Cook's Country

[far_gone]

I'm outside the US and was just looking at the Cook's Illustrated website and noticed that they have a new title called Cook's Country - what is it? what's the difference between this and Cook's Illustrated? Looks very similar...

[tim]

Hi,

Cook's Country is aimed at the audience that has given "Taste of Home" magazine the biggest subscription base of all the cooking magazines.

The recipes tend to be basic, simple and easy to prep and cook.

Tim

[Lisa Shock]

It's both a magazine and a TV show. If you join the website, you get access to both (Illustrated and Country) sets of information: recipes, equipment tests, product reviews.

[Kim Shook]

I like the magazine a lot. My dad gives me a subscription every year and I make a lot of things from it. It's especially good for weeknight meals and their advice and techniques seem sound.

[John Rosevear]

Maybe I'm too much of an effete east coast snob, but I keep expecting Cook's Country to do an all-Jello-mold issue one of these days.

[far_gone]

so it's just kind of everyday stuff (+ jello) from cook's illustrated, rather than elaborate recipes?

[John Rosevear]

It doesn't overlap with CI (by design, I assume, to encourage people to subscribe to both). It's... downhome, middle American fare, perfect country-fair fried chicken and big fancy decorated cupcakes rather than coq au vin and creme brulee. Just go here and browse, you'll get the idea.

[Paul Kierstead]

One always hopes that CI will give up on roast chicken now and leave it to CC. Not that I don't love roast chicken (made some the weekend following the Bouchon template, Yum!!), but I like it when CI takes the more complex stuff. Now if only they would start a dessert magazine and banish desserts from CI....

[gfweb]

CI seems stuck on entry level cooking. How to do classic home dishes better than Mom used to etc.

[John Rosevear]

gfweb: True that. And when they do tackle something a little bit beyond basic -- boeuf a la mode, say, or pommes Anna -- it tends to be a dumbed-down cook-it-on-a-weeknight version.

Paul: I bet they have data showing that featuring "Even Better Than Best Roast Chicken" and recipes of that ilk on their cover spikes newsstand sales. Like it or not, we home-cooking geeks are way outnumbered by people who can't manage to roast a chicken without drying it out and for whom techniques like brining are a major revelation.