Pam Anderson - The Perfect Recipe: The Ultimate, Hands-Down Best Way to Cook Our Favorite Foods

Cover

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THE
P erfect R ecipe

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Getting It Right Every Time
Making Our Favorite Dishes
the Absolute Best They Can Be

Pam Anderson

I LLUSTRATIONS BY J UDY L OVE

A Chapters Book
H OUGHTON M IFFLIN C OMPANY
Boston New York
1998

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Copyright 1998 by Pam Anderson
Illustrations copyright 1998 by Judy Love
All rights reserved

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book,write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South,
New York, New York 10003.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to Cooks Illustrated, where much of thematerial for this book originally appeared in slightly different form, and toChristopher Kimball for his recipe for Pastry Dough, to Stephen Schmidt forhis recipes for Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits and Baked Macaroni and Cheese, toNathalie DuPree for her recipe for Batter Fruit Cobbler and to Hugh Carpenter for his recipes for stir-fry sauces.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Anderson, Pam. date.

The perfect recipe: getting it right every timemaking our favorite dishes theabsolute best they can be / Pam Anderson: illustrations by Judy Love.

p. cm.

A Chapters book.

Includes index.

ISBN 0-618-23233-8

1. Cookery, American. I. Title.

TX715.A566655 1998

641.5973dc21 98-17821

Printed in the United States of America

Book design by Susan McClellan

R M T 10 9

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To Annie, Della and Juliaette,
who taught me how to cook

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Acknowledgments

Thanks to:

Christopher Kimball, editor and publisher of Cooks Illustrated, who hired a wide-eyed test cook 10 years ago and gave me the chance to trade in my business suit fora full-time apron.

Karen Tack, who was the perfect partner for The Perfect Recipe. A gifted cookwith a faultless palate, she worked with me until distance and young children madeit impossible for us to finish this project together. Our early marathon cooking daysare among my happiest memories.

Melissa Hamilton, who picked up where Karen Tack left off and didnt miss abeat.

John Willoughby, Jack Bishop, Mark Bittman, Stephanie Lyness, Adam Ried,Maryellen Driscoll, Susan Logozzo, Anne Yamanaka, Dawn Yanagihara, Eva Katz,Vicki Roland and Anne Tuomeycolleagues, friends and practically familywithout whom life would be cottage cheese and dry toast.

Sarah Jane Freymann, my agent and friend, who loved me despite my baggage.Without her, this book might not have left my hard drive.

Rick Kot, who bought this book on faith and shepherded it up to editing. Onlya job change kept him from finishing the project.

Rux Martin, who gave the book an enthusiastic home and finally whipped thishodgepodge collection of articles into a real live book.

Stephen Schmidt, colleague and soulmate, whose advice I always trust and whosedirection on this book was always enlightening.

Shirley Corriher, who listened to my science questions as if she were AngelaLansbury. On the rare occasion when she didnt know the answers, she either jumpedinto the lab with me or pointed me in the right direction.

Nach Waxman and Matt Sartwell of Kitchen Arts and Letters, who assisted my research and told me exactly which books I needed to buy (and better yet, which onesI didnt).

All my suppliers: Lena George, Vince Mirack and Jack Ennis at the Thriftwaymeat department; Greg Heller and Scott Espenshade at Hellers Seafood; and BrianMcCabe at Cot and Co.

And finally, David Anderson, my kitchen-table editor, who is always the first toread and comment.

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B EFORE DEVELOPING A COLLECTION of truly exceptional recipestheones I turn to season after season, year after yearI used to hop arounda lot, sampling food from all the latest cookbooks and magazines. Theresulting dishes were as erratic as you might expect, given their diverseorigins: sometimes great, but often mediocre. I got tired of having to guess whether arecipe would produce a winner or a dud. Although I could spot glaring errors, likemost home cooks, I couldnt look at a pancake recipe and tell whether one teaspoonof baking powder was too much or too little. I didnt know if a fruit pie was bestthickened with cornstarch, flour, arrowroot or tapioca. I couldnt analyze aningredient list for muffins and figure out whether they would rise fully and beautifullyor be flat-topped and sunken.