Blog Posts by America s Test Kitchen

Welcome to Cooking 101, a fun, weekly series of cooking lessons and hands-on learning from America's Test Kitchen Cooking School. Who are we? Our knowledge and techniques are based on 20 years of test kitchen work creating foolproof recipes for Cook's Illustrated magazine and for our television shows. We believe that everybody, whether novice or advanced, can gain the skills and confidence to become a better cook.

ARE YOU READY FOR THE HOLIDAYS? In our FREE "Successful Holiday Cooking" course, we lead you through all the tough holiday-cooking topics, like building a cooking timeline, an equipment checklist to prepare one's kitchen, and what essential ingredients to stock up in your pantry.

Roasting potatoes is a great way to understand the immediate advantages of oven-roasting. It is a mostly hands-off cooking method (allowing you to prepare the other components of dinner) that turns potatoes

Welcome to Cooking 101, a fun, weekly series of cooking lessons and hands-on learning from America's Test Kitchen Cooking School. Who are we? Our knowledge and techniques are based on 20 years of test kitchen work creating foolproof recipes for Cook's Illustrated magazine and for our television shows. We believe that everybody, whether novice or advanced, can gain the skills and confidence to become a better cook.

ARE YOU READY FOR THE HOLIDAYS? In our FREE "Successful Holiday Cooking" course, we lead you through all the tough holiday-cooking topics, like building a cooking timeline, an equipment checklist to prepare one's kitchen, and what essential ingredients to stock up in your pantry.

A roast chicken recipe can have as few as three ingredients -- chicken, salt, and pepper -- but that doesn't mean it's easy to prepare a good roast chicken. The biggest challenge is getting the white and dark meat to finish

Welcome to Cooking 101, a fun, weekly series of cooking lessons and hands-on learning from America's Test Kitchen Cooking School. Who are we? Our knowledge and techniques are based on 20 years of test kitchen work creating foolproof recipes for Cook's Illustrated magazine and for our television shows. We believe that everybody, whether novice or advanced, can gain the skills and confidence to become a better cook.

ARE YOU READY FOR THE HOLIDAYS? In our FREE "Successful Holiday Cooking" course, we lead you through all the tough holiday-cooking topics, like building a cooking timeline, an equipment checklist to prepare one's kitchen, and what essential ingredients to stock up in your pantry.

From omelets to scrambled to frittatas, we love eggs in the Test Kitchen. However, it pays to be a savvy shopper when purchasing ingredients from the supermarket. Here are the 5 things you should look out for when

Welcome to Cooking 101, a fun, weekly series of cooking lessons and hands-on learning from America's Test Kitchen Cooking School. Who are we? Our knowledge and techniques are based on 20 years of test kitchen work creating foolproof recipes for Cook's Illustrated magazine and for our television shows. We believe that everybody, whether novice or advanced, can gain the skills and confidence to become a better cook.

ARE YOU READY FOR THANKSGIVING? In our FREE "Successful Holiday Cooking" course, we lead you through all the tough Thanksgiving topics, like building a cooking timeline, an equipment checklist to prepare one's kitchen, and what essential ingredients to stock up in your pantry.

Although it may not look like it, pumpkin pie is actually a custard pie. A prebaked pie shell is filled and then baked just long enough for the sweet, egg-enriched filling to set. We wanted to create a pumpkin pie

Welcome to Cooking 101, a fun, weekly series of cooking lessons and hands-on learning from America's Test Kitchen Cooking School. Who are we? Our knowledge and techniques are based on 20 years of test kitchen work creating foolproof recipes for Cook's Illustrated magazine and for our television shows. We believe that everybody, whether novice or advanced, can gain the skills and confidence to become a better cook.

ARE YOU READY FOR THANKSGIVING? In our FREE "Successful Holiday Cooking" course, we lead you through all the tough Thanksgiving topics, like building a cooking timeline, an equipment checklist to prepare one's kitchen, and what essential ingredients to stock up in your pantry.

A successful holiday meal begins with a well-planned menu. In fact, most holiday dinners go awry because of poor planning. So, for now, don't think about the recipes you want to serve. Start off by

Welcome to Cooking 101, a fun, weekly series of cooking lessons and hands-on learning from America's Test Kitchen Cooking School. Who are we? Our knowledge and techniques are based on 20 years of test kitchen work creating foolproof recipes for Cook's Illustrated magazine and for our television shows. We believe that everybody, whether novice or advanced, can gain the skills and confidence to become a better cook.

Some ingredients -- like cooking oil -- get used so often in recipes that it is worth explaining our test kitchen's approach to their purchase and use.

In the test kitchen, we use different cooking oils to suit the flavor and cooking temperature requirements of the recipe at hand. With the exception of toasted sesame oil, which belongs in the refrigerator, keep all cooking oils in a cool, dark pantry to prevent rancidity. Here are the 5 oils that should be every pantry.

RELATED: How can you

Welcome to Cooking 101, a fun, weekly series of cooking lessons and hands-on learning from America's Test Kitchen Cooking School. Who are we? Our knowledge and techniques are based on 20 years of test kitchen work creating foolproof recipes for Cook's Illustrated magazine and for our television shows. We believe that everybody, whether novice or advanced, can gain the skills and confidence to become a better cook.

Simply put, good kitchen sanitation practices, such as washing your hands frequently and keeping raw foods and cooked foods separate, will dramatically reduce the risk of food-borne illnesses.

RELATED: Most bacteria thrive between 40 and 140 degrees, multiplying to harmful levels. Learn how to avoid this "danger zone" in your kitchen.

Like meat, produce can also harbor harmful bacteria. Here are some Test Kitchen tips for cleaning produce.

Apples and Other Produce with Smooth Skins

A spray

Welcome to Cooking 101, a fun, weekly series of cooking lessons and hands-on learning from America's Test Kitchen Cooking School. Who are we? Our knowledge and techniques are based on 20 years of test kitchen work creating foolproof recipes for Cook's Illustrated magazine and for our television shows. We believe that everybody, whether novice or advanced, can gain the skills and confidence to become a better cook.

Who would ever want to eat an overdone or undercooked steak? The secret to perfectly cooked meat is an instant-read thermometer. Whether cooking a burger or roasting a beef tenderloin, you want to always take the temperature of the area of the meat that will be the last to finish cooking, which is the thickest part or, in some cases, the center. Bones conduct heat, so if the meat you are cooking contains bone, make sure that the thermometer is not hitting it. For