Cooks Illustrated - The Cooks Illustrated How-to-Cook Library

There are all sorts of cookbooks out there. Some have 2,000 recipes, others have 200. Some are packed with color photos, others black and white. Some are nothing more than recipes, others are part of a narrative describing a life or place. But I am still struck by a comment made to me over 20 years ago by a Swedish friend and cook, who offered this advice, "It's not how many recipes, it's which recipes." Sometimes expertise turns up where you least expect it, as in the story I'd heard about a New York couple who purchased a farm in Vermont back in the 1930s. Instead of using the local surveyor to check the property lines, they hired an expensive firm out of the city so they would get a top-notch job. Three men showed up, but after two days of work they still could not find the last corner. The firm finally had to admit defeat and ask for help from the local surveyor, who, in no time at all, found the spot in question. The New York firm received a bill a few days later for $100. They wrote back indicating that they needed the work itemized since the bill was a bit pricey. The new invoice came by return post: "Twenty-five dollars for finding the corner and $75 for knowing where it was."

The notion of "knowing where it was" is the founding principle for our "How-to-Cook" library. Knowing the best way to produce tender stew meat; knowing the best techniques for preheating a skillet or seeding a tomato; knowing whether Dutch-processed cocoa is better than natural in a particular recipeyears and years of test kitchen work all contributed to this unique collection. Each chapter contains a definitive repertoire of recipes, only the ones you really want and need, recipes tested and developed here at America's Test Kitchen. These are small jewels, just the thing when you want to make a pasta sauce, layer cake, holiday dessert, or mashed potatoes, or when you want to roast, grill, stew, bake, saut, or stir-fry.

Every cook has a repertoire, the key recipes that are appealing, practical, useful, and interesting enough to keep in the rotation. To this day, my wife, Adrienne, swears that the Chicken Noodle Soup recipe is the best she has ever made, and we make it for dinner at least twice a month. Or the Ham and Split Pea Soup, Oven Fries, Fruit Cobbler with Butter Cookie Dough Topping, Grill-Roasted Chicken, Quick Lasagne with Meatballs, or the French-Style Potato Salad. These are the staples of our weeknight menus. Sure, in this day and age, access to virtually millions of recipes is right at your fingertips through the Web. But who needs millions of recipes that might or might not work? What any home cook wants are recipes that work, the first time and every time.

I have always believed that the best way to make a good cook is to give them a good recipe. These are recipes that don't have to be second-guessed, fixed up, or changed around if you don't have a convection oven, are cooking on an electric rather than a gas stovetop, or are using the wrong size skillet. That's our job, to figure out what might go wrong with a recipe and engineer it for the best possible chance of success in your kitchen, with your cookware.

So enjoy this very special Kindle collection of recipes. It is not available anywhere else. It covers all the culinary ground, from barbecue, grilling, garden vegetables, holiday roasts, potatoes, soups, stews, stir-fries, pasta sauces, pizza, appetizers, salads, shrimp and shellfish, to pies, layer cakes, cookies and brownies, holiday desserts, ice cream, simple fruit desserts, and lots more. It's all you really need in the kitchen and it all sits nice and handy on a Kindle as well. Now your own definitive recipe collection is portable and easy to access, the perfect helper in the kitchen. Just remember to invite us over for dinner!

Christopher Kimball
Founder and Editor
Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country
Host, "America's Test Kitchen" and "Cook's Country From America's Test Kitchen" on PBS

T HE DICTIONARY DEFINES APPETIZER AS "a food or drink that stimulates the appetite." The French word hors d'oeuvre is translated as "apart from the work," and the Italian antipasto literally means "before the meal." Both are synonyms for appetizer and refer to the fact that these little fingers foods are eaten away from the dining table, often on the hoof. At a cocktail party, appetizers can be a meal unto themselves.

For this book, we have tested countless recipes for appetizer favorites from around the world, finally selecting the versions that taste best and require the least amount of work. In general, we have limited hands-on work to no more than 20 minutes for each recipe, plus baking and cooling times. Wherever possible we have provided do-ahead instructions to keep the cook out of the kitchen during the party.

The book is divided by the main ingredient in the appetizer (eggs, vegetables, meat, etc.). Within each chapter, we start with the recipes that are the easiest and quickest to make. Recipes at the end of each chapter tend to be a bit more complicated.

DECIDING HOW MANY APPETIZERS TO MAKE

The question we hear most often about appetizers concerns quantity. How many types of appetizers and how many pieces are required? The answer depends how long you plan to serve the appetizers and what follows. Some examples.

If you plan a short cocktail hour (let's say 45 minutes, while you wait for all of your guests to arrive) followed by a multicourse meal, you want to serve just one to two appetizers. (If you are expecting a large crowd, you might consider making three appetizers.) Plan on three or four pieces per person if you plan on one hour or less for cocktails. For more than one hour, make at least two appetizers and plan on four to six pieces per person.

A true cocktail party (with no dinner to follow) requires more types of appetizer and more pieces. In many cases, guests drink for several hours and some may even make a meal out of the appetizers. In this case, you want to serve at least five or six appetizers and should plan on at least 10 to 12 pieces per person.

Dips can be used to supplement the above recommendations, or, for a simple appetizer, you can serve a single dip and some crudits (raw vegetables) and skip the individual pieces.

Take into account how heavy and filling the appetizers you have chosen are. Guests are likely to be satisfied by two or three pieces of rolled beef but might want four or five large shrimp with cocktail sauce.

CHOOSING SPECIFIC APPETIZERS