If you want to know about a certain product and its credibility, you can check it out at ConsumersGuide.com. Or, if you’re an addict for printed material, you can subscribe to the magazine by the same name without the dot com. It’s been a consumer’s bible for ages.
Now comes Cook’s Illustrated, a thin but fact-packed consumer’s guide for the chef in all of us. There’s also a web site: www.cooksillustrated.com. But I haven’t ventured there yet. I’ve gotten all the information I need in the printed version which Earl subscribed to a few months ago. Now that I’ve read a few issues, I feel qualified to say that “Cook’s Illustrated” is the consumer’s guide for anything related to food. It is filled with the minutest details to make your meatloaf succulent, your corn muffins moist, and your chicken pot pie the envy of the neighborhood. And I don’t even cook unless I’m forced.
Case in point: The current issue rates store-bought refried beans, giving Taco Bell Home Originals Refried Beans a recommendation with reservation. It also critiques pre-cooked, frozen breakfast sausage, giving a heads-up to Armour Brown ‘N Serve Original Fully Cooked Sausage Links, but acknowledging that Farmland Original Pork Sausage Link are the best in the fresh sausage arena. This is what I mean when I say Cook’s is a consumer’s bible. It goes beyond what you would think you want to know.
The current issue also provides a recipe for the ultimate chicken pot pie, reveals how to perfect an all-beef meatloaf, describes the best chocolate mousse and offers the recipe for same, discusses better huevos rancheros, and generally is interesting in its approach to the kitchen, even for a dedicated novice like me.
I read it cover to cover. I doubt I’ll ever take hands-on advantage of most of the information. At the same time, I loved reading about tomatoes and bistro potatoes and ribs and, yes, even the difference in grill pans. I may not be a chef at heart, but the part of me who loves to eat reveled in learning what is behind the scenes.
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