The Best International Recipe

It fascinates me that many of the posted reviews are not based on making the recipes but rather on a quick skim and estimates/assumptions about cost or ease of preparation. To my mind, the only measure of a cookbook's value is in the cooking. Flashy pictures, an attractive font type, and easy navigation are great, but if the recipes don't deliver, who cares? And if the recipes are great, does the other stuff really matter? Nevertheless, this book delivers on all fronts.I have made about a dozen of the new recipes from this book, and had already made another 10 or 20 that had appeared on the Cook's Illustrated website, magazines, or other books. Some of these are true knockouts (saag paneer, spicy caramel catfish, Indonesian fried rice, elote, camarones a la plancha) and I have found none that are anything less than really good food (green beans with cilantro, French Onion soup, Indian Vegetable Curry). As a bonus, some of these recipes are actually much easier, cheaper, and healthier than the more elaborate, fat-laden inventions I usually associate with CI.Yes, there are repeats from other sources, but I don't know how this could be avoided. The pad thai and panna cotta recipes really are near perfect--how could you leave those out of an international cookbook? And why would you make needless variations on already great recipes? Yes, there are missteps (for example, the first recipe in the Indian section includes beef). True, there is no table of contents, but the organization couldn't be clearer or more intuitive--by region, then by type of dish.Buying and cooking from this book will give you an in-depth introduction to most of the world's cuisines--it's one of the largest books CI has delivered. The recipes are far more reliable than you're likely to find picking up a random Thai or Spanish cookbook. I've had a great time making these recipes, and I really hope Cook's Illustrated continues in this vein.

America's Test Kitchen is one of the most consistent publishers in the business. You know exactly what to expect with every one of their books. Christopher Kimball and the folks at Cook's Illustrated do an excellent job analyzing recipes. They explain both the why and the what behind the recipes in clear and concise terms. They define what they are after and meticulously set out to achieve that result. The recipes work, whether you read the prelude or not. But their great gift is for helping the home cook to understand the underpinnings of cooking.The Best International Recipe is a great overview of many classics of world cuisine organized geographically. It provides a single book introduction to many dishes and I have been wanting to purchase it for some time. I am not disappointed. It is the 8th book I have purchased from their line.So why only 4 stars? Because Amazon doesn't offer 4.5. This is a great cookbook and extremely functional. But their formula has two shortcomings. The first thing you must pay close attention to in any of their books is their stated goal. Not everyone has the same taste preferences. I've known some cooks who get bent when the end result isn't what they were hoping for because they have different tastes. I always read the recipe first and make sure that I want the same thing they set out to create. The second downside to their formula is the visual element. They do a great job of including functional drawings and a few pictures, but this is not a "pretty" cookbook. One of the reasons that I purchase cookbooks is for inspiration. This is particularly true of ethnic cooking. I want to to be transported and reminded of travel. Usually this issue wouldn't cost them a star in my rating. I didn't expect anything different. But this is an International Recipe cookbook and the issue matters to me. Still, I highly recommend the book and am enjoying it in my kitchen.

I am a DEVOTED buyer of this collection. I buy Cooks Illustrated because they test recipes and develop them for the modern, average cook. They know we're busy, that we're not all master chefs, and that we just want food that's reasonably easy to prepare and tastes good. You will NOT mess up when cooking out of these books - I recommend them even to novice cooks because the language is easy to follow without being too simplistic. The writers include helpful illustrations, side notes, chapter introductions, and explanations for why they follow one process or technique over another. For someone like me who loves to cook but hates to hunt through five different recipes for the best version, the Cooks Illustrated Best Recipe series is my kitchen bible. Again, I LOVE these books and I bet you will too.

I like that it was as described and really even a little better then I thought it would be. Great Pricing! Book gives great instruction, dishes are easy to find!!! All in one Great Book!

I find myself giving a weak rating to a Cook's Illustrated book. That's unusual -- I've only done it once before, for the wobbly but likeable  Restaurant Favorites at Home , which was pretty good but severely blurred in its concept. For The Best International Recipe, my issue is different -- as intensive as this project was, there simply isn't enough substance in here for such an ambitious book.Look, I bought it. It's a good book for what it has in it, and I'm not disrecommending it by any stretch of the imagination -- what is in here is worth having. But it's a shot of tequila when you wanted a 20 oz beer, a backrub in lieu of a hot night of lovemaking, a couple of cold chicken wings when you wanted the half-dark plate at Boston Market. Buy it now, and it will be worth it. But given that they did such a good job with  Italian Classics  and  American Classics , something tells me it might be a good idea to drop a line to Brookline to see if they can come up with The Best Asian Recipe, The Best Central European Recipe, The Best French Recipe, etc. This one will do the trick in the meantime.It is a Cooks Illustrated book. On its own, it's a good one. But it does rate a steep deduction in stars for just not being enough.

Love my new recipe book, this series of recipe books is fantastic!