FROM THE MAGAZINE SHELF is an occasional feature of the FOUNTAINDALE LIBRARY REFERENCE BLOG. Postings will highlight titles that you might find of interest, but haven’t picked up to read and explore. In addition to the titles that are in the Magazine Area on the 2nd Floor of our library, postings will also includes titles from RBdigital Magazines, formerly Zinio, the library’s digital magazine collection.
For anyone who enjoys food and cooking, one of the joys of the mid-to-late summer months is the abundance of vegetables and fruits that can be turned into meals for family or friends to share. Whether the produce comes from your own garden, your local farm market, or from one of large chain stores, the key is to use these ingredients at the peak of their flavor and nutritional value.
Having a working knowledge of how best to prepare your ingredients for the table is a set of skills learned over time by practice, experience, and learning. The same goes for selecting the best kitchen tools for the job at hand.
Our library subscribes to two magazines that can really help you become a better cook and, in turn, enable you to use that summer bounty more effectively and creatively. They are Cook’s Illustrated and Cook’s Country. They are available both in our library’s Magazines and Newspapers Area on the 2nd Floor, as well as digitally, through our RBdigital Magazines resource. Both magazines are published by the same people who bring you the television cooking shows, America’s Test Kitchen and Cook’s Country on the PBS channel.
Cook’s Illustrated, is published by the America’s Test Kitchen company in Brookline, MA. It comes out every two months and is printed primarily in black and white, with the exception of its covers and pictures of the finished recipes, which use full color. From the time the magazine started, in 1993, the publication has accepted no advertising. This alone, sets it apart prom the other cooking magazines on the market and each issue of Cook’s Illustrated delivers on content.
Another thing about the magazine that is noteworthy is the extensive recipe testing of the recipes that appear in each issue. I would say, from my experience with cooking from the publication, that the recipes are fool proof.
Each issue also contains evaluations of kitchen equipment, along with ratings of brand name foods and ingredients. Need to know which brand of vanilla extract is the best? Need to know which non-stick skillet will give you the results you’re looking for? You’ll find this type of information in each issue of Cook’s Illustrated.
Within each issue, you’ll also find features like “Kitchen Notes” which gives tips on doing day-to-day cooking tasks / “Recipe Update” which talks about variations on recipes from previous issues / and “Notes from Readers” where the editors respond to reader questions.
Once you start reading Cook’s Illustrated, you will look forward to what the next issue holds in store for your personal culinary journey.
Cook’s Country, is also a bimonthly publication. The magazine started in 2004 and follows a similar format to Cook’s Illustrated. Unlike Cook’s Illustrated, it extensively uses color photography throughout each issue.
According to the Editors of Cook’s Country, “We wanted to showcase “country cooking”— honest-to-goodness American cooking, and food that’s meant to be shared with friends and family. We also set out to offer quick, easy, satisfying meals that don’t take hours to put on the table. It’s about simple, great-tasting homemade food—Sunday dinners, potluck suppers, backyard barbecues, and even kids’ birthday parties. These are the kind of recipes and cooking you’ll find celebrated in every issue of Cook’s Country magazine.
Cook’s Country’s mission is to reclaim, revive, and restore classic American heirloom recipes. Dining along America’s culinary trail is a fantastic way to experience our shared experiences as part of America’s great melting pot.”
I think the magazine is really nice supplement to Cook’s Illustrated. Some of the regular features that you’ll find are “Ask Cook’s Country,” “Kitchen Shortcuts,” as well as “Equipment Review.” They are similar to those found in Cook’s Illustrated, but unique to Cook’s Country.
On a personal note, when I saw the September / October 2017 issue, I was intrigued by the Crumb Buns featured on the cover. They looked remarkably like those that one of my uncles would bring to our house on his way to work, when my family lived in New Jersey. Like clockwork, once a week, my uncle would drive from northern NJ and pull into our driveway at around 6:30 AM. He would greet us at our back door with two white bakery bags. One held a few delicious filled doughnuts (either jelly or cream) and the other one had the incredible crumb buns. We would sit down, have a cup of freshly brewed coffee and chat for a bit. Then he would be off again, and drive the additional fifteen minutes to the company where he worked as a tool and die maker.
My uncle may have told us where the tasty treats came from, but over time the name of the bakery was forgotten…until I saw those crumb buns on the cover of that issue of Cook’s Country. One of my cousins still lives close to the Jersey Shore. I told her about the crumb buns, the recipe in the magazine, and that the originals came from B & W Bakery in Hackensack, NJ, where they have been baking them since 1948. My cousin wasn’t a weekly recipient of the crumb buns as my family was, but she remembered a co-worker bringing them to her workplace. The co-worker drove into work from Hackensack, where the bakery was located. They had to be the same ones!
I wound up copying the article / recipe and sending it to my NJ cousin. She couldn’t believe it. She confirmed that they could not have been from any place else other than the B & W Bakery. She was thrilled to receive the perfected recipe and was looking forward to making a batch!
Both these magazines have been around for a while. If you are new to them, do yourself a culinary favor and give them a try. I think you’ll be hooked, especially once you try some of the recipes. If you are a regular reader of the issues that are kept on the 2nd Floor of our library in our Magazines and Newspapers area, try our digital issues through the RBdigital Magazines resource. You’ll be able to check out the latest issues, as well as back issues. You will also have the option to download the content to your smart phone or tablet through the RBdigital Magazines app, so you can read the magazines off line.
Happy cooking!
-Tom D.
Share this:
- More
