Kitchen Hacks: How Clever Cooks Get Things Done

This book is excellent! It has hundreds of interesting 'hacks' that will help any cook, from the beginner to the seasoned chef. I'll just sit down in the evening and read it like a book, even if the tips aren't really relevant to what I do in the kitchen. They are just so interesting. If you are familiar with the tip section in their magazines Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country, then you will be familiar with the style of these tips. It features hand drawn images that are indicative of Cook's Illustrated style.The tips are broken down into sections, such as cleaning hacks and food transportation hacks. The index is very comprehensive and makes it easy to find and hack relevant to what you are doing.My only con is the shape of the book. It is tall and narrow, making some of the content harder to read near the center of the book. This wasn't a big enough issue for me to deduct from my 5-stars I am giving it. All in all, I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys cooking, and I recommend it even more to those who don't particularly like cooking and think of it more as a chore!

After decades of cooking for my family (from childhood to the "golden years") I downsized from an extremely well equipped kitchen to the bare minimum of tools necessary to produce good food. With this liberation from things comes the reality that I don't always have that specialized piece of culinary magic for a specific task. That's where this small volume comes in, showing how to improvise to get the job done. Many of the hacks are familiar, more are, for me, EUREKA! moments and why didn't I think of that common sense solutions. I agree with many other reviewers that the design of the book is awkward to use, but I usually throw it in my purse to peruse while killing time somewhere and it hasn't deterred me from trying to glean every time saving, smart trick to streamline my cooking while producing results I can be proud of. I wish I had known these kitchen hacks a long time ago!

Not a small book. I was stunned at the size. A great book to keep as a reference book in the kitchen. It is set up very well for that.

A very handy book, with lots of cool tips. Some I knew, but many were new. The Cook's Country folks did a good job on this publication except for the awkward binding, as a few other have noted, I think it would have been outstanding (5 stars) if the pages could stay flat open while I'm using it. Rethink this for future books, please. Otherwise, good job.

Fantastic book for anyone who regularly putters around or seriously works in the kitchen. I had some reservations and doubts regarding this book, as one can usually find a good number of "life hacks" on the Internet. But in this case, I took a chance and was very nicely surprised. There really is a lot of information within this book, covering a lot of ground in almost every aspect from making some time-saving, easy-to-use tools for the kitchen, to proper handling and storage, to overall logical bits of information that many often overlook or simply don't think about. And there really is a lot of information within, thankfully all very nicely organized. So, yes, there are tidbits of information on the Internet - some of which may not be in this book even - but those are but a tiny smidgen of what you get here. I definitely recommend it.

This book was so much fun! I highly recommend anyone who enjoys being in the kitchen to get this book! These hacks will save you time, money, and maybe save your meal in an emergency! Well-written with an economy of words while still including important details. I'm already using some of the ideas and plan to incorporate more as situations come up. Will read it again at some point and use it as a kitchen reference book, as well.

Good index and chapter headings

My title say it all. I can just do some basics. Mom was a terrible cook and I followed in her foot steps. But this book has saved me time and actually made it a little fun to cook even if I am cooking for one or sometimes two. Cook's Illustrated puts this out and a new edition is out now. I cheap so I picked up an older model and its perfect for me. It's not hard cover but was in pretty good condition. This is great for any bachelor, school student, or a friend like me. Took awhile to get it but well packaged.

No matter how experienced and versatile you are in the kitchen, I'll guarantee you'll find more than a few hacks you either didn't know or forgot in these pages. Also makes a great gift!

Gostei da maioria das dicas. Algumas, poucas, são muito específicas para o publico americano porém não perdem a pertinência.

This book is filled with useful tips and tricks BUT...and it is a very BIG BUT...it is so badly designed that it is almost impossible to use. The pages are glue bound to the spine in such a way as to prevent the book from opening fully unless you break the spine...resulting in loose pages. If it was properly bound it would be a household 'must'. I am amazed that the 'Cooks Illustrated' hierarchy did not attempt to read the book before putting it on the market...as part of the Americas Test Kitchen conglomerate a bit of quality control would not go amiss. I would have given it 5 stars for the content...but it loses smartie points for the cheap binding.

Not read through all the way yet. Interesting tips for the kitchen.

The "good for a laugh" part is because of the many pages that contain solutions to problems that I didn't know existed! Seriously, this is a very good and useful book for everyday kitchen and other household hints. You can pick it up anytime to any page and learn something. And it's well enough organized that you can research specific topics easily. My only niggle is with the binding -- it's very tight and makes the book a little hard to thumb through. I guess I'd award 4.5 stars if that were an option. Otherwise, great!