Cookbook Review: Inside the Test Kitchen

 

Tyler Florence has always been one of my favorite chefs. His recipes are accessible yet elevated; classic, yet classy. So, I was very excited to receive his newest cookbook, Inside the Test Kitchen {120 New Recipes Perfected}. 

The cookbook itself has a sturdy, yet slightly flexible cover, with an elastic bookmark to help you keep your page (a very nice and convenient touch). All the photos in the book were taken using an iPad, which gives a rustic quality. There is also space to write your own notes. Finally, each recipe has been tested in Tyler's own test kitchen, so you know you're going to get a good product and not a haphazard collection of ingredients.

 I prepared 3 recipes from Inside the Test Kitchen:

• Five-in-One Mix (I used it for pancakes, although this versatile mix can be used for muffins, waffles, cakes, and cookies as well.) (p. 111 & 113).
• Herbed Pomodoro Sauce (p. 141).
• Cheddar-Black Pepper Crackers (p. 52).

I was really skeptical about the Five-in-One mix. The proportions seemed to be way off, and I was expecting a crepe-like pancake. However, they rose nicely while cooking, and turned out delicious. My 6 year old said they were "the best ever". While one batch made about 18 pancakes, it did call for 2 sticks of butter which made the final product a little greasy. They really were good, although I'm not sure I would make them everyday just because of the butter.

The Herbed Pomodoro Sauce called for San Marzano tomatoes--which I used, but my tomatoes were very stringy and I had to discard many of them (I even used the quality tomatoes from Italy, so it must have been a bad batch.) That said, I really enjoyed the sauce, as did my 6 year old, but my husband wanted a more distinct herb flavor. I loved the idea of infusing the olive oil with herbs, although it wasn't as flavorful as if you used a bunch of chopped herbs in the sauce.

The Cheddar-Black Pepper Crackers were so incredibly simple to make. And, they turned out pretty good too. A little salty for my personal taste, but my 2 year old kept asking for more, so they passed his taste test.

There were recipes for every stage of home cook out there. From the I-can-barely-boil-water home cook to the adventurous home cook, there were many options ranging from easy to difficult. I like that the cookbook had a lot of different recipes, including BBQ, Chicken and Turkey, Eggs, Pasta, Pork, and a whole chapter just for Risotto (including a simple risotto I'm going to try out later this week.)

Overall, I was pleased with this cookbook, and will be keeping it in my kitchen so I can use it often.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher through Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own and have not been influenced in any way.