune test kitchen Edited by Carol Mighton Haddix S SURREY
BOOKS An Agate Imprint
Chicago Copyright 2011 by the Chicago Tribune. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without express written permission from the publisher. First ebook edition 2011
ISBN-10 1-57284-683-6
ISBN-13 978-1-57284-683-8 First paperback edition 2011
ISBN 978-1-57284-124-6 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Surrey Books is an imprint of Agate Publishing. Agate books are available in bulk at discount prices. Thanks are due to many people staffers in the past and in the present who made the Chicago Tribune Good Eating section a reality for the last 10 years and to those who helped make this book possible: Editors/management Linda Bergstrom Gerould Kern Sean McClure Colin McMahon Elaine Varvatos Randall Weissman Joycelyn Winnecke Staff writers/editors Bill Daley Renee Enna Joe Gray Judy Hevrdejs Robin Mather Jenkins Tracy Maple Emily Nunn William Rice Freelance columnists JeanMarie Brownson James P. Thanks are due to many people staffers in the past and in the present who made the Chicago Tribune Good Eating section a reality for the last 10 years and to those who helped make this book possible: Editors/management Linda Bergstrom Gerould Kern Sean McClure Colin McMahon Elaine Varvatos Randall Weissman Joycelyn Winnecke Staff writers/editors Bill Daley Renee Enna Joe Gray Judy Hevrdejs Robin Mather Jenkins Tracy Maple Emily Nunn William Rice Freelance columnists JeanMarie Brownson James P.

DeWan Book designers Chuck Burke Nicole Dudka Section art director Catherine Nichols Photographers John Dziekan Bob Fila Bill Hogan Bonnie Trafelet Photo editors Itasca Wiggins Michael Zajakowski Publisher Doug Seibold Test kitchen directors Donna Pierce Raeanne Sarazen Testers and food stylists Mark Graham Corrine Kozlak Joan Moravek Lisa Schumacher

SO MANY RECIPES! Some days in the Tribune test kitchen, were testing and tasting multiple versions of cookies, cakes or casseroles. By the end of such days, were groaning. And, at the end of each year as we scroll through all the recipes in the Good Eating section of the Chicago Tribune, the thought of all the calories we consumed really hits home. Ah, I know what youre saying: Quit griping! You guys have the best jobs around. OK, its true. We chowed down on a lot of great food in the past 10 years.

We tasted our way through thousands of recipes from Chicago, the rural Midwest, the nation and the world. We brought back recipes from Golconda, Ill., and Kerala, India. We sampled the gourmet sauces of famous chefs and the homey favorites of teenage cooks. We collected recipes from cooking teachers, authors, farmers and Tribune writers and editors. The recipes and stories in Good Eating over the decade reflected what was happening in the food world. We looked at the benefits of a return to slow cooking in contrast to our fast-food lifestyles but also at how to make salad dressing in a flash.

We visited with an Illinois cheesemaker who turns her goats milk into ethereal cheeses. And we championed more ethnic cooking from places such as Vietnam, Japan and Argentina. We reported on the movement toward buying local, sustainable produce in urban farmers markets. We urged readers to take up stir-frying as a quick, healthful cooking method and shared ingredients for the perfect North African chermoula spice mix. The variety of recipes was amazing, from the rich and satisfying macaroni and cheese developed by former test kitchen chef Mark Graham to the surprising grilled meatloaf from Weber Grill restaurant. One favorite dip combined chopped bacon, lettuce and tomato for a new take on a BLT and it didnt last long at our tasting.

In the last 10 years, we saw a yearning from readers for these kinds of comfort dishes. Since 2000, we also gave thumbs up to many grilled foods, from slow-smoked meats and seared vegetables, to the robust salads made with them. We tested new or unusual ingredients and fell in love with them: Meyer lemons, spicy chipotle chilies and Marcona almonds from Spain. We watched the low-carbohydrate diet trend morph into the no-gluten diet trend. And we saw the continued popularity of protein foods, from the resurrected egg to the rise of sustainably raised pork, beef, lamb and chicken. Toward the end of the decade, pork reigned.

When we looked back at the stories in Good Eating, the succulent, flavorful meat popped up again and again in different guises: a little bacon flavoring a squash risotto, a shoulder braised in whiskey, a homemade pork sausage flavored with maple. Spicy dishes grew in popularity as Americans searched for more flavor in their food. We followed the exciting exploration of ethnic cuisines as ingredients became more and more available to cooks. Italian still dominates, but Southeast Asian, Spanish and Latin cuisines are coming on fast. Quick-cooking dishes were many of our favorites, reflecting todays emphasis on easy-to-make recipes that still carry loads of flavor. They often originated in our Fast Food column (formerly called Dinner Tonight!), which has generated plenty of recipes that can be prepared in 30 minutes or less.

We saw more vegetarian recipes (lots of risotto and pasta and more whole grains) and more raw dishes, a growing trend reflected in cookbooks and restaurants. And we eagerly awaited those special-occasion desserts! Our favorites included the rich butterscotch praline ice cream sundae from the Atwood Caf, a tangy lemon meringue tart from freelance writer Matt McMillen and an amusing, after-Halloween pots de crme made with chocolate peanut butter cups. OUR KITCHEN: All of those dishes went through testing and tasting in our test kitchen. The Chicago Tribune is one of the few newspapers in this country with a working test kitchen. Ours is located near the newsroom on the fourth floor of Tribune Tower. Its not large, but it suits our mission just fine: to provide recipes that are reliable, accurate and lead to successful dishes for readers.

The latest version of the kitchen, which dates to 1995, is a clean, modern space with enough room for two test cooks to work side by side. Its dark granite counters and light gray cupboards still look up to date. The room is warmed by the rows of cookbooks on shelves above the cabinets on one side of the room and the maple butcherblock desk on another. Its not surprising that the kitchen draws staffers who often can smell the aromas of sauteed onions or baked cookies. When its time to rate recipes, volunteers are not hard to find. The test kitchen is where we fine-tune the ingredients, measurements and steps so that each recipe is the best possible.

The test cooks rate each recipe on ease of preparation, and food editors and writers score the completed dish on appearance, texture and flavor. The rating sheets are used to determine if each recipe is good enough to appear in the paper. The question we often ask: Is this a recipe I would make at home? If the answer is yes, it appears in the section. Once edited, recipes are sent to dietitian Jodie Shield for nutritional analysis, an extra benefit for readers who may be watching calories or fat or other nutrients.

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