Cooking for Two: 2009,The Year's Best Recipes Cut Down to Size

by America's Test Kitchen (editor)

Frustrated by wasting food you just can't eat or ingredients you can't use up? Tired of trying to figure out how to scale down a recipe so it doesn't serve an army?

For this innovative cookbook, the editors and cooks at America's Test Kitchen thought big but cooked small. We revamped our best recipes from the year to serve two. You'll find everything from simple weeknight fare to special occasion dinners to salads, soups, sides and desserts. Birthday cake for two? We've got you covered!

A great gift for empty nesters, newlyweds, single people, young families (because new moms & dads are sick of eating mac-n-cheese) and more. Cooking for Two includes our guaranteed and much-loved equipment recommendations, Notes from the Test Kitchen feature, and ingredient ratings. The Smart Shopper's Guide in the front of the book instructs your grocery shopping and meal planning by helping you make the most of ingredients.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction, Food, Reference, Culinary

302 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2009

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

[Jennifer]

This cookbook appears to be exactly what I have been looking for: recipes that go further than simple ingredient lists, to teach me the science and experimentation behind making a good dish. My learning style: I need to fully understand why I am following instructions in order to commit to memory and learn how to perfect a method.

America's Test Kitchen learns themselves why one technique is better than another and shares that trial and error with you. I think this will save me from a few of my own kitchen follies. This cookbook lacks the cute antidotes that are becoming popular in today's blogs. While I enjoy my cooking blogs, this scientific style is the breath of fresh air I was needing to improve my cooking level.

I found this cookbook at the public library and will likely purchase it to add to my personal library for reference.

[Steven Peterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is focused on an interesting concept: A lot of recipes are for 4 or more people. What about those two person households? One cannot always just halve ingredients to produce a 2 person rather than a 4 person recipe. This book hopes to address that issue. With my son likely to leave in the near future (he'll graduate from college soon), creating his own life path, it will be basically 2 person dishes for me to prepare in the future, so this book has some value for me.

And, in my view, it does a good job. A nice touch is the description by the authors (from America's Test Kitchen) of how they go about experimenting, sometimes trying several different approaches to get just the right taste.

The very first recipe is nice: "Pan-Roasted Chicken and Vegetables." Potatoes, carrots, and shallots with bone in chicken breasts and herbs such as thyme, red pepper flakes, a garlic clove. Add a bit of lemon juice. Pretty straightforward instructions. Another skillet meal is easy and delicious--"Stir-Fried Beef with Snap Peas and Red Pepper."

I find that poaching is a useful technique for keeping dishes moist. On page 31 is a nice recipe for "Poached Salmon with Herb and Caper Vinaigrette." I have my own recipe for poaching salmon, but this looks even better, so I look forward to trying it out. There are also pasta recipes and grill recipes and side dishes and desserts.

All in all, a good cookbook with an irresistible premise for me at this point in my life, as I am about to be cooking for two.

[May]

Honestly just bought this because they were throwing in the 2011 edition for free...some of the recipes do look very promising though. I particularly enjoyed the "one big roast, four great meals" section (looking forward to trying the roast beef!). I also liked that in the front of the book, there was a list of commonly used ingredients and the amounts used (ex. half a bell pepper) so that you could meal plan around using the entire ingredient instead of stuffing part of it back in your fridge and finding an unrecognizable lump several months later...unfortunately happens way too often in my case. I'll add a star rating once I've actually cooked something out of it. I have made some ATK baked goods before and they have all been successful, but I still want to try the book out before I pass a final judgment.

[C · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the Test Kitchen folks, and I found a few ideas in here that were mentally filed for future reference, but overall, it wasn't one that worked for me. I just didn't really feel the need to trim down what I'm cooking to two portions. I'm of the variety of folks who like to cook a cassarole and eat it all week. Boring, I know...

The good news... in some cases here, I recall a series of recipes...make the roast chicken for tuesday, then a chicken dish from the roast chicken for wednesday, etc.

For me, this was worth a flip through and ideas were harvested, but I'm happier in general with just flipping through, vs. actually using the book.

[Robyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I often have trouble scaling down recipes when I don't want to have left overs - this book has perfectly portioned recipes for two people and they are amazingly easy to make yet totally delicious I like that America's Test Kitchen puts a lot of effort into determining the exact best way to make something and then gives you reasons for everything that they've chosen to do (and tell you what didn't work). I've made two recipes from this and my husband is still asking for more!

[Shelly]

I like this series of books & many of the recipes actually serve 4 if you don't want huge portions of food. Mostly, i like that there are tiny desserts because as a small household and a diabetic I can't afford to have big full size desserts around the house--I would eat them. Sometimes the recipes are a little bland but, all you have to do to fix it is up the spices a little bit (the bones are there). I'm working on getting them all. I lost one of them too and it annoys me.

[Robin · Rating 1 out of 5]

This cookbook was literally useless. Hardly any pictures, lots of useless and extra writing before getting to the recipes. Worst of all, the recipes were more along the lines of "company" type, gourmet dishes really not suited to simplified daily cooking. Thank goodness I got it from the library!

[Nora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything I've tried out of here is 5 star delicious especially because it showcased excellent technique. The Test Kitchen crew can be a bit meticulous and exacting, but believe me it is well worth it. I bought this cookbook and I would love to buy the other years as well.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't reviewed my cookbook reading in the past, but I've decided to start. This is a great one, they have shopping list tips with recipes that use the same ingredients together, there are product and tool recommendations throughout and the recipes are food you'd want to make and eat.

[Kimberly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly, I'm not overly impressed. There's the occasional something special, but I felt like half the recipes were so easy or basic that they were laughable, and the other half were very complicated. A bit disappointed by this one.

[Angela Parks · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the America Test Kitchen cookbooks. Definitely would recommend. This one is great because it is recipes cut down to size!

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable, would recommend for those living by themselves.

[Carla · Rating 3 out of 5]

I admire the whole Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen gang, their recipes turn out well, but both the books and the mag are so wordy. I theorize it's a New England thing.

[Laura Chang · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would like to use this book more often, but it needs more pictures.

[Jayne · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was ok - I like to have pics accompany the recipes

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorites of the Cooking for Two books. Most recipes are a very hearty two servings. With care it should be possible to get three servings.

[Charlene Connors · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love to cook and I love America's Test Kitchen books.
Lots of great recipies for every level of home cook.

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's very helpful to have the recipes scaled down.

[Leslie Jem · Rating 4 out of 5]

I especially appreciated the "how to use up this particular ingredient" recipe(s) that were included with a featured dish.

[Cheryl Hendricks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good recipes and reviews of cooking utensils. I noted that the best blender was made by Kitchen Aide and best ketchup is Hunt's organic. I like this tv show so I knew I would like the book.

[Cleokatra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Looks good. I haven't tried many I'd the recipes, because I lose motivation to cook in the summer. I'll get back to it when the weather cools down.

[LMTZ]

Pass

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many great recipes that I should actually make.

[Marylu Sanok · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got some gook recipies

[Carla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would have rated it with five stars if calories per serving were included with each recipe.

[Anne Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good information. Can't wait to try a few of these recipes.