Strictly Middle-American. Recipes are altered, not original.

books:


	• Americas Best Lost Recipes: 121 heirloom recipes too good to forget The Editors of Cook's Country Magazine Cook's Illustrated, 2007 - 224 pages average customer review:based on 21 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Wonderful recipes and wonderful stories

I got this from the library and then had to order it. I've tried four recipes and they are all wonderful. My husband, who doesn't really like ham, loved the Ham Pie. The Blueberry bait boy is wonderful. The Kolaches were very tasty, low in calories and little sugar. The Ruskas were good (although could use a little more spice)but the dough was amazing and I'm going to use it in other recipes. I'm eager to try more.

The stories were an interesting read especially those that were invented in times of shortage.

For those others who wrote critiques. It would be nice if you had put what the error was you found.

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Strictly Middle-American. Recipes are altered, not original.

I checked this out from the library but the jury is still out on whether or not I'll buy my own copy. It looks yummy and nothing in it appears to be difficult to make, but I sort of doubt I need another dessert-laden fat-sugar-carb cookbook. If I do end up getting it, I think I'll be penciling in a lot of reduced sugar and fat measurements.

In general, I'm suspicious of the "America's Test Kitchen" cooking philosophy. They tend to favor heavy, bland, Midwestern/Northeastern Food (sweet cornbread! Blargh!). They often interfere considerably with traditional ingredients and preparation methods, which is not a problem if you're going for taste but means that their authenticity is unreliable. So, really--these aren't the actual "lost" recipes; these are made-over recipes. Some of them aren't even very lost; seems to me I've been seeing monkey bread recipes everywhere lately.

They also seem to feel that everything can be improved with butter and cream. I can't remember the last time I bought cream or sour cream, and yet they seem to use one or the other, or both, in every episode. Their hot milk sponge cake recipe is identical to the one my aunt gave us except that ATK's added a whole stick of butter, and my aunt's is the original version with no butter at all. We--my aunt, my mother, and I--have been baking this for 30+ years and are of the opinion that the old recipe was fine without all that extra fat.

The tips were nice but it was pretentious of them to pretend that they were ATK innovations. Whipping cream in a chilled bowl with chilled blades is not an ATK discovery.

I also saw it noted somewhere that the recipes in this are strictly WASP, which I thought was hilarious if not quite accurate (though I don't think it's that far off). The recipes are submitted from several regions but all of them are in the "nonthreatening" flavor range. I hope this means that Southwestern, Cajun, and Creole cooks just didn't submit recipes, rather than that they weren't deemed good or lost enough to be included

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America's Best Lost Recipes

The sturdy binder that allows the recipes to lay flat, the shiny pages, the older recipes I don't find elsewhere and colorful images are pluses. My chief disappointment was with the few number of entrees and huge number of desserts and baked goods. I need main entry suggestions that are fast, economical and tasty. What was there was OK but too few in number.

america's best lost recipes

the cook's country folks did a terrific job of presenting these old favorite recipes. I had a hard time deciding which to make first. the pictures make them all look so yummy

Cook book that's fun to read

Cannot resist a cookbook! I have found that anything published by America's Test Kitchen is a worthy addition to my cookbook library. They are well written, well tested recipes that rarely disappoint.This is the kind of cookbook that is just plain fun to read.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Ever heard of cold-oven pound cake, Hummingbird Cake, Mile-High Bologna Pie, or Mashed-Potato Fudge?

You'll find these recipes and more like them in America's Best Lost Recipes, a book that grew out of a nationwide contest for the best heirloom recipes, with recipes selected and put through their paces by the editors of Cook's Country magazine.

Evocative of both family ties and our national heritage, recipes like these are powerful touchstones for the past. Packed with full-color photos and enhanced features that make it a perfect gift (blank pages on which to detail your own family's lost recipes, a pocket to hold the recipes, and a bookplate), this collection features food you will want to make for your family and friends. Test kitchen notes tell the story of our recipe testing and detail what you need to know to be successful in the kitchen.

Contest entrants describe the recipes and history in their own words in brief introductions, lending this collection a narrative and personal quality few cookbooks possess. A slice of Americana, America's Best Lost Recipes aims to preserve the best our culinary heritage has to offer.

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