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Favorite Cooking Magazines?


tammyw
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I've always loved Cooking Light, even though I couldn't care less about cooking "light." They have a great variety of useful and tasty recipes each month.

 

 

Ditto (right down to the couldn't care less part). I also like Food & Wine. We used to get Bon Appetit, but it's gotten really frivolous. Maybe I'm just not in their target demographic any more.

 

I miss Gourmet.

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I've always loved Cooking Light, even though I couldn't care less about cooking "light." They have a great variety of useful and tasty recipes each month.

 

 

 

Totally agree. I don't believe in cooking low fat or low salt, although I do try to cook low calorie. Their recipes are just awesome and their portion sizes are sensible.

 

I also enjoy Eating Well and Clean Eating magazines.

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I miss Gourmet.

 

 

What happened to Gourmet? Did it go out of business? And now I'm wonder about Saveur, too. I haven't seen it in a store in ages. Maybe it is digital only? Off to google. Saveur is probably my favorite of all, but lately I haven't had much time to cook, so I haven't subscribed in a while.

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Astonishingly, my favorite cooking magazine is the Food Network magazine. We don't have a TV and I never in a million years would have bought the magazine on my own, but my mother got me a subscription and to my total surprise, I love it. It is very well done and I always find at least several good recipes per issue.

 

Runner-up favorite is probably Cooking Light. I love the Cook's Illustrated approach but wish they would branch out beyond the traditional-American-food focus. (They do seem to be getting slowly better about that, I have to say). I completely agree with a PP that Bon Appetit is just annoying, and Saveur isn't much better. Everyday Food was good, but they are no longer going to be publishing as a standalone magazine -- it's going to be an insert to Martha Stewart Living, sigh.

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Cooking Light, Eating Well and Vegetarian Times get my subscription dollars these days.

 

Gourmet shuttered its doors about a year ago- that one was my favorite, the Everyday Gourmet section always had great recipes. I really expect Bon Appetit to follow suit in the near future. I have often thought that the powers that be shuttered the wrong magazine. They should have closed Bon Appetit and kept Gourmet.

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I do too. I was on my phone earlier when I replied.

 

I like the experimentation, the explanations and the science behind why the recipes work.

 

 

Nah. What Kimball and Cooks Illustrated attempt to do is reenforce the (false) idea that there are "magic recipes" that are somehow the key to being a good cook, instead of focusing on developing ones sense of taste, an appreciation for how different techniques effect taste and texture, and opening people to new ingredients and flavors.

 

Cooks Illustrated doesn't excite or inspire, it attempts to lock people into following their supposedly "scientifically tested" recipes (which are often mediocre). Following recipes is not how to become a great cook, it is about following ones senses and being creative. CI is not about that.

 

Bill

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Nah. What Kimball and Cooks Illustrated attempt to do is reenforce the (false) idea that there are "magic recipes" that are somehow the key to being a good cook, instead of focusing on developing ones sense of taste, an appreciation for how different techniques effect taste and texture, and opening people to new ingredients and flavors.

 

Cooks Illustrated doesn't excite or inspire, it attempts to lock people into following their supposedly "scientifically tested" r2ipes (which are often mediocre). Following recipes is not how to become a great cook, it is about following ones senses and being creative. CI is not about that.

 

Bill

 

 

I have never understood the popularity of cooks illustrated. I tried 2 recipes: 1 for a chicken tikka massala which ended up tasting like chunks of chicken in campbell's tomato soup and another for meatloaf (gag) which had the texture of babyfood and was bland bland bland. I recently read a cooks illustrated recipe for hummus that only had 1 clove of garlic in it. blech. I loved gourmet and saveur. For my reading pleasure I go back and read my Julia Child books. Now that was a woman who knew what food should taste like!

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I have never understood the popularity of cooks illustrated. I tried 2 recipes: 1 for a chicken tikka massala which ended up tasting like chunks of chicken in campbell's tomato soup and another for meatloaf (gag) which had the texture of babyfood and was bland bland bland. I recently read a cooks illustrated recipe for hummus that only had 1 clove of garlic in it. blech. I loved gourmet and saveur. For my reading pleasure I go back and read my Julia Child books. Now that was a woman who knew what food should taste like!

 

 

:iagree:

 

There is no "culture" in the bland and mediocre fare in Cook Illustrated. It is completely uninspired and uninspiring.

 

Julia Child brought culture and shared technique-building knowledge to her readership, in addition to offering up recipes, and that made all the difference in making her a culinary treasure.

 

Saveur magazine exposes readers to both regional American food and International food culture. It educates and inspires through words and photographs. It is enriching.

 

Bill

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I do too. I was on my phone earlier when I replied.

 

I like the experimentation, the explanations and the science behind why the recipes work.

 

 

:iagree: And their explanations of how they changed and the decisions they made have helped me understand how to do that so I can change recipes on their own. Very rarely do I use their recipes in the magazine (although their New Best 1000 Recipes is a go-to cookbook here), but I always read the whole thing - when subscribed- and learn all sorts of helpful information from kitchen tips to ingredient reviews to equipment reviews to recipes. I love it.

 

I accidentally let my subscription lapse in the summer, might be time to rectify that.

 

ETA: it's a beautiful magazine, chock full with no ads. The paper is heavy duty, the writing and editing are sound. I don't cook like a scientist, but I can happily learn from them.

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Saveur magazine exposes readers to both regional American food and International food culture. It educates and inspires through words and photographs. It is enriching.

 

Speaking of Saveur, this is what we're having for dinner tonight:

 

Onion and Bacon Tart - essentially onion and bacon and Yorkshire pudding. And some veggie sides.

 

Sometimes you just know a recipe is going to be amazing even before you make it.

 

 

7-SAV142-OnionBaconTart-400x566.jpg

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I have never understood the popularity of cooks illustrated. I tried 2 recipes: 1 for a chicken tikka massala which ended up tasting like chunks of chicken in campbell's tomato soup and another for meatloaf (gag) which had the texture of babyfood and was bland bland bland. I recently read a cooks illustrated recipe for hummus that only had 1 clove of garlic in it. blech. I loved gourmet and saveur. For my reading pleasure I go back and read my Julia Child books. Now that was a woman who knew what food should taste like!

:iagree:

 

 

I have tried several recipes from Cooks Illustrated and Cooking Light. I hate to say that most have been miserable failures. Always thought it was me.

 

I adore my Julia Child and Marcella Hazan cookbooks. :001_wub:

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:iagree: And their explanations of how they changed and the decisions they made have helped me understand how to do that so I can change recipes on their own. Very rarely do I use their recipes in the magazine (although their New Best 1000 Recipes is a go-to cookbook here), but I always read the whole thing - when subscribed- and learn all sorts of helpful information from kitchen tips to ingredient reviews to equipment reviews to recipes. I love it.

 

I accidentally let my subscription lapse in the summer, might be time to rectify that.

 

ETA: it's a beautiful magazine, chock full with no ads. The paper is heavy duty, the writing and editing are sound. I don't cook like a scientist, but I can happily learn from them.

 

Totally agree. The choice of recipes is meh but the magazine -- as well as the cookbooks -- have definitely made me a better cook. And I always rely on the equipment ratings.

 

Saveur just annoys me, although I suspect I'm not their target audience. Maybe someday, when cooking is no longer a feed-my-family-three-meals-a-day-365-days-a-year grind I will better appreciate their efforts to instruct me how to spend four hours recreating an authentic mole in my very own kitchen, but at the moment it just doesn't resonate.

 

I also completely agree with whoever said upthread that they should have shuttered Bon Appetit and left us Gourmet instead.

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Is Eating Well kinda like Cooking Light?

 

Sort of, but not really. The recipes are really focused on whole grains, fresh veggies and overall nutrition in Eating Well. There are occassionally splurge type recipes for cookies, cakes and quick breads, but it's really more about trying to achieve an overall healthy diet. There's always articles about the latest nutritional info and trends. I think that Eating Well's recipes are solid, but I do find that I almost always have to add a bit of salt or other seasoning. They really are focused on exercise, eating heart-healthy and having a healthy attitude towards food in general.

 

Cooking Light has a different approach, they are about eating healthier, but they do tout "all things in moderation", and so you will find decadent desserts, appetizers, and whatnot. I have subscribed to Cooking Light for 12 years now, and kind of have a feel for the recipes within that will work for my family or not. You do have to keep an eye on the portion size with their recipes. There will be a recipe for something like brownies, with a low calorie count, but then you look at the portion, and they ask you to cut an 8x8 pan into 30 tiny pieces to keep the calories in check. Admittedly, I don't find as many appealing recipes within as I used to. The magazine changed format and editor two years ago, and it just hasn't been the same since.

 

Both magazines have lots of recipes on their websites, so you could peruse those to get a feel for them without spending anything on the magazines themselves.

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Thanks. I was not crazy about Cooking Light. I often don't follow recipes exactly and just like to be inspired, but I didn't get much inspiration from it.

 

That's how I felt about Eating Well, unfortunately. They just didn't seem appealing enough for me to go to the effort :(

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You would like the 365 book then. There is a picture with every recipe. The book is HUGE. I love it. The Mark Bitman book has no pictures. That is one thing I don't like about it.

 

The Simply Delicious one is very colorful too.

 

 

Thanks! I'll check them out. I remember getting the Mark Bitman one from the library and the no pictures thing made me not like it. I'm sure I'm missing out on some great cookbooks, but I'm such a visual person, that I just can't do it.

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