Cook's Country Eats Local: 150 Regional Recipes You Should Be Making No Matter Where You Live

by America's Test Kitchen (Editor)

150 Regional Recipes You Should Be Making No Matter Where You Live From Maine’s hearty Joe Booker Stew to pineapple-packed Hawaiian Fried Rice, this collection of recipes brings bold local flavors and tried-and-true cooking techniques home—no matter where that may be. Home cooks will discover little-known spe- cialties and revamped classics in each of the four New England and the Mid-Atlantic, Appalachia and the South, The Midwest and Great Plains, Texas and the West. Colorful local history and anecdotes from Cook’s Country’s tasty travels bring the recipes to life, and illustrated maps and a list of test kitchen–approved hot spots show you where you can try the inspiring original dishes today. Step-by-step photography illustrates key techniques, and full-color photos for every recipe showcase the beauty of the collection. From tailgate staples like Southern Football Sandwiches and Wisconsin Grilled Brats and Beer to old-school sweets like Hollywood’s Tick Tock Orange Sticky Rolls and New York’s Bee Sting Cake, Cook’s Country Eats Local puts an array of flavorful, diverse American dishes within reach—no road trip needed.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction, Food

320 pages, Paperback

First published August 11, 2015

About the author

America's Test Kitchen, based in a brand new state-of-the-art 60,000 sq. ft. facility with over 15,000 sq. ft. of test kitchens and studio space, in Boston's Seaport District, is dedicated to finding the very best recipes for home cooks. Over 50 full-time (admittedly obsessive) test cooks spend their days testing recipes 30, 40, up to 100 times, tweaking every variable until they understand how and why recipes work. They also test cookware and supermarket ingredients so viewers can bypass marketing hype and buy the best quality products. As the home of Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country magazines, and publisher of more than one dozen cookbooks each year, America's Test Kitchen has earned the respect of the publishing industry, the culinary world, and millions of home cooks. America's Test Kitchen the television show launched in 2001, and the company added a second television program, Cook's Country, in 2008.

Discover, learn, and expand your cooking repertoire with Julia Collin Davison, Bridget Lancaster, Jack Bishop, Dan Souza, Lisa McManus, Tucker Shaw, Bryan Roof, and our fabulous team of test cooks!

Learn more at https://www.americastestkitchen.com/.

Reviews

[Willow Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

It looks like this book has some good recipes in it, I'm excited to try some out! And I like how each recipe has a little background on it. I also love that they include the restaurants they went to for certain recipes, I definitely want to go to them if I'm ever in any of those areas!

[Debby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a HUGE fan of America's Test Kitchen, Cook's Country and Cook's Illustrated. I own dozens of their cookbooks, subscribe to their magazines and have many DOZENS of their recipes. I always have great luck with any recipe that I make.
I wanted this cookbook, when it first came out. I hesitated buying it because some people gave it mediocre reviews. I think they were ticked off that their own neck of the USA wasn't included. I'm from California and we only got one or two recipes-- and, sure, Santa Maria Tri-Tip would have been one of my choices. However, I was so excited to find a few recipes I've been searching for.
#1 Hermit Cookies. I have searched high and low for a recipe that sounds like the one I used to buy at a mom & pop bakery in my town. I think this is it-- and I'm making these ASAP.
A vast majority of recipes in the book are from New England and the Mid-Atlantic. I get it. The headquarters for this company is in Vermont and Boston, so that makes sense. I see so many recipes I'd love to make: Chicken Spiedies, Philadelphia Cheese Steak, New England Bar Pizza (looks easy), Rhode Island Red Clam Chowder (my fave), Classic Waldorf Salad, Garlic Knots. I'm intrigued enough to try Potato Knishes. The Boston Cream cupcakes look divine.
Appalachia and the South, surprisingly, didn't reel me in quite as much-- and that surprises me, because I love Southern cooking. I bookmarked the baked cheese grits, Cream Cheese Biscuits, and found some of the pies to be intriguing-- Jefferson Davis PIe, Fudgy Tar Heel Pie and Buttermilk Pie.
The Midwest and Great Plains is comfort food capitol-- my weakness. I MUST try the Chicago-Style Italian Beef sandwiches. Aha! The Chicken Vesuvio, I've made, so the recipe is a repeat from previous cookbooks (ATK is known for that). I'd love to try Bierocks. I see another repeat-- I've made the KC Brisket, and it's delicious. Oh, there's another regurgitated recipe-- Swedish Pancakes. I've made, and blogged these, and they are fantastic. I keep threatening to try and make St. Lois Gooey Butter Cake. It sounds fattening and delicious. I just might.
Texas and the West...now we're getting closer to home. Kalua Pork...that sounds famliar. Oh yeah, I made this recipe from the Pressure Cooker book. Good stuff. My butt is starting to feel bigger, as I see Texas Chicken-Fried Steak. Wait a minute. I've made that recipe, too, some time ago. My husband loves it. Carne Adovada...yep, made that very same recipe a few years ago, too. Delicious.
Now, we're getting closer to California. JoJo Potatoes, with a panko crust, baked to perfection. Uh-huh! I bookmarked that one. The Millionaire Pie looks fantastic.
I'm getting smarter, by buying these books gently used on some favorite websites. I paid 1/4 of the publisher's price and my copy is in mint condition. Sweet.
It's a great book, but it's definitely not gluten-free, vegan nor low-cal. I'm sure I'll make a few recipes from here. Hermit bars... they are top on my list!
What I do like about this book, is that there are beautiful photos for every single recipe. I want to see what the recipe is supposed to look like. I liked reading the history of the recipe, too.

[KC · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sadly, not impressed with many of these recipes.

[T · Rating 3 out of 5]

A culinary tour of the US. Great overview of regional flavors and the stories behind them. That being said, many of these recipes aren the healthiest and also look to take a lot of time to make.

[Lesley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I originally checked this cookbook out at library, but I liked it so much I bought it! This has different area of the countries foods they are famous for and on some foods, gives where locally you can go to get it. This cookbook offers two of central new York's famous foods, chicken riggies (and mentions Teddy's in Rome, NY and Giorgio's and chesterfield's in Utica, NY) and gives a Utica greens recipe.

I love a cookbook that shows me what the food looks like and this has great appetizing pictures of the food.
Some of the foods I am especially looking forward to trying:
Pittsburgh Wedding soup
Carolina Chicken bog
Southern Fried Green Tomatoes (love getting those down south, but never made them myself-So yippee now I got a recipe)
Wisconsin Cheddar beer soup
Green Bay Booyah (this looks like something the hubby would like)
Texas Baked Jalapeno poppers
Monterey Chicken
Texas Caviar (its a spicy salad)
Hawaiian Fried rice
Plus more.....
A cookbook I will use!

[Aasinathena · Rating 5 out of 5]

USA's hidden culinary gems,original dish owners,vibrant,American regional special authentic recipes are earthen to the modern day foodies in this book! A result of 10 year effort the ATK, yet again proves they are the "clear" culinary professionals who brings the "real-cooking" to anybody's doorstep! One can read American history through food in this fabulous book! I received this book as a free gift with another purchase and I absolutely felt so lucky to own this copy and I will make every recipe of this.

Plus this book provides regional maps with information about where to hit and eat locally crowned dishes from Maine to California to Minnesota to Texas. And to have them and to eat no matter where you live.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun way to travel around the country from the comfort of your kitchen, you'll be looking to see if your favorite local dishes are represented. Mine weren't but lots of interesting recipes and taste treats. Plus since it's Cook's Country you get fun facts to know and tell along with the answers to cooking questions you never thought to ask.

So research or just dive in and cook.

[Kristal · Rating 3 out of 5]

A ton of good recipes for things I've only ever read of. One major disappointment came from the Southern section of the book. Being from Florida, I was bummed that there weren't any real Floridan recipes. There are plenty of Southern recipes but none that scream Florida. I would think they would have at least included key lime pie.

[Heydi Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a beautiful creation as is everything that Cook's does.

Sadly I didn't find many recipes that I could successfully switch out ingredients for less sodium filled ones to get any semblance of the original.

I'm sure the full sodium recipes are wonderful.

[Marisa]

This is neat! Had a lot of familiar recipes and a ton of new ones I'd like to try someday. I may just have to buy this one.

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting

[Clinton Senior · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yummy, yummy, YUMMY!! Great food wonderful reviews of food and restaurants. Many of us actually read the cookbook cover to cover rather than skip over recipes we didn't care for. The recipes we enjoyed during this cookbook club meeting were the potato biscuits with chives, Southern-style green beans, Carolina red slaw, Jefferson Davis pie, peanut butter pie, Waldorf salad, and hoppel poppel. There was one some what miss was the Boston cream cupcakes.

[Theresa Jehlik · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Cook's Country crew has brought their expertise into creating easy-to-use recipes for American regional specialties. They include a brief history on each dish, talk about their tweaks, and photograph the final product. I was familiar with many of the recipes but found a few that I hadn't heard of or seen before. As always, they provide accessible recipes with easy-to-find (or acceptable alternative) ingredients.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little disappointing that it had some basic recipes in there instead of really interesting and unique recipes. No hotdish for Minnesota, nothing for Delaware - don't think these cooks have visited these regions to research into these recipes.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would be 4, but Iowa and KY were wayyyy off, so I became dubious!

[TISHA · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading the recipes, I have decided that I NEED this book. I found so many recipes that I would love to try. Everything sounds so delicious and affordable.

[Jean MacLeod · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good library find. The only drawback is the print: so small, and faint.

[Lori]

Potato Biscuits with Chives pg 49, Moravian Sugar Cake pg 155

[Alissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wish their regional decision-making was explained like their reasons for modifying regional dishes for home-cooking, which was very good.

[Anne]

This book is great as a prep for a road trip or for reminiscing afterwards. Be prepared in the event you see "chicken bog," "steamed cheeseburgers," "goetta," "booyah," or "sweet potato sonker" on a menu. There's a color photo of every recipe and page 122 is making my mouth water!