Cook's Illustrated

At Cook's Illustrated, our test cooks are dedicated to testing and retesting recipes 20, 30, sometimes 50 times until we come up with a recipe that will come out right the first time -- and every time -- you make it. And each issue of Cook's Illustrated is 100% ADVERTISING FREE, so you get unbiased and objective information on every page. As we like to say at Cook's Illustrated, "We make the mistakes so you don't have to."

Cook’s Illustrated

A GUIDE TO TIME TRAVEL

QUICK TIPS • Some of the best tips you’ve shared with us call for using kitchen gadgets and other household items in unexpected ways. Here are a few of our favorites.

A Case for Grilled Short Ribs • With their rich marbling, intense beefiness, and satisfying chew, boneless beef short ribs can rival a rib eye on the grill—at about half the cost.

Dan Dan Mian • Awash in palate-jolting chili sauce and heaped with crispy bits of pork, these noodles are soul-warming street food in Sichuan. They can—and should—be in your kitchen, too.

Poulet au Vinaigre • This French chicken dish makes its own sauce—and vinegar is the light that helps it shine.

Farro and Broccoli Rabe Gratin • This meatless main gets its savory backbone from an everyday Japanese ingredient.

How to Make Chana Masala • The wildly popular Indian dish of chickpeas simmered until tender in a tangy, fragrantly spiced tomato-ginger sauce is a dinnertime hero.

Chinese Stir-Fried Tomatoes and Eggs • This surprisingly complex comfort food deserves a place at everyone’s table.

Lahmajun • Long before pizza came along, Armenians were baking crisp, savory meat-and-vegetable-topped flatbreads that some consider the original thin-crust pie.

The Salty, Sweet, Smoky Science of Bacon • We dig into the mystique behind America’s favorite cured meat; plus, we offer tips for decoding package labels, splatter-free cooking, and even making your own.

Real Greek Salad • Imagine all your favorite bites of Greek salad—sweet tomatoes; briny olives; crunchy cucumbers; and rich, tangy feta—without the lettuce filler, and you’ve got horiatiki salata.

Coconut Rice Two Ways • Every region that grows coconuts and rice marries them to make the grains rich and fragrant. Here are two of our favorite—and very different—versions.

Getting Started with Sourdough Starter • Making starter is simple, but nurturing the flour-water mixture into a mature culture can be confusing. I’ve mapped out the process and answered common questions.

Next-Level Yellow Sheet Cake • We make everyone’s favorite cake even better by combining a fine, plush texture with fresh, homemade flavor. Then we crown it with a rich chocolate frosting.

Testing 12-Inch Ceramic Skillets • The ceramic skillets we’ve tested have never been able to compete with regular nonstick cookware. Have they improved?

A Toast to Sesame Oil • Nutty and fragrant, a good-quality toasted sesame oil can enhance all kinds of dishes, but bad ones just taste bitter or burnt. How do you guarantee great flavor?

KITCHEN NOTES

EQUIPMENT CORNER

Asian Mushrooms