The Best of America's Test Kitchen: The Year's Best Recipes, Equipment Reviews, and Tastings

The obsessive cooks at America's Test Kitchen love nothing more than to examine and re-examine recipes, determining whether skim milk or whole makes the lightest pizza dough, whether russets or Yukon Golds make the best potato casserole. The fruits of their labor are collected here in another clear, comprehensive guide to their favorites from a year of Cook's Illustrated magazine, their eponymous PBS series, and the rest of their magazine and book ventures. Recipes are dominated by pleasingly homey all-American dishes, like Slow-Cooker Beer-Braised Short Ribs, a hearty supper which can be assembled in the morning and left to simmer all day, and Oven-Fried Chicken, a low-fat variation as moist and crispy as the heart-attack-inducing original. A recipe for Coffeecake Muffins turns out tender, habit-forming streusel-topped muffins. Deep-Dish Apple Pie relies on a super-buttery crust and smells like afternoon in an orchard. For the most part, these recipes are refreshingly cost-conscious, recommending cuts of meat that won't break the bank and eschewing pricey oils, vinegar or spices. Even better, the editors provide useful illustrations, ""Notes from the Test Kitchen"" that include recommendations for pre-packaged foods (Eggo Homestyle wins the frozen waffle taste-test), and a guide to essential cookware. The only missing piece is nutritional information for each recipe; without it, it's just too tempting to finish that entire apple pie by yourself.