Foodie mag recipes

[KSherer]

Some foodie publications are best known for their features writing (Saveur, for example), while others position themselves as monthly recipe collections, intellectually fortified with a column here and there (Bon Appetit comes to mind). But funny, isn't it: there doesn't seem to be much correlation between recipe quality and a magazine's content mix.

A survey, then, for those of us who actually cook from magazines:

Which titles have you come to count on for failproof recipes?

And which publications' test kitchen staffs seem to be asleep at the stove?

Kris Sherer

[Carolyn Tillie]

None of 'em. I know the pressure under which they are working to get out a monthly rag and more often than not, I find glaring mistakes in magazine recipes. On a few occasions, an author's recipe will show up later in a book and has often been edited for the better (obviously, having been tested and/or clarified).

Magazines are fine for keeping one's pulse on the food community, but I rarely cook from them.

[Pam R]

On a few occasions, an author's recipe will show up later in a book and has often been edited for the better (obviously, having been tested and/or clarified).

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Or the magazine edits it for their own reasons (one magazine I know of will not not allow raw eggs in their recipes and another will not allow different quantities for an item - no 1 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. of so and so) - not that this has ever happened to me

edited to add that I still try recipes from magazines - I trust them as much as I trust a recipe in a cookbook - they can both contain mistakes, and they can both be good.

Edited May 15, 2005 by Pam R (log)

[CaliPoutine]

None of 'em. I know the pressure under which they are working to get out a monthly rag and more often than not, I find glaring mistakes in magazine recipes.  On a few occasions, an author's recipe will show up later in a book and has often been edited for the better (obviously, having been tested and/or clarified).

Magazines are fine for keeping one's pulse on the food community, but I rarely cook from them.

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I've cooked over a dozen recipes from Cook's Illustrated and every single one of them came out fantastic. They say that they test and retest and I tend to believe them.

I'm a big fan and I'll continue trying them. I also enjoy Fine Cooking. I've made a lot of things from Cooking Light too. I find the main dishes are great, however the baking is a left to be desired( probably because its low-fat)

[Susan in FL]

Out of all the magazines I read every month, I mostly cook from Bon Appetit and Food & Wine. I love to get recipes from food magazines. I don't usually follow any recipe exactly, so the trust factor is fine for me.

[little ms foodie]

I cook a lot out of F&W also, I use to get Martha's Living and made tons of stuff from that too. Most have been keepers.

[petite tête de chou]

Cooks Illustrated. I like the way they lay out their methods to acheive a certain a result. This allows me to alter a particular step if I desire a different result.

[Trishiad]

martha has never steered me wrong.

[Ms Neato]

Cuisine, from New Zealand is good, in my experience.

(And for the curious; most, if not all, of the recipes are on their website)

[birder53]

Fine Cooking. The photography is wonderful and inspiring! I've been very pleased with the results of the recipes.

[peppyre]

Fine Cooking has been a favorite of mine for many years. At the same time I started buying Fine Cooking, I was also able to get Eating Well, which I used to steal ideas from all the time. Then it just disappeared about 4 years ago. Well, it's back and I managed to find my first copy of their new incarnation and I have to say that I am impressed. There are a few ideas that I will indeed take away from it.

[shelora]

I've had the most success with Saveur recipes, some of them have even been transferred to the best loved/stand-bys file. Martha has steered me wrong on many occassions, where i had to re-work the damn things numerous times. Gourmet and Bon Appetit have never been all that interesting to try.

s

[jgarner53]

I've had good luck mostly with Cooking Light and Cook's Illustrated recipes, though I've used some Fine Cooking recipes with success, as well.

[pam claughton]

I've had great luck with Bon Appetit recipes, and also Cook's Illustrated and Cooking Light.

I can usually tell though, by reading a recipe, if I will like it. But it's always nice when it's way better than expected.

:) Pam

[Chris Amirault]

Saveur for me.

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Gourmet.

...

I'm not mentioning it, either, I'll add.

[merrybaker]

Sunset. I've had more "keepers" from Sunset than from all the others combined.

[SKinCA]

I like the recipes from Fine Cooking. I find that recipes from Cooks Illustrated, although they generally perform as expected, tend to need a bit of jazzing up. I think it might be a regional thing - their tasters seem to expect things a bit blander than I and my family prefer. Or, it might just be a Cooks Illustrated thing...

[doctorandchef]

Cook's illustrated:

They tell me how to do it the wrong way, so even if I don't follow the recipe exactly I know what NOT to do. I find it a very educational read as it really furthers my knowledge, and allows me to follow other recipes and spotting obvious "failures".

You're right about the "blandness", but I think they give you a good fundamental recipe for you to improvise on. And you know what things you shouldn't do. Saves a lot of failed self-experimentation.

I know most of the big magazines test out their recipes, but a lot of times they turn out to be stinkers.

[alexw]

I just try & pull inspiration from one part of a dish, this can be the sauce (my avatar dish began life as michel bras bread jus and I built from there), this can come from one ingredient in the listing, either one I haven't heard of, or one from long ago I had merely forgotten from childhood.

either way I try not to cook entire recipes as I don't have the patience to shop for the whole list and find myself wandering aimlesly into the pulses section and grabbing some quinoa instead of risotto rice and getting home and having to ad-lib. much more fun.

Alex.

[slbunge]

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Gourmet.

...

I'm not mentioning it, either, I'll add.

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I'll mention it. This household has a sort of love-hate relationship with Gourmet but we do cook from it routinely and have had very few clunkers.

We also cook from Food and Wine.

[Betts]

It isn't that Gourmet's recipes don't work; it's sometimes the case that the amount of effort involved doesn't lead to a sufficiently tasty experience. Photography suckers me in too often.

Cooking light has some worthwhile items and the occasional gem and I finally chose between F&W and Bon Appetit. I kept F&W.

Pam Anderson's recipes in the WEEKEND section of the paper are great. She works on a concept and her stuff always turns out right. But of course she did time at CI and it shows.

Lastly - one wouldn't think of Consumer's Reports for recipes but when they publish one it is perfect. Usually the theme is " why buy ... when you can make a better version easily at home". Their BBQ sauce is the best.

[Really Nice!]

There's only one magazine I've experienced that has been consistently consistent in delivering quality recipes, and that's Australian Women's Weekly cookbooks in magazine format. I was married to an Australian one afternoon and each year when we went "home" to visit her family I'd pick up every new periodical the newshops had. Each recipe worked.

The problem with most periodicals is, as Carolyn mentions, they are under a lot of pressure... ...to get out a monthly rag. But there are a number of other issues that keep a recipe from turning out as well as the original or source.

1. Quality of ingredients. Restaurants get far better ingredients than consumers.

2. Quality of equipment. I can't get the same results from my electric stove as chefs can from there 50,000 (or whatever) BTU stove.

3. Chefs for the most part do not use recipes (except for baking, charcuterie, and a few others). They have a MEP list and a list of mental steps in their head. They might start out with a recipe to experiment, but when they start tweaking it, it's all logged inside the brain. When a mag asks for a recipe they have to sit down and actually think about what goes into the dish. Creating a dish in a restaurant is more of a reactionary thing than it is an "ok, heat skillet, add butter and shallots... One chef I know was jotting down notes for a dish to appear in a local mag and he was frustrated because he couldn't recall all the steps. He just reached here and there because he knew what he needed was here or there. He actually had to make the dish to finish documenting it.

4. Testing usually doesn't compare the 'lab' result with the restaurant result. Testing just wants to know if it tastes good, not if it matches to the original creation.

Hmm, I guess these are also the reasons why a cookbook recipe won't turn out as well as the restaurant.

[Laurie Woolever]

Just curious - any non-professional cooks/chefs cook from Art Culinaire? (Full disclosure - I have been exec editor since November)

[CaliPoutine]

Just curious - any non-professional cooks/chefs cook from Art Culinaire?  (Full disclosure - I have been exec editor since November)

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Ive never even heard of that magazine.

[Kim D]

There's only one magazine I've experienced that has been consistently consistent in delivering quality recipes, and that's Australian Women's Weekly cookbooks in magazine format.

The last time I was in London, I found the Australian Women's Weekly for Spanish Tapas. What an awesome magazine. I love every recipe I've made so far and I have more recipes that I want to try!

- kim