Cook's Country

I use a recipe from this magazine at least once a week. The 30 minute recipe card that come with each issue make easy dinners a snap. Although they take longer than 30 minutes to make most of the time, the ingredients are very basic and can be found at almost any grocery store and the directions are simple, and best of all, they are delicious! The recipes in the magazine are a little more involved, but SO worth it. The Test Kitchen does a superb job of making the right dish every time. I love the discussion of how they arrived at the recipe they are publishing and which brands of products they used, or recommend. I feel like I really know more about the dish after reading their articles. One of the first sections has suggestions for kitchen short cuts, and most of them have come in handy. The product reviews they do are great as well. I have never been disappointed with a recipe or and issue of this magazine and plan on subscribing always.

I've been subscribing to Cook's Country magazine since the first issue. It is an offshoot from America's Test Kitchen and one would expect to set a high bar. This magazine meets the bar and exceeds it with every issue. You get tested recipes, product reviews, intelligent commentary and easy to follow pictures and instructions. I actually like Cook's Country a bit more than it's longer running big brother Cooks Illustrated. The recipes are for more down home and dinner on the porch style foods. Both are edited by Chris Kimball and are permanent items in my cookbook collection.

This isn't the cleapest cooking magazine you'll buy, but it's one of the best. Also with its sister publication, Cook's Illustrated, each issue gives you a host of great recipes and techniques not found elsewhere. Not slick or overly complicated, each recipe is easy to follow, prefaced with a thorough explanation of the whys and wherefors (what other approaches the test kitchen cooks tried before the final version) of each recipe. Each issue also contains various cooking techniques and tips, as well as product guides (one of my favorite sections in both Cook's Country and Cook's Illustrated. The difference between the two probably lies in the recipes . . . here they are a bit more homey . . .

Before I had my son I was an avid Cook's Illustrated reader and made many of their recipes. While I was sad to let the subscription go with a toddler it just wasn't practical for me to follow recipes to a 35 step meatloaf. Cook's Country is the down home cousin of Cook's Illustrated with real busy life recipes that are as delicious and successful as it's refined counterpart. I love the photographs, the tips, tricks and selection of recipes is actually superior. I will stick with Cook's Country. It is a winner with my blue collar husband and picky little boy. I even find myself going on ebay.com to find old issues!

Note: I subscribed to this magazine a couple of years ago, for the first two years of it's being published, so my review is based on that experience. Your mileage may vary!------------------------------------Although I have my own beef with the publishers of this and Cooks Illustrated (mainly for their marketing schemes, some of which seem a bit dishonest (details at the end of this review))), overall this magazine is pretty good.I don't care about the size, I could take it or leave it, and I don't care about it being glossy, as at least one reviewer is, all I know is that the magazine is very good looking and has relatively good content. Yes, the meals and recipes in this are not on the same level as those in Cooks Illustrated, but that's the point.The photography is beautiful and this makes a great coffee table magazine to whet the appetite of anyone looking at it. Unless you are some sort of cooking fanatic/zealot, this magazine is likely to please you. If you are not familiar with Cooks Illustrated, I recommend that as well, it's excellent.As for the negatives - the claim is that Cook's Country is "ad-free" - that is true unless you consider their own advertisements for their magazines and books and whatnot. That's one of the things that really gripes me, they send so much extra cardstock paper with their own ads that it is ridiculous.Earlier in this review, I alluded to seemingly dishonest marketing schemes - basically, they would send me separate letters rather frequently trying to get me to subscribe to Cooks Illustrated, which I had discontinued at the time, and tell me that because I was a previous subscriber, they were going to give me a great deal, blah blah blah. This was repeated again when I stopped subscribing to Cook's Country as well. "Oh, you are a loyal customer, etc. etc. etc. so we are happy to provide you with a discount on renewing, blah blah blah." The prices they were quoting me were significantly higher than what I could pay if I got the subscription through Amazon!!! Hmm, I felt so special... NOT!So, that's the deal. Hope that helps someone!

My mother-in-law discovered this magazine while she was visiting and showed it to me. Neither one of us subscribes to any cooking magazines though we both collect recipes like fiends. However, we have both decided to make this magazine one of two we will be subscribing to (the other being Penzey's ONE). the layout is friendly and easy to read, the articles are informative without being obnoxious, and the ratings categories are great (latest edition did chef's knives and lemonades). Also very helpful is the back cover - it lists all the recipes and what page they are on, as well as showing some pictures. Great for when you're looking for a specific one and don't want to have to page through the magazine to find it! The recipes are such that an inexperienced cook would have no difficulty but an experienced cook would still enjoy preparing them. All-in-all, a great magazine!

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this magazine! No advertisements, just great recipes and techniques. Would definitely purchase a subscription as a gift to those who love to cook.