From making the most tender burger patties to grill-roasting a leg of lamb, from making pan sauces for cutlets to simmering homemade duck confit, from griddling the fluffiest pancakes to tempering chocolate, making caramel, and baking French pastry, the test cooks of ATK shine their spotlight on simpler, smarter, foolproof strategies. The first section, Essentials Every Home Cook Should Know, covers core techniques. Learn why it's crucial to season with salt properly before and during cooking for the best Roasted Bone-In Chicken Breasts and Crispy Salt and Pepper Shrimp. Cook any piece of salmon to silky perfection through our high-low roasting technique. The middle section, Techniques You Didn't Know You Couldn't Live Without, includes techniques we developed from an unexpected angle of discovery. Bake crusty, golden, bubbly-topped pizza by using a skillet. Fry easy, restaurant-quality homemade French fries by starting the potatoes in room-temperature oil. The final section, The Bucket List, gives you the know-how to make dreamed-about projects come true. Barbecue true Texas beef ribs in a standard kettle grill. Cure your own bacon or gravlax in your refrigerator. Bake, assemble, and decorate a show-stopping layer cake for any special occasion.

    In this global collaboration of essays, chefs, scientists, and cooks put the innovations of molecular gastronomy into practice, advancing a culinary hypothesis based on food's chemical properties and the skilled use of existing and cutting edge tools, ingredients, and techniques. As their experiments unfold, these pioneers create, and in some cases revamp, dishes that answer specific desires, serving up an original encounter with gastronomic practice.From the seemingly mundane to the food fantastic, from grilled cheese sandwiches, pizzas, and soft-boiled eggs to sugar glasses and gellified beads, these essays cover a range of creations and their history and culture. They discuss the significance of an eater's background and atmosphere, the importance of a chef's methods, and strategies for extracting and concentrating aromas, among other intriguing topics. The collection will delight experts and amateurs alike, as restaurants rely more on "science-assisted" cooking and recreational cooks increasingly explore the chemistry behind their art. Contributors end each essay with personal thoughts on food, cooking, and science, offering rare insight into their professional passion for playing with food.

    For culinary visionary Michael Ruhlman, the question is not whether the chicken or the egg came first, it's how anything could be accomplished in the kitchen without the magic of the common egg. He starts with perfect poached and scrambled eggs and builds up to brioche and Italian meringue. Along the way readers learn to make their own mayonnaise, pasta, custards, quiches, cakes, and other preparations that rely fundamentally on the hidden powers of the egg. A unique framework for the book is provided in Ruhlman's egg flowchart, which starts with the whole egg at the top and branches out to describe its many uses and preparations -- boiled, pressure-cooked, poached, fried, coddled, separated, worked into batters and doughs, and more. A removable illustrated flowchart is included with this book. Nearly 100 recipes are grouped by technique and range from simple (Egg Salad with Tarragon and Chives) to sophisticated (nougat). Dozens of step-by-step photographs guide the home cook through this remarkable culinary journey.

    Channeling the instructive elements from her TV show, she teaches us that a good dose of common sense is the key ingredient to a stellar meal. As storyteller and chef, she draws on anecdotes to educate and illustrate. Recalling lessons learned from her mother, Erminia, and her grandmother Nonna Rosa, Lidia pays homage to the kitchen sages who inspired her.Whether it's Citrus Roasted Veal, or Rustic Ricotta Tart, each recipe is a tangible feast. We learn to look at ingredients as both geographic and cultural indicators. In Campania, the region where mozzarella is king, we discover it best eaten three hours after preparation. In Genova we are taught that while focaccia had its basil origins in the Ligurain culinary tradition, the herbs and flavorings will change from region to region; as home chefs, we can experiment with rosemary or oregano or olives or onions! When it's time for dessert, Lidia draws on the scared customs of nuns in Italian monasteries and convents and reveals the secret to rice pudding with a blessing. Lidia's Commonsense Guide to Italian Cooking is a collection of 150 delectable recipes, told with commonsense cooking wisdom, that teaches us how create simple, seasonal Italian dishes with grace, confidence and love.

    Now, Rick returns with an all-new collection of uniquely flavorful recipes, each one the product of his evolution as a chef and champion of local, seasonal ingredients.More Mexican Everyday teaches home cooks how to build tasty meals with a few ingredients in a short amount of time. Cooking Mexican couldn’t be easier, or more delicious. Rick generously reveals the secrets of his dishes—the salsas and seasonings, mojos and adobos he employs again and again to impart soul-satisfying flavor. He explains fully the classic techniques that create so many much-beloved Mexican meals, from tacos and enchiladas to pozole and mole. Home cooks under his guidance will be led confidently to making these their go-to recipes night after night."Everyday" Mexican also means simplicity, so Rick dedicates individual chapters to illustrate skillful use of the slow cooker and the rice cooker. Also included are a special variation of the classic chicken-and-rice pairing, Arroz con Pollo, with an herby green seasoning, and an addictive roasted tomatillo salsa that’s flavored with the same red chile seasoning brushed on his lush Grilled Red-Chile Ribs.Rick loves to highlight the use of seasonal, diverse vegetables. The heart of this cookbook is devoted to modern creations that range from a Jícama-Beet Salad inspired by Mexico’s classic Christmas Eve salad to a sweet-and-tangy butternut braise. Rick's flexible imagination also transforms breakfast into a meal for any hour. His Open-Face Red Chile–Chard Omelet is as great for Wednesday night dinner as it is for Sunday brunch. Not to be forgotten is Rick's array of show-stopping desserts, among them Mexican Chocolate–Pumpkin Seed Cake and Fresh Fruit with 24-Hour Cajeta and Bitter Chocolate. In all his recipes, Rick carefully guides you through every step, suggesting ways to invent, adapt, and simplify without sacrificing flavor.More Mexican Everyday invites you into Rick's creative kitchen to enliven the way you cook and eat with friends and family.

    This appealing and accessible book features a mix of down-home standards and contemporary updates, from historical, regional, and Mexican quesos to vegan and dessert quesos, including Chile Verde Con Queso, Squash Blossom Queso Fundido, Fajita Queso, Cactus and Corn Queso Poblano, Frito Salad with Queso Dressing, Pulled Pork Queso Blanco, and Sausage Queso Biscuits. Whether you're relaxing with friends, having a few people over to watch the football game, or entertaining a hungry crowd, queso is the perfect party food for good times.

    From the beginning, a spirit of resourcefulness and radical inventiveness has infused each and every dish at Mission Chinese Food. Now, hungry diners line up outside both the San Francisco and New York City locations, waiting hours for platters of Sizzling Cumin Lamb, Thrice-Cooked Bacon, Fiery Kung Pao Pastrami, and pungent Salt-Cod Fried Rice.The force behind the phenomenon, chef Danny Bowien is, at only thirty-three, the fastest-rising young chef in the United States. Born in Korea and adopted by parents in Oklahoma, he has a broad spectrum of influences. He’s a veteran of fine-dining kitchens, sushi bars, an international pesto competition, and a grocery-store burger stand. In 2013 Food & Wine named him one of the country’s Best New Chefs and the James Beard Foundation awarded him its illustrious Rising Star Chef Award. In 2011 Bon Appétit named Mission Chinese Food the second-best new restaurant in America, and in 2012 the New York Times hailed the Lower East Side outpost as the Best New Restaurant in New York City. The Mission Chinese Food Cookbook tracks the fascinating, meteoric rise of the restaurant and its chef. Each chapter in the story—from the restaurant’s early days, to an ill-fated trip to China, to the opening of the first Mission Chinese in New York—unfolds as a conversation between Danny and his collaborators, and is accompanied by detailed recipes for the addictive dishes that have earned the restaurant global praise. Mission Chinese’s legions of fans as well as home cooks of all levels will rethink what it means to cook Chinese food, while getting a look into the background and insights of one of the most creative young chefs today.

    Author Shauna Sever also includes easy recipes for homemade graham crackers, drinks for mallow dunking, and a host of irresistible desserts, including Lemon Dream Whoopie Pies, Blonde Rocky Road, and S’mores Cupcakes.

    More than 250 recipes range from the time-honored La Truffade, with its crispy potatoes and melted cheese, to the Languedoc specialty Cassoulet de Toulouse, a bean casserole of duck confit, sausage, and lamb. And the desserts! Crpes au Caramel et Beurre Sal (crpes with a luscious caramel filling) and Galette Landaise (a rustic apple tart) are magnifique. Sprinkled with intriguing historical tidbits and filled with more than 270 enchanting photos of food markets, villages, harbors, fields, and country kitchens, this cookbook is an irresistible celebration of French culinary culture.

    Eggs: star of the most important meal of the day, and, to hear billions of cooks and chefs tell it, quite possibly the world's most important food. Does that make Lucky Peach's All About Eggs the world's most important book? Probably yes. In essays, anecdotes, how-tos, and foolproof recipes, this egg-centric volume celebrates everything an egg can be and do. Whether illuminating the progress of an egg through a chicken, or teaching you how to poach the perfect egg, All About Eggs bursts with facts to deploy at your next cocktail party—then serves up a killer deviled egg recipe to serve while you’re doing it. All About Eggs is for anyone who has ever delighted in the pleasures of an omelet, marveled at the snowflake patterns on a century egg, or longed to make a sky-high soufflé.

    Starting with recipes for three master doughs that can be made with commercial yeast, as well as a brief intro to sourdough starters, Perfect Pan Pizza illustrates how to make several styles of pan pizza including Detroit-style "deep pan" pizza, focaccia and schiacciata, and Roman and Sicilian styles through step-by-step photographs. The pizzas include classic toppings like pepperoni and mushrooms, as well as an exciting variety of recipes like the sandwich-inspired Philly-style Roast Pork and Broccoli Rabe; Reuben pizza; Bacon and Egg with Tomato and Arugula Pizza; Blue Cheese, Balsamic Onion Marmalade, and Walnut Focaccia; and Rosemary Garlic Potato, Baby Kale, and Prosciutto Pizza Al Taglio. With unique recipes, plenty of informative FAQs for beginners, and a permissive and inspiring tone, this book will appeal to both experienced bread bakers and novice home pizza makers alike.

    She fell in love with soups when she first heard the story Stone Soup. After attending Johnston & Whales, Marjorie created the menu for the popular Boston Market restaurant chain, and soups were always her favorite. "My niche is taking what people like to eat and turning it into a soup," she says. The New England Soup Factory restaurant has won the Best of Boston award four times. People skip school to eat their soups. A pregnant in labor stopped by the restaurant on the way to the hospital to satisfy a last-minute craving. New England Soup Factory soups are like no other soups. And now you can recreate these delicious soups in your own home. The New England Soup Factory Cookbook contains 100 of Boston's best-tasting traditional and creative soup recipes. The book also includes a chapter on sandwiches and salads to accompany such soups as . . . New England Clam Chowder Wild Mushroom and Barley Soup Curried Crab and Coconut Soup Raspberry-Nectarine Gazpacho Cucumber-Buttermilk Soup

    In The Course of History Struan Stevenson brings to life ten such moments, exploring the personalities, the issues and of course the food which helped shape the course of history.From the claret consumed on the eve of the Battle of Culloden, through the dinners which decided the fates of George Washington, Archduke Ferdinand and Adolf Hitler, to the diplomatic feasts that decided future relations with Russia, China and the Middle East, each chapter covers every detail, character, decision and morsel which decided the course of history.

    Many cooks—and even hunters—have a fear of cooking fowl. Duck, Duck, Goose shows you how to cook duck and goose like a pro: perfectly crisp skin crackling with each bite, succulent confit, impeccable prosciutto, and more. Hank Shaw, an award-winning food writer, hunter, and cook on the forefront of the marsh-to-table revolution, provides all you need to know about obtaining, cleaning, and cooking these flavorful birds. Duck, Duck, Goose includes detailed guides on species and breeds, selecting a duck in the market, and plucking and hanging a wild bird. Shaw’s delicious and doable recipes include basics such as Grilled Duck Breast and Slow-Roasted Duck; international favorites like Duck Pho, Sichuan Fragrant Duck, Mexican Duck with Green Mole, and Cassoulet; and celebration-worthy fare such as Perfect Roast Goose. It also features an array of duck and goose confit and charcuterie, from fresh sausages to dry-cured salami.   The most comprehensive guide to preparing and cooking both domestic and wild ducks and geese, Duck, Duck, Goose will be a treasured companion for anyone who wants to free themselves from the tyranny of chicken and enjoy perfectly cooked waterfowl.

    Andrea’s tofu tutorial clearly outlines technique and guides home cooks through creating many varieties of tofu, and the flavor forward recipes explore the full range of traditional and modern tofu uses—from silken tofu pudding and a spicy “noodle” dish made with tender tofu skin to preparations using baked, smoked, marinated, or crumbled tofu as the star. A few recipes require homemade tofu but most are terrific with purchased tofu products and dishes are predominantly meatless or low-meat, making this cookbook ideal for vegetarians, vegans, those trying to reduce their meat intake, and DIY cooking enthusiasts. About The Author: Andrea Nguyen  is a celebrated teacher and food writer for the Los Angeles Times and Saveur magazine, where she is also a contributing editor. Her previous books were highly acclaimed and nominated for James Beard and IACP cookbook awards. Andrea has loyal readership and strong online presence through her two blogs (vietworldkitchen.com and asiandumplingtips.com), Twitter (@aqnguyen), and Facebook.