AMERICA'S BEST LOST RECIPES - 121 Kitchen -Tested Heirloom Recipes Too Good To Forget - Editors of Cook's Country Magazine
This cookbook has a copyright of 2007. I bought this book at Books Inc. I have never cooked from this before.
I bought this cookbook when I went to see Christopher Kimball do a book signing last November. You didn't have to buy a book to be there and Mr. Kimball would pretty much sign anything you put in front of him, but since I have several of the America's Test Kitchen cookbooks and enjoy his show, I figured this had to be in my collection.
This book comes from the editors of "Cooks Country" magazine from Americas Test Kitchen (ATK). Mr. Kimball says a "lost" or heirloom recipe had to have a narrative and an expectation of something unusual. The magazine asked their readers to send in recipes for the book.
Each recipe has a brief explanation of where it came from and a notes section saying how ATK may have changed or altered the original recipe. The book is dessert and baking heavy. There are two chapters for salad, sides and sauces and soups, stews and main dishes. The remaining four chapters are for breads, cakes, pies, cookies, candy and other desserts. There are color photographs of about a third of the recipes and some recipes have step-by-step how to photographs.
As with all the ATK books, there is a lot of information and I find the directions easy to follow. There is a conversion table at the back of the book (US to Metric etc.) that I have already used for recipes in other books (or for watching Jamie Oliver cooking shows!).
I have no idea why these recipes are lost or why I wouldn't be able to find them in other cookbooks. There is a recipe for 7-Up Cake which isn't lost as a friend made it last night (though for all I know she has and used this book-grin). Most of the recipes look interesting enough for me to give some a try in the future.
7-up cake sounds good to me! I make mountain dew cupcakes, but Im still perfecting them. I love the baking heavy cook books, bc Im a glutton for sweets!
Posted by: laurie | January 19, 2008 at 08:09 PM
is that Monkey Bread on the cover? I made that for Christmas morning cause I was missing that tradition from when I was a kid, loved it!
Posted by: Lisa | January 19, 2008 at 10:21 PM
Laurie - I admit that most of the cookbooks I've bought lately deal with baking. YUM. Can't wait to check your blog for when you perfect those Mtn. Dew cupcakes!
Lisa - Yep, it's Monkey Bread. Barbie2Be made Monkey Bread for our exchange party, I'd never seen it before.
Posted by: Mrs. L | January 22, 2008 at 06:42 PM