30 Years of Revolutionizing Home Cooking
We explore the science behind what makes a recipe tick. We ask questions, conduct experiments, and get answers—delicious answers that you won't find anywhere else.
Join Us in the Lab
Good science makes great food
We believe that a little science goes a long way to helping you understand what's going on in your food and in your kitchen. You'll learn why a technique works or how an ingredient creates an important effect.Transformative Tips
Can Baking Soda Remove Pesticides from Produce?
A study found that soaking produce in baking soda solution can remove common pesticides. We conducted our own experiment to see how it compares to other common methods.
Can You Cook a Frozen Steak?
Conventional wisdom holds that frozen steaks should be thawed before cooking. Our testing proved otherwise. Learn why forgetting to defrost steak ahead of time isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Why Very Hot and Very Cold Foods Need More Salt
Serving temperature of food dramatically affects how seasoned it tastes. The more extreme the temperature—whether piping hot or very chilled—the more salt you need. We ran an experiment to prove it.
Temper Chocolate with a Microwave and a Box Grater
Forget the fussy heat-cool-reheat method. With just a microwave and a box grater you can create shiny, snappy chocolate for drizzling, dipping, or coating in no time.Groundbreaking Recipes
Ultimate Charcoal-Grilled Steaks
The secret to delivering a charcoal-grilled steak with a killer crust and perfectly cooked meat from edge to edge? Keep the coals in the chimney and think outside the grill.
Caramelized Onions
The sweetest, most complex caramelized onions usually take an hour of careful cooking over a low flame. We cut that time in half with an ingredient we least expected: water.
Perfect Scrambled Eggs
The classic low-heat approach will never give you tender scrambled eggs with big, pillowy curds. But achieving scrambled egg perfection takes more than just turning up the heat.
The Best Baked Potato
We wanted a uniformly fluffy interior encased in thin, crisp skin—and we baked nearly 200 pounds of potatoes to get it. The key to our success? An instant-read thermometer.Our Signature Process
We put every recipe through the same rigorous process, testing and retesting every variable and then taking what we've learned to create a dish that's the very best in its class.
1. The Five-Recipe Test
First we seek out five existing recipes. We taste and assess them, noting qualities we like and any we don’t.
2. Our First Draft
Next, we define goals for our version, and sketch out the most promising way to reach them.
3. Test, Taste, Repeat
Over at least six weeks, we test and retest every recipe variable, learning from our mistakes so we can pass on that information to you.
4. Final, Failproof Results
At last—a recipe that works perfectly in our kitchen and has been tested and approved by thousands of home testers.
Our Innovative Content Is Everywhere You Are
Access 30 Years of Our Award-Winning Magazine
Our foolproof recipes, explorations into food science, and thoroughly researched stories set new standards for what a cooking magazine can be.Game-Changers
Weeknight Roast Chicken
Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies
Grilled Boneless Beef Short Ribs
Skillet-Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Chile, Peanuts, and Mint
New York–Style Thin-Crust Pizza
Dakganjeong (Korean Fried Chicken Wings)
Braised Asparagus with Lemon and Chives
Easy-Peel Hard-Boiled Eggs
Spaghetti All'Assassina
Murgh Makhani (Indian Butter Chicken)
Salt-Cured Egg Yolks
Easiest-Ever Biscuits
What's Eating Dan?
Cook’s Illustrated Editor in Chief Dan Souza goes deep on his favorite ingredients and dishes in this smart, fun series dedicated to understanding the science of good cooking.Techniquely with Lan Lam
Veteran restaurant cook and chemistry major, Cook’s Illustrated Senior Editor Lan Lam delves into some of our most surprising—and even counterintuitive—techniques, including cold-searing steak and overcooking vegetables.
Why You Should Trust Our Recipes
We’re the flagship brand behind America’s Test Kitchen's rigorous and scientific recipe development process. We make recipes that work—no hit or miss, no drama. Our recipes have been prodded, tweaked, and perfected until they're failproof in any kitchen.
Meet the Team
Dan Souza
Dan is the editor in chief of Cook's Illustrated, a cast member of America's Test Kitchen, and host of the James Beard Award-nominated YouTube series What's Eating Dan?
Amanda Agee
Amanda is editorial director of Cook’s Illustrated. She started her career in food journalism at Gourmet Magazine. She loves dinner for breakfast and dirty martinis.
Rebecca Hays
Becky is deputy editor of Cook's Illustrated and a cast member of America's Test Kitchen. She's a Natural Gourmet Institute grad who takes a mostly vegetarian approach to food.
Keith Dresser
Keith is the executive food editor of Cook's Illustrated and a cast member of America's Test Kitchen. He cooked professionally in New England before joining ATK in 2002.
Elizabeth Bomze
Liz is managing editor of Cook's Illustrated. She's picky about lemons and syntax and consumes chewy noodles with abandon.
Andrea Geary
Andrea is deputy food editor of Cook's Illustrated. She's a breakfast enthusiast and kitchen scale evangelist.
Lan Lam
Lan is a senior editor of Cook's Illustrated, a cast member of America's Test Kitchen, and host of the James Beard Award-nominated YouTube series Techniquely with Lan Lam.
Annie Petito
Annie is a senior editor of Cook's Illustrated. She's a culinary school grad and a lover of all things snack related.
Steve Dunn
Steve is a senior editor of Cook's Illustrated. He's a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu in Paris where he lived for two years.
Alyssa Vaughn
Alyssa is senior content editor of Cook's Illustrated. She's a journalist with a penchant for semicolons and cookie dough.
Erica Turner
Erica is an associate editor of Cook's Illustrated. She attended culinary school in Gaziantep, Turkey.
Eric Haessler
Eric is the lead photo test cook for Cook's Illustrated and an instructor for ATK's Online Cooking School.
Paul Adams
Paul was a cook, science reporter, bartender, and bike courier before he combined it all as ATK's senior science research editor.“Recipes that always, always work”
- The New York Times