The Americas Test Kitchen Quick Family Cookbook: A Faster, Smarter Way to Cook Everything From Americas Most Trusted Test Kitchen

All of us cooks take promises of quick recipes with a grain of salt. They are often more marketing hype then accurate description, and that, of course, reminds me of a story. A young man came up to an old horse trader and asked, How much do you want for that gelding? The reply was direct. Ill take a hundred and a half for her, and then the old-timer added, but she dont look so good. They finally reached an agreement, and the new owner paid and went off with his purchase. The next day, the young man returned and was pretty mad. Whats the matter with that horse I just bought? he demanded. He ran me right off the road. The trader looked up and said calmly, Been blind for a year... told you she didnt look so good!

Well, thats how I often feel about quick recipesits all in the fine print. Either they are just counting cooking time, not preparation, or they assume that you graduated from the Culinary Institute of America and have 10 years of experience as a line cook.

Finally, Americas Test Kitchen has narrowed the gulf between the promise of fast home-cooked food and the reality. In The Americas Test Kitchen Quick Family Cookbook we offer over 750 recipes that can be made in 45 minutes or less, including preparation time, and you dont have to be a whiz in the kitchen. In addition, we have included 175 recipes that can be made in 25 minutes or lessthats real cooking and preparation time.

And our bag of tricks goes way beyond kitchen-tested quick recipes. My favorite feature is Putting Ingredients to Work, in which we take a simple item, cream cheese for example, and then provide five quick and easy recipesand plenty of them with a hefty portion of creative sparkthat hardly need instruction, whether it is a quick approach to .

Of course, quick cookbooks always turn to convenience supermarket products, and this is often a good idea. Among our favorites are Boursin (it makes a great base for a sauce in chicken pot pie or scalloped potatoes), pesto (just stir it into soup before serving for a fresh hit of flavor, or use it in meatballs), and precooked polenta (grill it or use it as a casserole topping). Equally important were the store-bought ingredients that we tested and did not like, including creamy canned soups, boxed mashed potatoes, jarred teriyaki sauce, and supermarket salad dressings. Do yourself a favor and leave those items off of your quick-cook shopping list!

It is always helpful to improve your basic cooking skills, and so we have included a heavily illustrated section on knife and preparation tips with practical tricks and techniques to help you become a faster, better prep cook. And we found that some appliances, such as the pressure cooker, really did deliver great food fast including beef stew, homemade chicken soup, and baby back ribsall in under 45 minutes.

We also highlighted many of our core time-saving quick recipes, Paella, and Strata, to name a fewwith step-by-step photos since many of these recipes will become part of your regular culinary repertoire.

Best of all, these are not the usual retreads, recipes that you have seen over and over again in other placesthis is all-new work. Use a microwave to create an almost-instant appetizer of by throwing apples in a baking dish, microwaving them to soften, and then sprinkling with torn pieces of phyllo before baking. Thats strudel in seconds (well, in a fraction of the time)!

Of course, sales pitches like mine often lose something in translation. A salesman for government bonds during WWII came across an older farmer who was, unbeknownst to him, a bit deaf. He gave his pitch about Roosevelt and Churchill, about Pearl Harbor, and about the need to support the war effort. Finally, after he had left, the farmers wife asked, Who was that and what did he want? The mostly deaf farmer replied, Dont know exactly but it seems that some feller by the name of Rosyfelt got Pearl Harper in trouble over on Church Hill and wanted me to go his bond.

So maybe Ive made my case and maybe I havent, but, simply put, these recipes are fast and they work. Some days I like to cook all day for company, but, especially during the week, everyone needs fast, reliable recipes to get dinner on the table. This book will be an important addition to my household; I hope that it also becomes part of yours.

CHRISTOPHER KIMBALL
Founder and Editor,
Cooks Illustrated and Cooks Country
Host, Americas Test Kitchen and
Cooks Country from Americas Test Kitchen