Copyright 2015 by the Editors at Americas Test Kitchen
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
Americas Test Kitchen
17 Station Street
Brookline, MA 02445
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cooks Country eats local : 150 regional recipes you should be making no matter where you live / by the editors at Americas Test Kitchen.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-936493-99-9 (alk. paper)
E-book ISBN: 978-1-940352-29-9
1. Cooking, American. I. Cooks country. II. Americas test kitchen (Television program)
TX715.C78535 2015
641.5973--dc23
2015005574
Paperback: $26.95 US
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Distributed by
Penguin Random House Publisher Services
1745 Broadway
New York, NY 10019
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: Jack Bishop
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, BOOKS: Elizabeth Carduff
EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Lori Galvin
SENIOR EDITOR: Debra Hudak
ASSISTANT EDITOR: Melissa Herrick
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT: Samantha Ronan
DESIGN DIRECTOR: Amy Klee
ART DIRECTOR: Greg Galvan
DESIGNER: Jen Kanavos Hoffman
MAPS: Michael Newhouse
PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTOR: Julie Cote
ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR, PHOTOGRAPHY: Steve Klise
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER: Daniel J. van Ackere
ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY: Keller + Keller and Carl Tremblay
FOOD STYLING: Catrine Kelty and Marie Piraino
PHOTOSHOOT KITCHEN TEAM:
ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Chris OConnor
TEST COOK: Daniel Cellucci
ASSISTANT TEST COOK: Matthew Fairman
PRODUCTION DIRECTOR: Guy Rochford
SENIOR PRODUCTION MANAGER: Jessica Lindheimer Quirk
PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT SPECIALIST: Christine Walsh
PRODUCTION AND IMAGING SPECIALISTS: Heather Dube, Dennis Noble, Lauren Robbins, and Jessica Voas
PROJECT MANAGER: Britt Dresser
COPY EDITOR: Barbara Wood
PROOFREADER: Pat Jalbert-Levine
INDEXER: Elizabeth Parson
Navigating this E-Book
This eBook includes a that allows you to jump to any chapter. And each chapter has its own table of contents with links to every recipe in the chapter.
We have also created a that lists all the recipes in the book, divided by chapter, in one place. You can access the Recipe Index from the Table of Contents. (It also appears at the end of the book.) Each title in the Recipe Index is a link that will take you directly to that recipe.
This cookbook is filled with sidebars; throughout the book there are links to this material where appropriate.
Most eBook reading devices also offer a search function that allows you to type in exactly what you are looking for. Please read the documentation for your particular eBook reader for more information on its search function and any other navigational features it may offer.
WELCOME TO AMERICAS TEST KITCHEN
This book has been tested, written, and edited by the folks at Americas Test Kitchen, a very real 2,500-square-foot kitchen located just outside of Boston. It is the home of Cooks Illustrated magazine and Cooks Country magazine and is the Monday-through-Friday destination for more than four dozen test cooks, editors, food scientists, tasters, and cookware specialists. Our mission is to test recipes over and over again until we understand how and why they work and until we arrive at the best version.
We start the process of testing a recipe with a complete lack of preconceptions, which means that we accept no claim, no theory, no technique, and no recipe at face value. We simply assemble as many variations as possible, test a half-dozen of the most promising, and taste the results blind. We then construct our own hybrid recipe and continue to test it, varying ingredients, techniques, and cooking times until we reach a consensus. The result, we hope, is the best version of a particular recipe, but we realize that only you can be the final judge of our success (or failure). As we like to say in the test kitchen, We make the mistakes, so you dont have to.
All of this would not be possible without a belief that good cooking, much like good music, is indeed based on a foundation of objective technique. Some people like spicy foods and others dont, but there is a right way to saut, there is a best way to cook a pot roast, and there are measurable scientific principles involved in producing perfectly beaten, stable egg whites. This is our ultimate goal: to investigate the fundamental principles of cooking so that you become a better cook. It is as simple as that.
If youre curious to see what goes on behind the scenes at Americas Test Kitchen, check out our daily blog, The Feed, at AmericasTestKitchenFeed.com, which features kitchen snapshots, exclusive recipes, video tips, and much more. You can watch us work (in our actual test kitchen) by tuning in to Americas Test Kitchen (AmericasTestKitchen.com) or Cooks Country from Americas Test Kitchen (CooksCountryTV.com) on public television. Tune in to Americas Test Kitchen Radio (ATKradio.com) on public radio to listen to insights, tips, and techniques that illuminate the truth about real home cooking. Want to hone your cooking skills or finally learn how to bakefrom an Americas Test Kitchen test cook? Enroll in a cooking class at our online cooking school at OnlineCookingSchool.com. And find information about subscribing to Cooks Illustrated magazine at CooksIllustrated.com or Cooks Country magazine at CooksCountry.com. Both magazines are published every other month. However you choose to visit us, we welcome you into our kitchen, where you can stand by our side as we test our way to the best recipes in America.
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Preface
Back in the 1970s, I drove across America on three different occasions, stopping in Tennessee diners, truck stops in Oklahoma, and local eateries from the Deep South to the Texas Panhandle to the fast-food haunts of Southern California. Not all of the food was brilliant, but once in a while I came across a recipe that was so special that it told the story of that particular placeit couldnt have been served anywhere else.
Yes, I was familiar with most of what New England has to offer, like Connecticut Steamed Cheeseburgers and Chicken Riggies, and I knew something about Muffulettas and Oyster Po Boys from New Orleans as well as Cheddar Beer Soup from Wisconsin, but I had never tasted Moravian Sugar Cake, Sweet Potato Sonker from the Carolinas, Iowa Loose Meat Sandwiches (these sound awful and dont look so good but they are fabulous), Millionaire Pie, Texas Caviar, or Tick Tock Orange Sticky Rolls.
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