Guilty Pleasure #2: Cook’s Illustrated
As a moderate to high level foodie, I can never get enough of this magazine. It’s always pricey for my tastes ($5.95 on the newsstand), but if I am in the mood to make magic in the kitchen I will splurge. Otherwise, I just read the articles in the bookstore trying to memorize the tips for the perfect ganache or how to make garlic mashed potatoes or pan seared shrimp or the perfect cup of coffee. The magazine is spare — a beautiful painting of one lovely food item on the front cover and an illustrated guide to food varieties on the back. Between the covers, there are black and white pages with behind-the-scenes tales of kitchen exploits filled with exotic ingredients and high-tech gadgets. It is food porn for the Wall St. Journal set. Still, the broke food nerd in me loves the narratives of the test kitchen trial-and-error written with the lay chemist in mind. The writers take care to explain how sugar molecules act, what effects oxidation has on food flavor, the chemistry of caramelization, and cellular basics of meat and veggies. The writers also test and recommend the best in kitchen gadgets: fancy knives, food processors built by NASA, and even whipped cream aerators, an item I personally covet with body and soul. With it, I could make my own flavored, organic whipped cream in a flash. And the uses for whipped cream are endless…
Okay, here’s how much I love this magazine: I enthusiastically read every article, even the recipes for beef, pork and chicken, and I am a vegetarian.
