-I'm not sure that I was even on the show for the first few years.

-You were there.

-I was there?

-You were there, too.

-I'll take your word for it.

[ Laughs ] -Today on "America's Test Kitchen," we're celebrating 25 years on television.

Bridget and I are cooking some of our all-time favorite recipes for the rest of the cast.

-We'll reminisce about the early days of the show.

-And we'll take you behind the scenes to learn more about the recipes, product testing, and food science.

That's all coming up right here on this special hour, "America's Test Kitchen" Celebrates 25 Years.

-"America's Test Kitchen" is brought to you by the following... -Smithey Ironware Company crafts cast-iron and carbon steel cookware with smooth interior surfaces that are naturally nonstick for easy cleaning.

Smithey -- crafted to last a lifetime.

-Ghirardelli is a proud sponsor of "America's Test Kitchen."

Ghirardelli makes life a bite better.

♪♪ -So the origin story for the television show actually starts with "Cook's Illustrated" magazine.

And the mission of the magazine was the same as the television show, which was to empower home cooking.

And we thought, okay, let's translate this for television.

-I was an assistant test cook, and I had the glamorous job of doing all the grocery shopping and all of the dishes, and I took over those two tasks from Bridget, who had been doing them before me.

-I was originally developing recipes, which I still love to do.

The equipment testing thing came up because we had a freelancer testing vertical poultry roasters, and some family emergency occurred or something, and I happened to be the one standing next to the editor when she took the call that this freelancer wouldn't be able to finish the piece.

She looked at me, goes, "You're writing about vertical roasters as of right now," and that was my first testing piece.

And then, that seemed to snowball into this.

So when we launched the show, it was basically you're on the show, you're on the show, and you're on the show.

And luckily, you know, some of those people, like Bridget and Julia, were kind of amazing from the get-go.

-And I remember the first day I was so excited.

I got up early, and I remember I was ordering a coffee before I got to work at a local coffee shop, and the guy behind the counter told me to calm down.

[ Both laugh ] We looked so scared on television.

You know, I mean, speaking for myself.

-When we started the show, nobody really had any television experience.

I was basically a deer in a headlight, as was pretty much everybody else on the show.

I think once we realized that we should lean into that authenticity, that we weren't super slick, that we were first and foremost cooking experts, not TV performers, that it kind of created a gestalt for the show that was really different than what was out there.

Where the diced tomatoes and juice were much better than the sauces we made that had puree in the tomatoes.

When Julia and I became the hosts of the show, we really had an advantage because we had been in the test cooks' shoes for years, so we had a lot of patience.

But the best part of hosting is it meant that we actually got to cook together for the first time.

-Yeah.

-It's a lot of fun.

-Let me help you.

-Yes.

-If I can do this.

This is a fancy ladle.

-Nope, nope.

-Nope.

This is a two-handed?

-See you ladle.

-[ Laughs ] -I have known Julia almost as long as I've known my husband.

-I've known you longer than my husband.

-There you go.

See, this is the worst part.

It's when the goo just starts to -- -Disappear?

[ Laughs ] -[ Laughs ] -Well, I think what makes it easy is we're good friends.

-Mm.

Mm!

Yum!

-[ Laughs ] I'm just hanging out with my friend.

We're cooking, which is fun.

-Yeah.

-And then we get to eat.

-I do forget we're doing a show sometimes.

-Yeah.

Same.

-[ Laughs ] -As we started to evolve and the show became more and more successful, you know, we wanted to bring in new folks on camera.

-My first recipe was shrimp scampi.

-Today, Elle is going to show us a better way to make this classic dish.

-Yes, we've made 50 pounds of shrimp.

-You cooked 50 pounds of shrimp to get this recipe right?

-Yes.

Until we got it right.

-Are you crazy?

-A little.

I remember my first day on set at "America's Test Kitchen."

I don't know that I have ever been as nervous doing anything as I was that day.

-My first TV appearance, I can remember, like, I was afraid to move.

[ Laughs ] And I was in a position where, like, my foot was shaking that I was so nervous.

-But I did picture myself being a TV star because, when I was very young, with my twin sister, I would pretend to be Julia Child, and we would have little cooking shows for my mom and dad.

Yeah, I did have that in the back of my head, as, you know, a hope and a wish and a dream.

And I can't believe it actually came true.

-Wow.

-I'm actually going to tear up.

-Oh, my gosh.

-There is, like, this small segment where I had to, like, show people how to cut a carrot, and it was just me, a cutting board, a knife, and a carrot.

And I just -- I was out of my mind, like, thinking there's, like, millions of people that are going to be watching me cut the carrot and, like, I just -- people -- the camera guys had put their cameras down.

We had to take break.

I was just laughing.

It was like -- it was crazy.

It was funny.

I finally got through it, I think, but... -The first episode was so much fun.

I could still feel the energy from that day, and I just felt great to know that there were people on the other side of that camera lens that were like me as a little girl, who would be excited to watch cooks prepare food and get inspired by that, as I did as a child.

-I was on a competition show called "America's Test Kitchen: The Next Generation."

We did multiple challenges, did a lot of crazy things, fun things.

But at the end of the day, one person won, and that was me.

I got to join the cast.

Now, traditionally, burnt ends are made with brisket.

-Yeah.

-But for this recipe, we're going to use chuck roast.

-I think one of the most important things about the evolution of "America's Test Kitchen" as a show is really that the diversity of our cast actually is represented in the company.

We have people from all walks of life cooking food on "America's Test Kitchen" right now, and it really shows.

-The cast today, oh, it's a good group, a younger group, and I like that everyone has a different perspective.

You know, when you think about American home cooking, that doesn't mean one thing.

That means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

And the new test cooks on the show all come from very different places and bring that with them.

And that is America, that is more representative of our audience.

And that is what's really cool is, as our cast gets bigger, we look and feel and talk more like America and have more experiences to draw on.

♪♪ -We've got a lot of treats in store for you.

Julia and I are doing all the cooking today.

-Mm-hmm.

-We've got several great recipes to show you.

-Fan favorites.

-Some of them are our favorites, too.

-Mm-hmm.

-And it just wouldn't be the same without some of our colleagues here.

Of course, you got Lisa, Dan, and Lan.

-I'm a little nervous now.

I hope I am up to snuff.

-Well, we're excited.

-Well, and today, it's pasta and sauce.

And, Dan, this is actually your recipe for pasta without a machine.

So we're going to roll it out by hand.

-So now I'm a little bit nervous.

-I know.

What if it doesn't work?

-We're both on the spot.

Okay.

All right.

-And with that, we're just going to make the sauce.

-Yeah, I'm going to make a beautiful meaty tomato sauce.

This was developed by Jack Bishop... -Mm-hmm.

-...all the way back in 2000.

-Yeah.

-For "Cook's Illustrated" magazine.

It's actually a recipe that I still make to this day.

It's on regular rotation.

I've got some pork butt here.

This is 1 1/2 pounds of, you know, just one of the best cuts of meat ever.

I think, by this point in my life, I'm 75% pork butt.

This is just a pound and a half.

It's just got so much great fat marbling, intramuscular fat.

So it really is for those low and slow applications.

And I'm just going to do a little bit of trimming here.

All right.

Now I am going to cut these into about 1 1/2-inch pieces.

Nice big size.

-This is smoking.

-Thank you.

-Mm-hmm.

-I did season the meat just with 1/2 a teaspoon of table salt, 1/2 a teaspoon of black pepper.

And then, this just gets nice and browned all over.

It's going to take about 5 minutes, but I'm going to go wash my hands.

-All right, I'm going to get started on the pasta.

-All right.

I feel like explaining this pasta to you, Dan, is making me a little nervous.

-No, I have I have such a bad memory.

And this was like -- had to be a decade ago that I did this, so... What we needed was to kind of reengineer the dough.

We needed a dough that you could easily roll out, anyone could do time and time again.

-So you developed this recipe to work with our all-purpose flour.

And you want 10 ounces of flour, which is about 2 cups.

All right.

So I'm gonna put that on the food processor.

Now a little bit of oil helps make a soft dough.

2 tablespoons.

Now, this is the key, the eggs.

Most recipes use whole eggs.

But with this flour, you found that you need more liquid to make the dough rollable.

But that liquid had to have some structure so that it didn't fall apart in the water.

So what you found were egg yolks because the yolks, they add moisture, but they also have a lot of protein, so it helps the dough hold together.

All right, I'm gonna let this go.

I'm gonna let it rip for about 45 seconds.

[ Exhales deeply ] -Nice.

-Yeah.

-That little moment when the dough starts to come together.

-Oh, it's such a good moment.

All right.

Now I'm going to dump this out on the counter.

I'm going to knead it for a couple of minutes, 1 or 2 minutes.

-We were talking about Jack's recipes earlier, and I was saying that, when I was doing this recipe, you know, Jack has like the classic traditional Italian approach.

And he was like, "So what are you doing with your dough?"

And I was like, "Well, there's like, you know, probably about 6 or 7 yolks.

And there's" -- And he was like, "Wait, wait, what?"

He's like, "It's 2 cups of flour and 3 eggs."

Like, just couldn't fathom that I was, like, breaking that formula.

I definitely -- I definitely piqued his interest by breaking that rule.

-All right.

I'm just going to knead it for a minute or two until it's nice and smooth.

-I'm going to pour off the oil.

About a teaspoon goes back in.

And now I'm going to add one onion, finely chopped.

I did add a little bit of salt here to help the onions give off some of their liquid.

-Mm-hmm.

-And I'm just going to cook this until it is nice and soft.

It's only a couple of minutes.

All right.

So while the onions are cooking, I'm going to work on my favorite ingredient, which is nice dry red wine.

I like using a Pinot Noir for something like this, but this is where you really can customize it to your favorite wine.

We're going to deglaze the pan with the red wine.

Gorgeous.

And then, I mean, this is -- this is 101, right?

This is fond, scraping up the browned bits.

How many times do you guys think you've said brown bits over the years?

[ Laughter ] So we're going to let this simmer.

Just a couple of minutes until it's reduced by about half.

-Oh.

All right.

So we're going to let this rest at least an hour, up to four hours.

The longer it rests, the easier it is to roll out.

Here we go.

Set that aside.

-All right.

So that's looking pretty good.

-It smells so good.

-Smells -- -Pretty glazy here.

We're near the end of the assembly of the sauce.

This is a can of whole tomatoes packed in juice, 28-ounce can.

We've drained the tomatoes then chopped them fine.

Then added the juice right back in there.

I've got our pork going back in there.

I'm going to carefully stir this.

Lid goes on.

Heat goes down to low.

We're going to let this take over.

The pork gets really nice and succulent and juicy and tender.

That takes about an hour and a half to two hours.

We also have a version that uses beef boneless short ribs.

-Mm!

-They take a little bit longer, but all of that information is on our web site.

-All right.

♪♪ Cooking is edible science.

I mean, let's just start there.

-Science is happening in your food whether you want to observe it, pay attention to it, or completely ignore it.

It's there.

-There's not a lot of shows that speak to the science, to the hard, cold facts, and I love that that's what our show focuses on.

In the very beginning years of the show, the very first few seasons, "Doc" Willoughby is what we called him, Doc did the science.

He would just play with the things and make it fun and make it tangible so that, again, you could relate to the scientific concepts.

-Cornstarch is more effective in terms of making a more solid gel.

-And so he got us really started on how to make it approachable, how to make it interesting.

-But when you cut into a garlic clove, they release this very strong sulfur odor.

Garlic breath.

-It's entertaining to know why things work the way they do.

And that's why I love Dan's segments.

-The science demos that I do on the show are a highlight for me in the entire year.

Today I'm elbow deep in a very cold experiment.

But it kind of acts like it in some way where, like, a little sugar helps the medicine go down.

And I think a little humor and lightheartedness can get some of these harder science concepts to just stick a little bit more.

-So Dan came up to me and said, can you make a holographic chocolate bar and can it say "America's Test Kitchen" on it?

And I said, "Uh, sure."

-Chocolate is a really fascinating substance in the kitchen.

If you get the crystal structure right, it can pick up basically whatever it's touching.

And so I thought it was a cool way to talk about tempering and kind of teach that.

-So something as outrageous as making holographic chocolate isn't going to be useful for most people day to day, but they will remember that, if you melt and cool that chocolate properly, it's going to be snappy, and that's what I want.

-So one of my early demos was I wanted to show people that, like, how you use your whisk actually matters.

Go.

And the concept we came up with was a competition.

So to have 4 or 5 people out there whipping cream using, you know, a figure eight method or a looping method.

So we were asking folks to stay a little bit late.

And Joe was super down to stay late, but with one condition.

-I said, "I'll do it if I win."

-Whisks down, turn your bowls over.

The clear winner -- the side to side like Joe.

-That whisking competition was my sliding door, and I think I really just embraced it.

I'm like, I'm gonna go all in on this.

-It's really hard to forget Joe Gitter running on a tub of a cornstarch slurry mixture.

Go, Joe.

Joe is running on top of a mixture of cornstarch and water.

-I've been through a lot for the sake of science, and it's absolutely worth it.

Any way we can show what we do to the home cook, so much the better.

-Stop, Joe.

-In the name of science, I will drown in a vat of cornstarch.

[ Chuckles ] -Soaking the pretzels in a lye solution before baking is crucial if you want them to have a shiny brown exterior, we go into just a totally different field of vision.

It's an animation of what's actually happening on a cellular level.

One of the more fun animations that was really hard to nail down was how we taste.

And so it was, how do you show a tongue?

How do you show the flavors that a tongue understands?

And how do the signals get to the brain and how does the brain interpret that?

-Can we zoom in on frame six on the crystals?

-Mm-hmm.

-The amount of time and energy we put into those animations is something.

They take hours to put together.

From start to finish, from concept, all the way to the final animation, I'd say easily 20, 30 hours per each animation.

Who else is going to take the time to break down why a recipe works or doesn't work, or why this step in a recipe is really interesting.

-Without science, the Test Kitchen sort of falls apart in some way, and it's kind of the backbone that runs through everything.

And what our hope is really that, you know, talking about science isn't to turn people off.

It's really to pull people in and say, like, "This is the thing that's happening here.

If you know a little bit more about it, I think you're going to be a better cook."

♪♪ -The sauce is done.

Look at this, guys.

-Oh!

Oh, that smells good.

-Oh, I can smell it.

-Gorgeous.

All right.

Just going to keep a lid on that.

I took the meat out because we do want to shred it, but not right now.

We're going to wait for it to cool down a little bit, which I'm glad because you've got an art project here.

-Yeah.

We're going to roll out some pasta.

So here's some dough that's been nicely rested.

There's two stages to the making of this pasta.

First, I'm going to cut this into 6 pieces.

That looks pretty good.

Have to be pretty even.

We're only going to do two at a time.

Those are for us.

We'll save these for later.

And now you're gonna help me roll it out.

-Okay.

-A little bit of bench flour, and you're going to take this dough, and you're just going to press it into, like, a 3-inch square.

All right, choose your weapon.

-Give me that.

My favorite.

Love the taper.

-That's your favorite?

-Yeah.

-Love tapered rolling pins.

-Yeah.

This one is a little bulky on me.

-I don't mind that though.

-Yeah.

That's a good weapon.

-Yeah.

-All right.

So now we're going to roll it out into a 6-inch square.

-Okay.

-And eventually we're going to roll it out into a long rectangle that's 6 inches wide.

So keep that in mind.

-Okay.

-We're going to make a fun shape called garganelli.

So it's a rolled pasta with a hole in the center and some ridges that catches the sauce.

So, for that, we're going to make it a little thicker.

We're going to go 15 inches long by 6 inches wide.

-All right.

-So that's -- -Ah, so you guys, you're making a shape for us.

That's way more work.

-It's so much fun, though.

-I think it means they like us.

-Let's not go crazy.

[ Laughter ] Gonna measure with my ruler.

6 inches, looking good.

Do you have a ruler in your kitchen?

-100%.

-Same, you guys?

Rulers in the kitchen?

-I got one for pastry.

-Yeah.

-I bust it out for that.

-Definitely, definitely.

-You're shaking your head no.

Oh.

You rebel.

-I mean... She can measure.

Like, how long is that right now?

-Yeah.

-Down, down.

-Wait...13.

-Check it.

Wrong.

Wow.

It is on the dot.

-On the money.

-Yeah.

-Boy, you're an eagle eye.

Well, that's why you don't need a ruler.

-That looks great.

-Thank you.

All right, so we're going to cut this into squares to start, the squares are going to be about inch and a half thereabouts.

All right.

So let me show you guys how to make the garganelli while you finish cutting those squares, Bridget.

So here I'm going to take a square of pasta and turn it so it looks like a diagonal.

And here's a little dowel.

And a paddle that has these ridges.

And we're going to roll it around the dowel.

You're going to press firmly.

You're going to roll it up into a garganelli.

-Ooh.

-I know, it holds its shape.

-Beautiful.

-All right.

I hope you guys were watching because you guys are going to do all the shaping from here on out.

[ Laughs ] -Might need to see 1 or 2 more.

-Oh, no, no.

-6 or 7 more.

-That's all you get.

Trial by fire, Lan.

-I knew there was a catch.

-Here you go.

-Right.

-You gotta work for your supper.

There we go.

-That's why we got the wine first.

-There you go.

You eat what you make, so... -Oh, boy.

-Isn't that fun?

-Yeah.

-Lisa, you're really good at that.

-Well, I hope so.

I'm Italian on both sides.

-Ooh, you better be good.

-Yeah, it's like second nature.

-There you go.

-You guys did a terrific job.

-Well, we're really hungry now, so... -This is expert level stuff here.

-Yeah.

It is.

All right, so time to cook it.

It cooks really quickly, about 3 minutes.

And, remember, there's no salt in the dough.

So you definitely want to salt the water.

1 tablespoon of table salt.

All right.

Into the water it goes.

Again, only a couple minutes.

Trying to get it all into the pot quickly but not lose any soldiers.

Ha.

Did it.

So 3 minutes.

-All right, I've got a little bit of work left to do here.

I've started shredding the meat just using two forks.

-Oh!

-Just comes apart.

Like I said, just so tender.

-Mm.

-I mean, look at that.

All right, so this goes right into that sauce.

-Mm.

Hello.

-Gorgeous.

-So you surprised us with having to do some of the work.

But I have a surprise for you.

It's actually a review from our web site... -Hmm.

-...for one of these recipes.

-Oh.

-This comes from Josie B.

She says, "I followed this recipe to a T, and it ended up with the most tender, delicious tagliatelle ever.

And it was so easy.

I've tried other pasta recipes, and they turn out kind of tough.

This dough is a dream to work with.

I'm never buying store-bought pasta again.

Thanks, Dan."

-Thanks, Dan.

Aw.

-Do you know why I chose to read this one?

-Yes.

-I'm stirring this here into the sauce and I'm going to turn it to low here.

We just want to warm up the sauce, let it simmer for a little while, thicken just a bit.

So maybe up to five minutes.

-Oh, gosh, it smells good.

-Isn't that gorgeous?

-Mm-hmm.

All right.

Pasta's done.

Saving some pasta water.

Valuable, valuable liquid.

-Oh, yeah.

-Might need that for the sauce.

-Yep.

Let me go drain this.

Look at that beautiful shape, it's held together.

It has this nice tubular shape.

-It looks a little naked.

-It does look a little naked.

-All right.

Just gonna toss this in there.

-Ooh.

-I think that looks pretty spectacular.

-Oh.

-All right.

We're going to do pasta portions here.

So we're not going to fill up the entire bowl.

-That's gorgeous.

-Wow, it looks so good.

-There you go.

-That looks good for Lisa.

A little bit of pecorino on top?

-Yes, please.

I love it.

-Mm.

Some of that sheepy flavor on top of the pork.

Nice.

Nice amount.

-Thank you so much.

-Mm.

-There you go, sir.

-Thank you so much.

Oh, beautiful.

Thanks for cooking.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Look at that.

Gorgeous.

-Mm-hmm.

-Some of that sauce went inside.

Some of it's outside.

The meat's still falling apart.

What do you guys think of the sauce?

-It's delicious.

-Delicious.

-I love it.

Yeah.

-The ridges catch it so nicely.

-Mm-hmm.

-Oh, wow.

-Mm.

That's good.

-That's so good.

-Mm-hmm.

-The pork just falls apart.

-Mm-hmm.

-Cheers.

Thank you for joining us.

-Thank you for cooking.

-Yeah.

-My pleasure.

Next time, Lisa will cook.

[ Laughter ] -That's fair.

♪♪ -How our recipes go from being just an idea to on the TV show is really complicated.

It's a big process, multi-step.

Here's what happens.

The first thing is you got to come up with the idea of a recipe.

-When a cook is assigned a recipe, the first step is to do a whole bunch of research.

We do it online.

We go to our awesome library that has, I don't even know how many books we have in our library.

-Oh, my gosh, so man.

-A lot.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Thousands.

So we look through cookbooks.

We call up experts in the field.

-It's research, research, research.

-And then we choose five recipes and we put them side by side.

And then we cook all five of them.

The five-recipe test is to determine the direction of a recipe.

-When selecting five recipes, I really try to select recipes that are different enough from one another.

And by different, I mean different variables.

So maybe there's a different ingredient, different cooking technique.

-And then, the team comes in and tastes them.

And it's a really great opportunity and it's a great moment to kind of see what's out there and see what's great and what really didn't work.

It helps you to kind of shape your ultimate goal.

-Then, the test cook takes all of that feedback and they're going to create the Franken-recipe.

Maybe we like the salting from this and we like the sauce from that.

They'll put together what's called the working recipe.

And here's where the magic happens.

We take the scientific method and we apply it to every stage of that recipe as we cook it.

-The working recipe is, in the world of science, it would be considered our constant, because from our working recipe, we do side-by-side tests, and through those side-by-side tests, it's one variable is extracted from that constant.

-That's what recipe development is, trial and error.

I like the texture of that.

How do they achieve that texture?

What can I do to get that texture or that flavor?

And throwing everything that you can possibly think at that problem and trying to solve that problem.

That's what we do.

-But it's kind of cool.

That's like what makes us all thrive is that we just love problem solving and trying to understand what's going on and how to fix it.

-The whole process is very democratic and everyone has a voice and everyone gives their opinion.

Everyone's opinion is really wanted and really has a lot of value.

-So the test cook feels great about this recipe and it's time to send it to our army of home cooks.

They have to tell us that they would make it again.

And the majority, the vast majority of our readers have to say, "I would make this recipe again," for it to survive.

If not, it's going back in the kitchen.

-Our survey participants are our readers.

-Yep.

-And they're home cooks that are fans of the magazine, and they sign up to help us out.

So they take the recipes when we're close to being -- we think we're done with them and give us all their feedback.

-Not just telling us it tasted great, but telling us their challenges, their pitfalls, what worked, what didn't work.

-If we're using larger burners in the kitchen, you know, maybe that doesn't line up with what the home cook is doing.

It's a massively useful tool for us to kind of understand and get our recipe into a bunch of different hands before it appears on TV.

-After all this, then we publish that recipe into the magazine.

But that's only half the story.

Lan's here, and she's going to show us how to make a great version of barbacoa that we can make in our own kitchen.

-Bridget, I'm so excited to show you this recipe.

-We include a story with every recipe in order to share with the reader the process, all of the work that we've done to learn about the cultural history of the food, all the techniques that we've explored, all the science that's going on in that particular dish.

And, so, it's through that story that we can tell the reader all that we've learned.

-In order for a recipe to go on to our TV shows, it's got to be good.

The food's got to be appealing.

It's got to be entertaining.

But best of all is when that recipe teaches somebody at home something maybe they didn't know about cooking, a step that's going to make them a better cook.

Those are the recipes that rise to the list on what we think make great TV.

-I think learning about the whys about cooking is, like, what makes us unique and what makes the TV show unique.

It's fun watching people cook, but learning, like, why you're doing something, I think that makes it even more important.

-This is kind of soft serve at this point.

It's going to go right into the freezer.

We want to work relatively quickly because the faster you harden it, the smaller the ice crystals.

-That's why we're here.

We're here to teach people at home to become better cooks, more self-confident cooks.

That's the only reason we show up here, so that everybody at home becomes a better cook.

So, yeah, 40 steps later, you've got yourself a winning recipe.

Simple as that.

♪♪ We are back and it's party time because we've got some of our favorite colleagues -- don't tell everybody else -- with us this round.

We've got Elle.

-Hey.

-We've got Keith.

We've got Erin.

-Mm-hmm.

-And I know they like to party.

And you like spicy food?

-Yes.

-I heard you might like margaritas.

-Just a little bit.

-Like this much.

[ Laughter ] -Well, you know who makes the best margaritas in the world?

-Oh, me.

-Bridget is famous for these margaritas.

-I loved developing these, for obvious reasons.

The key, though, is making your own margarita mix.

It's really easy to do.

One of the keys is using both lemons and limes for giving that super bright flavor.

So I've already gone ahead and zested them.

This was the other key.

-Mm-hmm.

-Great sour mix starts with zest.

That's 4 teaspoons of lemon zest.

I'm going to start to zest the lime zest off here.

I'm looking for 4 teaspoons of this.

-All right.

So that's going to take a little bit of time, which gives me time to make the steak tacos.

And these just aren't any steak tacos.

-Mm.

-These are Keith's steak tacos.

-Ooh.

-They are.

-Now, you developed this recipe, what, almost 20 years ago?

-Yeah, I think I was -- -You were a baby.

-14.

13, 14.

-And it's indoor steak tacos.

So you tried to mimic the char that you'd get on the grill, but inside.

-Exactly.

Exactly, yeah.

-So and it starts with the marinade.

And we're going to use the food processor to make the marinade.

So we have three scallions.

I'm just going to give it a little bit of a head start before we put them in the food processor.

All right.

So that was 3 scallions, 3 garlic cloves, and 1 jalapeño.

Do you guys have any tips for telling if your jalapeño's hot?

Is like 1 in 10 are spicy?

-Open it up and try it.

-Try it.

Yeah.

All right, Keith.

-Bite it.

-Why am I volunteered for this?

-It's your recipe.

-Just rip off a little piece.

-Oh, it's my recipe?

-Yeah.

There you go.

-So I have to try the jalapeño?

-Yeah.

-See if it's spicy?

-It'll make you really hungry for the -- -Oh!

No, I'm just kidding.

-Spicy one or no?

-No.

-All right, that's the last lime.

I'm just going to start juicing.

I just need 1/2 a cup of juice.

-All right, so into the food processor goes the jalapeño.

Now we're going to add some cilantro, 1/2 a cup of cilantro leaves, and a little bit of cumin.

1/2 a teaspoon of cumin.

-And the seeds?

Are we going to put the seeds in there?

-Yes.

All in.

-Bring it, bring it.

-All in.

All right.

All right.

We're just going to pulse this together, about 10 pulses.

All right, so that looks -- Hoo hoo hoo!

You sure that wasn't spicy?

-Don't worry about it.

[ Laughter ] -It was 1/4 cup of oil.

Now we're going to turn this into a paste.

I'm going to let it rip for about, eh, 15 seconds.

All right.

Oh, yeah.

You got to smell this.

-Oh, man.

-Mm.

-Right?

-That's so good.

-It's perfect.

-Why would you ever buy a marinade in store when you can make something like that?

-I know, I know.

It's so simple.

-All right, I'm going to mix the two juices together.

So, again, that was 1/2 a cup of lemon juice, 1/2 a cup of lime juice.

So, for a cup of liquid, I'm only going to use 1/2 quarter cup of sugar.

This is super fine sugar.

Just dissolves easier.

There's a little pinch of salt in here, too, and all that zest gets dumped right in there, too.

And this is really important.

The zest has different flavors than the juices.

A lot more potent, a lot more of those volatile oils.

But time is really our best friend here.

So I'm going to put a piece of plastic.

We're going to let all this set a minimum of four hours.

You can do it overnight.

I'm going to put this in the fridge.

All right.

So here's the paste.

I'm going to take 2 tablespoons and separate it out.

We're going to add this to the cooked steak at the end.

Just reinforce that flavor.

-Yes.

-And this is where the acidity goes in.

-Mm-hmm.

-Right?

The acidity doesn't go in the marinade 'cause that'll make the meat mushy.

So a tablespoon of lime juice.

-Nice.

-You like adding the marinade?

-I do.

-That was a good -- That was a great idea.

-Yeah.

I wonder who came up with that.

Who came up with that?

-Brilliant.

-Now for the meat.

You tried so many different cuts of steak, and I loved tasting them all.

-Yeah.

-I was so happy when we landed on flank steak because it is my favorite cut of meat.

It's not too expensive.

It has a really good beefy flavor, and I love the chew.

You cut it into long strips, so 4 long strips with the grain.

Now, the next thing that you taught me... [ Laughs ] ...was to poke with a fork 10 times on each side.

-Ooh.

-Exactly 10 times on each side.

-Yep.

Actually, I think -- -That was 9.

-Well, this helps the marinade penetrate, obviously.

And the salt.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

-Was this your first recipe you developed for the magazine?

-I don't think so, but it was pretty close, yeah.

-What was your first recipe?

-It was a stir fry with -- -That's the noodle cake!

-With a noodle cake.

Yeah.

-Ah.

-And my kids have actually made a song out of the spicy chicken stir fry with crispy noodle cake.

Yeah, that's the title.

-There's a jingle?

-That's the jingle at the house.

Yeah.

-All right, so a little bit of salt, a teaspoon and a half of table salt.

All right.

So on goes the marinade, the marinade without the lime juice.

-Yep.

-And you want to let this sit at least 30 minutes, but you can do this easily up to a day ahead, especially if you're having a party.

All right, I'm going to wash my hands again.

Wrap this, goes in the fridge at least 30 minutes, but up to a day.

-All right.

-Bleh!

-Aah!

So, with our steak tacos, how about a little sweet and spicy pickled onions?

-Oh, yes.

-Yes, please.

-Yeah, it's very easy to make.

This is a cup of red wine vinegar.

That's the tart.

And I've got 1/3 cup of granulated sugar.

I've got 1/4 teaspoon of table salt.

And here's the spicy part.

I've got two more jalapeños.

I'm going to bring these up to a simmer over medium high heat.

All right.

Let me just take this off the heat.

The sugar is dissolved.

Smell that.

But not too close.

Yeah.

-Ooh, yeah, it smells good.

-And I'm going to pour this right over the onions.

All right, I'm going to cover this with some plastic just loosely.

And we want to leave this to cool down for about 30 minutes.

-All right.

-All right.

-The steak is now wiped clean of most of that marinade.

I'm going to sprinkle it with a little pepper and a little sugar.

Again, trying to get that char in the pan that you'd get out on the grill.

All right.

So both sides.

Grab a 12-inch skillet here.

Now, this is one of the recipe changes that I've made over the years.

Because the recipe calls for a nonstick skillet, which works really well, but I love using a cast-iron because I feel like I can get it really hot and I don't have to worry about it.

And I think it gives a little bit more of a char.

-Okay, you can change my recipe, don't worry about it.

-It's just a pan choice.

And we're going to let this oil heat up.

You want it to be smoking because you want a good char.

Pan's hot.

All right.

So, because these are nice long strips, we can brown the sides.

Again, that's why we did it.

More surface area, more browning.

So about 3 minutes on the first two sides.

And then I'll stand them up and do the sides on the end.

Looking for about 125, which is more of a medium than a medium-rare, which we like.

This flank steak, we like a little more of a cook on it.

-Exactly, yeah.

Because it actually is more tender.

-Yep.

-They've been on 3 minutes each side, now I've turned them because they're a nice, long sort of planks.

See some brown on the side.

And I'm using the insta-read thermometer here because they're slightly different sizes, just to make sure they can all come off at the right temp.

Perfect.

127.

-Let's go.

-Those are gorgeous.

-They are gorgeous.

-Yeah.

-If I say so myself.

-I mean, they're all right.

-All right.

You got to let them rest.

Obviously, there's some carryover cooking.

And then we can come back and hopefully have some margaritas.

-Mm.

Hopefully.

-You know what time it is?

-Taco time?

-Yeah.

And margarita time.

-Margarita time?

-Yes.

All right.

So the meat has rested.

So I'm just going to slice this nice and thinly across the grain.

-Beautiful.

-It's beautiful.

-Nice.

-Oh.

Medium rare.

-That looks fantastic.

-Mm-hmm.

All right.

So it's gonna take me a little bit to slice this all up.

And then, I'm going to put it in that marinade that we reserved with that little bit of lime juice.

In the meantime, I'm really getting a little thirsty.

-Is anyone thirsty in here?

-I was saving room for my margarita.

-Like the way you think.

All right, so a few things left to do.

A little update here.

This was the juice that sat overnight, and I strained it, so I've got about a cup of the lemon and lime juice in here.

So a great margarita is your mix, the tequila, and some sort of triple sec.

This is a really lovely dry Curaçao, and this is a cup.

So this is tequila, this is a gorgeous reposado tequila.

-Ooh.

-You can tell by that color.

-Mm-hmm.

-Reposado just means "rested."

And that means that it's aged in barrels, usually oak barrels, anywhere from 2 to 11 months.

-Bridget, how long did testing go?

-[ Laughs ] -No, I'm still testing.

-Probably a little longer than -- -6 1/2 years.

-Yeah, baby.

-I think we're still testing.

-I'm still testing them as we speak.

And then about a cup of ice.

And I just have to stir this up.

Mm.

-All right.

Time to put all this beautiful meat into the reserved marinade.

-Wow.

-Yeah.

-I just want to brag a little bit.

Can we take a minute?

-Yeah.

-Or maybe five minutes.

No, no, no.

So I took this comment from the web site when I was looking at our steak taco recipe, which I developed, and I just want to read it out loud.

Made me feel good.

So, "This set a new standard for tacos!"

Exclamation point.

"The marinade was exceptional."

That was written by Laurie, so... -Elle.

Elle.

-I didn't know your mother's name was Laurie.

-I know.

No!

-"Sincerely, Mrs.

Dresser."

[ Laughter ] -Bridget, I also went to the web site to see what folks were thinking about your margarita.

-Mm.

-Anne-Marie said, in fact, "Bridget, this is why we love you.

This was the best margarita ever.

It went deliciously well with our farm-to-table dinner of your guacamole and fresh corn straight from the garden."

-Sweet!

Nailed it.

-Mic drop.

-"Signed, Bridget."

-That's right.

I told Anne-Marie the check was in the mail.

-Perfect.

All right, I'm going to go ahead and pour, and I'm going to strain out the ice that was in the pitcher.

-It's kind of nice to be on this side of the table.

-I know.

-Mm-hmm.

-I'm getting used to this.

-I know.

-Same time, same place tomorrow?

[ Laughter ] -Wedge of lime here.

All right.

Look at you two with your cocktail napkins all ready.

That's for you.

-Mm!

You shouldn't have.

This smells so good.

My mouth is watering so much.

-Keith is rubbing his hands... -I know.

-...over here, he's ready to go.

-Some cilantro.

Oh.

And onions.

-Oh, right.

Oh.

Take care, friend.

-Aw!

-[ Laughs ] -Out of a jar.

-Thanks, neighbor.

-Package it up.

-That's hilarious.

-As promised.

-That is hilarious.

-These were simply strained.

And then they'll stay in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks.

Mm.

I like this.

-That's Keith's.

That one.

-Extra jalapeño.

-Yeah.

-Whoo!

-Nice.

-Now, that's how you make a taco.

-Absolutely.

-Yeah.

-Mm!

-Those onions are so, like, sweet and tart and crunchy.

-So good.

-It's like a nice -- -The jalapeños are really hot.

Yeah.

-Oh, you got the extra.

-You can see why this is a fan favorite.

I mean, it's easy.

You taste the meat, you have the freshness and the char.

-Mm-hmm.

Oh, it's delicious.

-I'm thirsty.

-Mm-hmm.

That's delicious.

-The zest really comes out in those margaritas.

-Yeah.

-Mm-hmm.

-Well done.

-Thanks.

-Life is good.

-Mm.

-Thank you for joining us.

-Cheers.

-That was fun reminiscing with y'all.

-Cheers.

-You guys are the best.

-Happy anniversary.

-Happy anniversary.

♪♪ -I wanted you to see vinegar right from the bottle.

Start going, small sips.

-Really?

Just dig in?

-Dig in.

There's some crackers and there's some water if you need it.

-Cheers.

I don't fake it on TV.

I'm genuinely tasting each sample as it goes.

I've done no prep.

In fact, I'm not allowed in the kitchen until everything is set up and all the labels are hidden.

-What I really want to do is choose something that highlights a recurring problem with some of the products in the tasting.

-A little hairy.

[ Laughter ] -So a box chocolate cake tasting where there is no chocolate flavor whatsoever.

That's also going to elicit a response from Julia so that she's going to be like, "Oh, yeah, that's bad in this particular way."

-I walk in there knowing that there's a strong chance that I'm going to get fooled.

-Pick up the bag on number four.

-Oh, sucker.

-So sometimes I'll put a ringer in.

When I did black pepper with Bridget, I was doing, you know, whole peppercorns that you were grinding yourself.

And I wanted to put in pre-ground.

All right.

Is it time for me to fess up?

-There's a ringer?

You've got -- You put a ringer in here.

-It tasted like sawdust.

It had no flavor whatsoever.

-The tastings are pretty interesting.

And you try to make a really even playing field for all the brands.

-So we have a tasting lab where 20 of our colleagues will gather and taste 8, 10, 12 samples, depending on what the brand is.

You can have the best recipe in the world, and if you're starting with mediocre ingredients, you know, you're in a deficit and it's going to be that much harder.

Same thing if you've got bad knife or bad skillet.

Why?

Start with good gear.

It will make cooking so much easier.

-Cooking is as much about the journey as it is about the destination.

Yes, you can get things made with subpar cookware, but it comes out better, it's easier, it's more pleasurable if you're using good equipment.

-Lovely.

-Isn't that nice?

-We will find all the brands that people would consider if they were buying that thing.

And we will decide, how do we use it?

How have we used it in the past in the Test Kitchen?

What are the ways it will show how it performs, whether it's a good one or a bad one?

And then we will do hands-on practical testing, cooking with it in every possible way, and maybe abusing it a little bit.

You might have seen me whacking skillets.

-A little bit?

[ Laughs ] -[ Laughs ] But if, like, I'm whacking a skillet on a concrete block, there's a reason, I'm not just taking out my aggression.

I'm trying to find out if it's structurally sound, if it's going to hold up.

So we will heat it up to 500 and plunge it in ice water, and that will tell us if it's prone to warping, if it's prone to falling apart.

-The whole approach is sort of a mixture of science and common sense.

-I just pushed bags of tomato sauce off the counter onto a tarp, and it was a bloodbath.

-[ Imitates explosion ] It looks like a crime scene.

-But it was awesome.

You could really see which ones were constructed better.

But I completely looked like a nut.

I mean, it happens.

-At the very beginning, and then again at the end of the testing, we used an industrial sharpness testing machine... -Ooh!

-...to test the sharpness.

The scientific equipment, like the temperature tracking and the calipers and stuff like that, that helps explain what we observe in the common sense tests.

-We had like $300 coolers and $30 coolers, but we cut them all in half and we wanted to see the insulation inside.

So, you know, we did the tests where we put cold soda in there for a week or food for a whole weekend, and we ended up talking to, like, building people about insulation and learned that the insulation that had little air pockets in it was better than denser insulation because air is a better insulator than foam.

I never want you to waste your money on gadgets you don't need.

And, so, that's kind of what motivates my testing, is that I don't want people to get stuck with stuff that doesn't work.

-I want the best thing I can get for X number of dollars.

And the testing that we do here and the recommendations that we make here are a surefire way to that result.

-We don't accept any product donations.

People want to send us things all the time.

It helps us maintain our independence and our journalistic integrity.

-It's not about them.

It's about their product, and it's about the people that we are trying to test the product for.

-I think that putting ourselves in the shoes of the home cook is the key of what we do.

-I mean, I get stopped on the street all the time.

People who recognize me from the show and like to talk about various pieces of equipment that they've bought and had a good experience with.

And, you know, I would be lying if I didn't say that that makes me feel kind of good.

Like we're able to guide people into a wise purchase.

-It makes me feel like we're doing something important.

We're helping people cook better by shopping better.

♪♪ -Get ready for the grand finale, because we're going to finish on a high note with -- I'm not going to say our oldest colleagues because you guys look -- -What?!

-Original, please.

-Our original colleagues from way back when we started the TV show.

These guys have been on camera with us since the very beginning.

-It's the OGs.

-It's the OGs.

Adam, Jack, and Becky.

We're gonna cook dessert for you.

-Yeah.

-All right.

-We've got some great desserts coming up, too.

-Mm-hmm.

-Julia's making a crème brulée.

This recipe's really withstood the test of time.

-Mm-hmm.

-Yeah.

Now I'm going to make a millionaire's shortbread, which is one of my favorite things to bake around the holidays.

And I give them as gifts.

All right, so very easy to do.

I'm going to start off with the crust.

So I've got some all-purpose flour.

This is 12 1/2 ounces or 2 1/2 cups.

-Mm-hmm.

-I've got 1/2 cup of granulated sugar and a little bit of salt.

This is 3/4 teaspoon of table salt.

I always like to use table salt when I'm baking.

Just whisk this together.

I've got 2 sticks of butter here.

So 16 tablespoons of unsalted butter.

I'm going to combine this.

All right, that looks good enough.

So now this is going to go into a 9-by-13-inch baking pan.

I'm going to crumble this mixture in there.

Lined it with foil.

Now, the foil sling, as you guys know, got to love the foil sling, right?

-Game changer.

-It was a game changer.

-It's great because it makes everything basically a springform pan, right?

-Mm-hmm.

It has a removable bottom.

It's fantastic.

-Even like brownies, I always use the foil sling because why not.

Right?

-So I'm just going to dock this about every inch or so.

And that's just to keep it from puffing up too much.

All right.

This is going to go into a 350-degree oven.

I want to leave it in there until it starts to get a little bit tawny brown.

That's only going to take about 25, maybe 30 minutes.

All right, so while she's baking that, I'm going to get the crème brulée started.

It is the best crème brulée recipe.

The reason is the ratio of yolks to cream is really incredible.

And also use a real vanilla bean, which I think is really important here.

I think you can tell the difference.

-Yeah.

Oh, you have to use the bean here.

I've probably made this recipe 50 times.

-Oh, wow.

-And, like, you can't make it with vanilla extract.

-No.

-I mean, first of all, you do eat with your eyes, right?

-It's painful, but, yes.

[ Laughter ] It makes the dish that much more special when you see the vanilla seeds, you know, gathered at the bottom of the ramekin when you go to dig into it.

-Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

So that was 2 cups of cream, 2/3 of a cup of sugar.

Lengthwise down the bean.

You want to split it in half and open it up so you can really get to all those seeds.

And I'm going to pop the bean right in here, too.

We'll strain any bits out later.

So, sugar, cream, vanilla, and a pinch of salt.

[ Laughs ] So I'm going to whisk this together.

Bring it to a boil over medium heat.

That's just to warm it up to help get the flavors out of the vanilla.

Then we're going to set it aside.

Let it steep for about 15 minutes.

The cream has steeped and now it's time for the yolks.

An incredible amount of yolks, a whole 12 yolks.

So that's the yolks.

I'm going to add about, eh, half of this hot cream.

Temper, temper.

Oh yeah.

That smells delicious.

Now I'm going to add a little bit more cream.

2 more cups of heavy cream.

I'm going to strain it.

Just get out the seed pods, any bits of egg yolk we don't want.

All right.

So I divided this mixture between these ramekins.

It's in a pan.

I lined the bottom of the pan with a dish towel, which is a trick I learned here.

Prevents the ramekins from sliding around in the oven.

Into the oven it goes.

300 degrees with a water bath.

So I have a kettle full of water here.

All right, I'm going to pull this out for you.

-You're giving the task to me?

-Oh, yeah.

I've learned my lesson.

I don't do this.

-All right.

The full thing?

-Well, you know, about halfway up, thereabouts.

-All right.

-All right.

So about half an hour, thereabouts.

-I'm going to give you that.

-Okay.

-Because I think the crust is ready.

-Oh.

-That smells good.

I'm getting like the aromas, they're wafting this way.

-Mm.

-Oh.

-It smells terrible.

You won't like it.

I have to eat it all.

-It does smell good.

It smells like shortbread.

-How about that?

You can see it's tawny brown, and if you press on it, it's a little bit firm.

While that is cooling, I'm going to make our toffee.

We're going to start with sweetened condensed milk.

This is a 14-ounce can.

All right.

Now we want some brown sugar.

This is a cup or 7 ounces of brown sugar.

You can use dark or light.

We've got a 1/2 cup of corn syrup.

This is just really to prevent any crystallization.

It's also a little less sweet than sugar.

So I'm going to add that in there.

A lot of people don't think that.

1/2 a cup of heavy cream.

All right.

And 8 tablespoons of butter, 1/2 a teaspoon of table salt.

-Mm-hmm.

-So I'm going to turn this to medium.

So we're going to let this go.

I'm going to keep an eye on it and stir it pretty frequently.

It's going to go between 16 to 20 minutes.

But what I'm looking for with my instant-read thermometer -- Can't live without this thing.

Can't bake without this thing, for sure.

I'm looking for a temperature between 236 and 239, so we're not looking for a hard toffee here.

This is a nice, soft, pourable toffee.

It might stall.

This is what I have found.

There's always a stalling point.

Anytime that you're making caramel or toffee, it just stops raising in temperature until the water is boiled off, and then it just shoots right up.

-Oh, it's absorbing all the energy.

-Yes, it can only stay under 212 until the water's gone.

-Mm-hmm.

Oh, that makes sense.

-Yeah.

Again, it's only going to take 16, 20 minutes.

-Nice.

-All right.

So we are near the end of this process here of making this beautiful toffee.

I'm looking for 236 to 239.

-Right.

Softball stage.

-Exactly.

All right.

We are almost there.

-You can see the color just changed.

-Yep.

-It just got a shade darker.

-I see it.

All right.

Thanks, J.

-Mm-hmm.

-This is going to go right over our crust.

-Oh!

-Oh!

-That is beautiful.

It is so hot.

I'm going to use a little baby offset spatula to kind of level it out.

We're going to leave this for about an hour and a half minimum to let that cool completely.

-All right.

Let's go check those crème brulée.

Oh, they look set.

Ah.

Made it.

The old-school way to tell if these are done is you just shake one, and it should look like that.

It should just sort of shimmy like -- like Bridget.

[ Laughter ] So, again, you're looking for a temperature between 170 and 175.

174 on the nose.

You do want to get these out of the hot water, and I have a quick tip I'm using.

And, Adam, this I learned from you.

-I remember when I was doing the quick tip.

-Yes.

-A reader sent that in.

It's like, that's brilliant!

-Yeah.

So on tongs, you just put rubber bands.

It gives you a little extra grip when you're working with a ramekin that could be a little wet or a little slippery, and it just gives you a little more purchase.

These have to cool, obviously.

At room temperature, about 2 hours.

Then we're going to cover them, put them in the fridge.

You want them really cold before you brulée the top, at least four hours, but you could easily do this a day or two in advance if you're throwing a party.

-Time for the veneer of chocolate.

-Mm.

-Before I pour it over the caramel toffee here, I'd love for you all to touch the toffee, please.

-Ah.

Yes.

-Me, too?

-It looks like it would be super soft.

-It's not.

-It's harder than you think.

It's just a little bit soft there, is a little bit dent-y.

Like if you want to, you can press it, but don't press it too hard, Becky, no, no, no.

[ Laughter ] -Not getting one.

-Just pouring that over.

-Mm, mm, mm -Mm!

All right, I'm just going to continue smoothing this out.

-Mm.

I know.

-This is going to go into the fridge.

Only want to let it be in there for about 10 minutes.

Just so that the chocolate is set up a little bit.

-Okay.

I love how turbinado sugar melts a little more even.

That's about 1/2 a teaspoon.

Is this the cutest little torch?

-Yeah, that's so -- -Oh, a little baby torch.

-I know.

-You can light stogies.

-Exactly, this is what you'd use if you have a cigar.

I like using the bigger mama jama.

-Oh!

-I actually have a bigger one at home.

-Jack, I'm scared.

-So we're going to use this one.

Some of these you can hold upside down.

Some of them you can't.

Like starting on the outside.

-Gorgeous.

-That is a lovely sight.

-Oh, right?

Mm.

-See?

You get dessert and a show.

-Everyone has a different doneness level.

-Yeah.

-Uh-huh.

-This is mine.

This is perfect.

So we're just going to finish these.

Then we're going to pop them back in the fridge.

Let them really chill so that the top stays crisp but the custard is nice and cold.

-Gorgeous.

Finally, time to cut the shortbread.

-It is gorgeous.

-Yeah, it was just in there for 10 minutes.

-It looks like a mirror.

-Oh, it does.

Huh.

Hi.

[ Laughter ] And this is where the foil sling really comes in handy.

There we go.

If you wouldn't mind moving that pan.

-You bet.

-Ba-boom.

Just like that.

All right.

So I'm going to cut this crosswise in half.

And I'm using a serrated knife, just getting through the chocolate.

You don't want to press too hard.

-I'm going to start dispersing these.

-Okay.

-Miss Becky.

-Oh, thank you.

Look at this.

-Mm-hmm.

-Wow.

-Thank you.

-Yeah.

-Ooh.

Thank you, Julia.

-Yes.

My pleasure.

-All right.

Two for us.

-Hello.

There we go.

-Now, I did work on something a little special for this.

It's kind of a surprise.

You know, I thought we should have a cocktail to celebrate ATK 25.

And when I was thinking about this, I was thinking about one of my favorites.

And Julia and I like to drink this.

The French 75.

This is still London dry gin.

And we've got some pomegranate juice in there.

Homemade grenadine.

-Ooh.

-Yeah, lemon juice, of course, and champagne.

And you can get all of that on the website.

The recipe's right on there.

[ Cork pops ] Got to top it with some champagne.

-That was a little loud.

-Love that sound.

-I have to say.

-It's about 2 ounces of champagne.

-Oh, that is going to be so pretty.

-And it's ATK red.

-It's ATK red.

-Aw!

-All right.

I'm just going to put a little lemon twist on there.

-Perfect.

-Bridget, this is gorgeous.

-There you go.

-Thank you, Bridget.

All right.

Before we tuck into the cocktail, how about we try our desserts?

-Before we tuck into the -- Okay.

[ Laughter ] -What are we going for first?

How about the brulée?

-Yeah.

Little crack?

-We got to do the little... -The little satisfying crack?

-Oh!

-Mm.

-Mm.

Gorgeous.

Look at that custard in there.

-Oh, yeah.

Mm.

-It really is the best crème brulée.

-Oh, my gosh.

-And the top is perfectly crisp.

-Oh.

-Oh.

-The texture of the custard is just velvety.

-Yeah.

-You know the seeds on the bottom.

-Mm.

-Yeah, vanilla bean.

-I was gonna say this is velvet that you can eat.

It is good.

-Break me off a piece of that millionaire's shortbread.

And see just that fudgy toffee in there.

-Mm-hmm.

-It's not runny at all.

-This is incredible.

-Wow.

-Oh.

-This, to me, is just perfect with a cup of coffee after dinner, it's perfect.

Or with an ATK 25.

-Mm.

-Aw.

-Well done.

-To you all.

-Well done.

-Favorite.

-Cheers.

-To you all.

-The fact that we're here after 25 years and we still haven't learned everything about food, just shows you how much food is evolving, how much we don't know, how much we're always learning.

And I think that's what our show does.

It teaches.

We love to be teachers, but we love to learn, too.

-You know what makes me feel really proud about the show, over all the years, is when you meet people who use the recipes and they thank you.

"Thank you for teaching me how to cook."

"Thank you.

I met my wife because of you.

I cooked for her and she fell in love.

We cook together.

You taught my kids how to cook."

To have that kind of impact, that's huge.

♪♪ -Celebrate 25 years of "America's Test Kitchen" and visit our website anytime to access the newest season's full episodes, fail-proof recipes, and ingredient and equipment reviews at AmericasTestKitchen.com/TV25.

Our 25th anniversary cookbook tells the story of how "America's Test Kitchen" changed the way America cooks at home.

This collector's edition includes 500 game-changing recipes and techniques from all 25 seasons of "America's Test Kitchen."

The cost is $29.99.

That's over 30% less than the cover price of $45.

To order, head to our shop at AmericasTestKitchen.com/25book.

-"America's Test Kitchen" is brought to you by the following... -Smithey Ironware Company crafts cast-iron and carbon steel cookware with smooth interior surfaces that are naturally nonstick for easy cleaning.

Smithey -- crafted to last a lifetime.

-Ghirardelli is a proud sponsor of "America's Test Kitchen."

Ghirardelli makes life a bite better.

-To 25 years.

-Cheers.

-And here's to the next 25.

-To the next 25!

-Whoo-hoo!

-Whoo!

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