America's Test Kitchen

TastyReuben

TastyReuben

Nosh 'n' Splosh
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[Mod.Edit: Frist few posts moved to start a new topic. Link To AMT website added (MG)]

America's Test Kitchen | Episodes, Recipes & Reviews

I like ATK. I don't watch it as much as I used to, because I miss Chris Kimball's "so square I'm cool," persona, but I'm still a big fan of their methodology.

They take a science-based approach to cooking, and they do a good job of explaining a lot of the concepts behind why this works and that doesn't. They were SeriousEats before SeriousEats was ever a thing. They're your granddad's SeriousEats. I like SeriousEats as well.

Just like SE, yes, their recipes can be a bit fussy and have long ingredient lists, and steps that seem counterintuitive or downright crazy, but that works for my personality. I'm extremely literal in my everyday life, and when I'm following a recipe, I want to follow it exactly, and I want, as much as possible, a guarantee that I'm going to get what the recipe writer got. It's why I love ATK, because no one is as precise in their recipes (both in the creation/testing and in the writing/editing) and absolutely abhor poorly written recipes by non-professionals. When I have a recipe, I try to follow exactly what's on the page, as much as possible (and yet, I still f*** up...). I don't like improvising and I don't like surprises. That's probably why their finicky style suits me.

I will say this - I've made more ATK recipes than any other cookbook/TV show/website, including my unknown-mentor Jacques Pepin, and out of the probably 300 recipes I've made from ATK, only two failed to delight me and my diner(s) - and I know which two those are. I can't say that for any other place (including Pepin), and I put down a lot of that success to their meticulous recipes.

A lot of their recipes are like the ones above - a lot of ingredients and (unlike the one above) notorious for dirtying every pan in the kitchen. But if you look at those ingredients...nothing out of the ordinary for an average American pantry & larder. That's the other thing I like about them (and one thing I can't say for SE) - they try to use easily accessible ingredients, and don't hang their hats on simply, positively, absolutely having to have this or that oddball cheese that's made with sheep's milk from sheep that graze only on the south face of some unknown Tyrol mountain slope on alternate Wednesdays and that's the only cheese that'll do.

Now if they'd only get Mr. Kimball back...
 
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actually, it is in fact imho the best factor of ATK that they "explain" their reasons.
the downside . . . . not everyone agrees with their opinions and/or "reasons"

basically it's one opinioned group making a list of "best" whatever - which may not agree with the viewer's needs or preferences.
more than often, watching their 'reviews' of hardware and the reasons they pronounce Item A better than Item B . . .
just does not gibe with my experience/needs/opinion. their needs in a tv test kitchen are not similar to my needs in a home kitchen, but they don't seem to recognize that problem.....
 
CookieMonster said:
actually, it is in fact imho the best factor of ATK that they "explain" their reasons.
the downside . . . . not everyone agrees with their opinions and/or "reasons"
Click to expand...
Yeah, I don't agree with everything they say, and there are plenty of their recipes that I'd like to eat, but I'm not willing to make.

That show was very much Kimball's baby; his conception from the start, and like they say, a team takes on the personality of the coach, and that was true of the show, and Kimball is known for his...ahem...strong opinions about some things.

I have a cookbook of his from the '90's (two, actually), and they're solely his, not associated with ATK or its offshoots, and in those books, he's pretty free and easy with his thoughts.

The books are meant to be part cookbook/part theory and technique (sort of like Pepin's La Technique), and in the portion concerning pizza, Kimball describes how to hand-stretch a pizza dough, then warns in that slightly know-it-all way of his (you know what I mean if you've seen more than 15 minutes of one of his shows) to not even attempt to hand-toss it in the air, that there's simply no way a simple home cook could ever, in a million years of trying, hope to successfully toss a pizza dough, unless the goal is to get it on the floor.

Why does he say that? No doubt because he can't do it (which he confirms), and if someone as smart and accomplished and all-knowing as he is can't do it, then you, poor schmuck...I mean, dear reader, have no hope at all. Don't even try.

Well, I'm here to tell you, I'm generally an uncoordinated goof, and it took me maybe three doughs to get the technique down. It's not hard, and if I can do it, a half-witted chimp with one arm can do it.

So...that's an example where I think he's full of it, but on balance, what goes on with that show works very well for me.

I've watched his new show (Milk Street), and the format is exactly the same as America's Test Kitchen and Cook's Country, and he has a magazine associated with it, which is very much like Cook's Illustrated, except that Milk Street seems to focus much, much more on international cuisine. I watch it, just to get a dose of his self-deprecating-but-not-really humor, but there are a lot less recipes there that I'm interested in.
 
TastyReuben said:
I like ATK. I don't watch it as much as I used to, because I miss Chris Kimball's "so square I'm cool," persona, but I'm still a big fan of their methodology.

They take a science-based approach to cooking, and they do a good job of explaining a lot of the concepts behind why this works and that doesn't. They were SeriousEats before SeriousEats was ever a thing. They're your granddad's SeriousEats. I like SeriousEats as well.

Just like SE, yes, their recipes can be a bit fussy and have long ingredient lists, and steps that seem counterintuitive or downright crazy, but that works for my personality. I'm extremely literal in my everyday life, and when I'm following a recipe, I want to follow it exactly, and I want, as much as possible, a guarantee that I'm going to get what the recipe writer got. It's why I love ATK, because no one is as precise in their recipes (both in the creation/testing and in the writing/editing) and absolutely abhor poorly written recipes by non-professionals. When I have a recipe, I try to follow exactly what's on the page, as much as possible (and yet, I still f*** up...). I don't like improvising and I don't like surprises. That's probably why their finicky style suits me.

I will say this - I've made more ATK recipes than any other cookbook/TV show/website, including my unknown-mentor Jacques Pepin, and out of the probably 300 recipes I've made from ATK, only two failed to delight me and my diner(s) - and I know which two those are. I can't say that for any other place (including Pepin), and I put down a lot of that success to their meticulous recipes.

A lot of their recipes are like the ones above - a lot of ingredients and (unlike the one above) notorious for dirtying every pan in the kitchen. But if you look at those ingredients...nothing out of the ordinary for an average American pantry & larder. That's the other thing I like about them (and one thing I can't say for SE) - they try to use easily accessible ingredients, and don't hang their hats on simply, positively, absolutely having to have this or that oddball cheese that's made with sheep's milk from sheep that graze only on the south face of some unknown Tyrol mountain slope on alternate Wednesdays and that's the only cheese that'll do.

Now if they'd only get Mr. Kimball back...
Click to expand...

I'm not an ATK fan. Too rigid. But that may be why you like them. Chris Kimball always struck me as an arrogant SOB. That may have been his undoing at ATK. Should have been.

I do like their "gear" reviews. Of course, their first picks are often what I own, so I'm biased.

I love watching Good Eats with Alton Brown, but NEVER cook any of his recipes. Like ATK, they are too rigid. Same with J Kenji Guadalupe de Santiago Lopez-Alt.

CD
 
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caseydog said:
I'm not an ATK fan. Too rigid. But that may be why you like them. Chris Kimball always struck me as an arrogant SOB. That may have been his undoing at ATK. Shoud have been.

I do like their "gear" reviews. Of course, their first picks are often what I own, so I'm biased.

I love watching Good Eats with Alton Brown, but NEVER cook any of his recipes. Like ATK, they are too rigid. Same with J Kenji Guadalupe de Santiago Lopez-Alt.

CD
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That rigidity is exactly why I like their recipes. While I sometimes deviate out of necessity, my first preference is always to follow the recipe exactly, and I like that their recipes are so precise.

Kimball is a hilarious conundrum to me. He's obviously a big ol' dork, with his bow ties, pop bottle glasses, and face that looks like half-risen dough, but he comes across as having such an ego, though I think some of that is just that quiet confidence that seems to be associated with New Englanders. For those who aren't familiar, he's not loud, he's not overtly cocky, he's the epitome of boring, but there's this unmistakeable current of superiority that runs through everything he says and does, and it's hard to argue with that level of success. He very quietly built a publishing and TV powerhouse.

His leaving ATK came down mainly to money and control. He's a control freak, by his own admission, so when he wasn't getting his way, he quietly grabbed all his stuff and went and started Milk Street. On ATK, his schtick was, "I'm a hopeless boob in the kitchen, so our fine cook Julia/Bridgette/Becky/Dan/Bryan/Ellen is going to show us how to make a proper pickled calf's head." Then he'd ask rehearsed questions that gave the cooks the opportunity to explain choices and techniques.

Well, he's not a boob in the kitchen, he's a fine cook in his own right, and a knowledgeable historian of American cuisine, and that's one thing I do like about Milk Street - he actually cooks. He doesn't do the long demos, but he'll definitely do some recipes, start to finish.

I always refer to Kenji as Kenji Alt-Benji, because I can never remember his name. I like SeeiousEats, I use a lot of their recipes as well, but being an old fart, I don't like their approach, with articles titled like, "If You Don't Make Your Mac-N-Cheese Like This, You're A F*****G Moron And Don't Deserve To Live!" - If Kimball has an air of quiet superiority, Alt-Benji (and a lot of his crew) absolutely wields it like a bludgeon. That said, I'd follow Stella Parks (aka Bravetart) off a cliff if she asked me, just based on her baking skills alone.

Back to ATK, I remember one episode where they were reading viewer letters, and someone'd written in that they like ATK (and by extension, all the PBS cooking shows) because, compared to the Food Network and Cooking Channel, it was nice to, you know, see a show where people actually cooked, and explained what they were doing, and that the cooks looked and behaved like cooks, not like spoiled celebrities, and Kimball, almost under his breath, said, "Yeah, on our show, it's the food that's sexy, not the cooks." :laugh:
 
Watch it a lot more since that useless Kimball is gone. He did absolutely nothing on ATK, just like he does on Milk Street.
 
Never having seen an episode (its not aired here in the UK) I can't comment. I tried to access the videos but it requires paid membership although you get a 'free' trial if you enter your card details. If anyone has a link to a free video...
 
CraigC said:
Watch it a lot more since that useless Kimball is gone. He did absolutely nothing on ATK, just like he does on Milk Street.
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I'm the opposite. I don't care for it now, because I've spent more than a decade seeing Kimball as the guy to whom the cooks explain and demonstrate. He's the guy who didn't know how to make something, and they were the experts, showing how to do it. Kimball was like the stand-in for the viewer.

Now that he's gone, Julia and Bridgette are the hosts, and now they try and stand there like they're mildly clueless, while the cooks explain to them what they're doing...and I just can't buy into it. I've spent too many years watching either Julia or Bridgette explain things to Kimball, and now I'm supposed to believe it when one of them acts surprised as Dan explains that using a paper towel to dry off a steak helps promote browning? Kimball excelled at promoting himself as inept in the kitchen (even though he isn't) and now J/B try the same thing, and it just rings phony. IMO, they'd have done better bringing in a new host and keeping J/B behind the cooktop full time.
 
Morning Glory said:
Never having seen an episode (its not aired here in the UK) I can't comment. I tried to access the videos but it requires paid membership although you get a 'free' trial if you enter your card details. If anyone has a link to a free video...
Click to expand...
That's the Kimball model for success - they're very proprietary. Registering at their website gets you free access to the current season's episodes and recipes, but you have to pay for anything else.

They have some of their episodes on YT - I'll post something back here later. Hopefully, you can access those.
 
Morning Glory said:
Never having seen an episode (its not aired here in the UK) I can't comment. I tried to access the videos but it requires paid membership although you get a 'free' trial if you enter your card details. If anyone has a link to a free video...
Click to expand...

ATK is on YouTube. I don't know if it is blocked in the UK. I access the internet through a VPN, so nothing is blocked for me. I can access the net from just about any country in the world.

Do a YouTube search, and see if you can watch any ATK episodes there.

CD
 
Ok, here's an official recipe from the current iteration of ATK (if it says Cook's Country, ignore that, they're the same thing, more or less):

View: https://youtu.be/5cNjJVt6qyI


International folks, see if you can view that, and I chose lamb, mainly because it's only seven minutes long. :)

I can find no old episodes or clips on YT of Kimball hosting ATK. His leaving was fairly acrimonious, so no doubt that's been scrubbed. I'll check DailyMotion later.

It really pays to see Kimball interacting with others, as he walks this fine line between self-deprecation and condescension that's pretty amazing. How he manages to put others down, while seemingly putting himself down as well, is real art. :laugh:
 
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