Making cookies is a favorite holiday activity. Many people who bake infrequently during the year throw themselves into marathon cookie projects.

Recipes

 - Glazed Butter Cookies

 - Walnut Cresent Cookies

Equipment Corner

 - Handheld verses standing mixers

Holiday Cookies

Julia Collin Davison

Bridget Lancaster

Christopher Kimball

Jack Bishop

There's a Hole in Your Cake

Bake-Sale Favorites

We've chosen recipes that deliver big flavor without much work.

Recipes

 - Spiced Pecans with Rum Glaze

 - Pita Chips

 - Creamy Spinach Dip

 - Spicy Peanut Dipping Sauce

 - Beef Satay

Equipment Corner

 - Meat cleavers

Tasting Lab

 - Store-bought Salsa

Appetizers

Have you ever been tempted to prepare a restaurant recipe only to be disappointed with the results? The recipe sounded great, but once you got to work you realized it was never tested in a home kitchen.

Recipes

 - Quick Chicken Stock

 - Chicken Noodle Soup

 - Pasta e Faigoli

Equipment Corner

 - Fat separaters

Simple Soups

Soup for supper is an appealing concept, especially on a cold, snowy night. But for soup to work as a main course, it better be hearty. A light, clear broth simply won't do.

Recipes

 - Quick Cheese Bread

 - Hearty Lentil Soup

Equipment Corner

 - Vegetable peelers

Tasting Lab

 - Mail order bacon

A Soup Supper

On occasion local dishes become so popular that they transcend their region. Gumbo is a taste of Louisiana in a big old bowl. Its distinct aroma and flavor are like a quick trip to the bayous outside of New Orleans.

Recipes

 - Creole-Style Shrimp and Sausage Gumbo

 - Cincinnati Chili

Equipment Corner

 - Useful kitchen gadgets

Tasting Lab

 - Long-grain white rice

Regional Classics

It sometimes seems like the simplest recipes suffer the worst fate in modern cookbooks. Maybe it's because no one really cares enough about these dishes to get them right.

Recipes

 - Stuffed Pork Chops

 - All-Purpose Gravy

 - Glazed Carrots

Pork Chops and Gravy

Despite its apparent simplicity, roast chicken is a hard recipe to get right. 

Recipes

 - Crispy Roast Lemon Chicken

 - Chicken Under a Brick with Roasted Potatoes

Equipment Corner

 - Countertop Rotisserie ovens

Two Roast Chickens

Dinner in less than 20 minutes is the holy grail of weeknight cooking. Many recipes make good on this promise, but most ultimately reflect the minimal effort exerted on the part of the cook. They are fine in a pinch but rarely worth making again. But it doesn't have to be this way.

Recipes

 - Chicken Paillard

 - Pan-Seared Shrimp with Garlic Lemon Butter

Equipment Corner

 - Cookware cleaning products 

Tasting Lab

 - Chicken cutlets

Flash in a Pan

Cooking for a family isn't as easy as it was once. In Norman Rockwell pictures, the entire clan (with aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents) is gathered around the table with a dozen different dishes in front of them. No one has soccer practice or is working late. No one is on a weird diet, and the kids seem to eat the same thing as the adults.

Recipes

 - Sweet and Tangy Oven-Barbecued Chicken

 - Classic Macaroni and Cheese

Equipment Corner

 - Stain removal products

Tasting Lab

 - Microwave popcorn

Family Favorites

Have you ever been tempted to prepare a restaurant recipe only to be disappointed with the results? The recipe sounded great, but once you got to work you realized it was never tested in a home kitchen.

Recipes

 - Flambéed Pan-Roasted Lobster

- Crab Towers with Avocado and Gazpacho Salsas

Restaurant Cooking Comes Home

In Texas, good beef ribs are the secret handshake between experienced grillers.

Recipes

 - Texas-Style Barbecued Ribs

 - Southern Cornbread

Equipment Corner

 - Cast-iron skillet care

Tasting Lab

 - Corn bread mixes

Texas Rib House

We don’t part easily with money, but we will on occasion break the bank and buy a beef tenderloin. The tender, buttery interior is the big draw, and the combination of a healthy dose of seasoning and the flavor from the charcoal grill is a perfect solution to a rather mild-tasting (boring) piece of meat.

Recipes

 - Grill-Roasted Beef Tenderloin

 - Salsa Verde

 - Broiled Asparagus 	

Equipment Corner

 - Kitchen gadgets

Grill-Roasted Beef Tenderloin

Even expert grillers can get in a rut. They make the same four or five recipes over and over again. Sure, the steaks are great, but isn’t there something a bit more exciting?

Recipes

 - Thai Grilled Chicken with Spicy, Sweet, and Sour Dipping Sauce

 - Grilled Salmon with Maple-Soy Glaze 	

Equipment Corner

 - Portable gas grills

New Flavors from the Grill

There's a significant disconnect between real Mexican food (as prepared in Mexico) and the food served in "Mexican" restaurants in the United States.

Recipes

 - Chicken Enchiladas with Red Chili Sauce

 - Mexican Rice 	

Equipment Corner

 - Spice grinders

Mexican Favorites

Pasta is usually quick, but all too often quick pasta dishes taste like little time or effort was expended during their preparation.

Recipes

 - Farfalle with Tomatoes, Olives and Feta

 - Campanelli with Asparagus, Basil, and Balsamic Glaze

 - Pasta with Three Pestos

Tasting Lab

 - Sun-dried tomatoes

Quick Pasta

Indian food has a reputation for being spicy (most of it is not) and hard to prepare at home (tell that to one billion Indians). However, it is true that many recipes require a long list of spices and other ingredients.

Recipes

 - Chicken Biryani

 - Mulligatawny Soup

Tasting Lab

 - Curry powder

A Passage to India

Pissaladière is Provençal street food, a fragrant, pizza-like tart prized for its contrast of salty black olives and anchovies against a backdrop of sweet caramelized onions and thyme.

Recipes

 - Pissaladière 	

Equipment Corner

 - Baking stones

 - Pizza cutters

Pissaladière

In the test kitchen, we enjoy authentic Italian dishes such as pasta all'amatriciana (episode 18-Italian Classics) and osso buco and polenta (episode 19-Winter Supper). But we also like to prepare Italian-American dishes.

Recipes

 - Eggplant Parmesan

 - Pasta with Chicken and Brocoli

In an Italian-American Kitchen

There seems to be an endless supply of "classic" Italian dishes. Just when we think we've mastered the canon, we realize there are more seminal Italian dishes to learn-recipes as important as pesto, steak fiorentina, or pasta with garlic and oil.

Recipes

 - Pasta all'Amatriciana

 - Mushroom Risotto

Equipment Corner

 - Rotary cheese graters

Tasting Lab

 - Jarred pasta sauces

Italian Classics

Stew and starch is a familiar and comforting winter combination. Stew-and-starch pairings include everything from beef stew and mashed potatoes to chicken paprikash and egg noodles. Our favorite Italian stew-and-starch combo is osso buco and polenta.

Recipes

 - Osso Buco

 - Basic Polenta 

Tasting Lab

 - Bottled water

Winter Supper

Who doesn't like bistro food? It offers the panache of fine French cooking but in a casual setting. The dishes are rustic, hearty, and satisfying.

Recipes

 - Baked Goat Cheese Salad

 - French Onion Soup

Equipment Corner

 - Santoku knives

Tasting Lab

 - Goat cheese

Bistro Classics

Sticky buns are things of breakfast-time debauchery. In bakeries, they are often plate-size buns, warm and glistening, heady with brown sugar and spices. In our opinion, anything less than a great one is not worth its calories.

Recipes

 - Sticky Buns with Pecans

Equipment Lab

 - New-generation Coffee Makers

Tasting Lab

 - Supermarket coffee

Ultimate Sticky Buns

Every afternoon around three, editors come sniffing around the test kitchen looking for cookies fresh from the oven. Given how many cookies we make, our test cooks appreciate bar cookies.

Recipes

 - Classic Brownies

 - Congo Bars

Equipment Corner

 - Baking Pans

Tasting Lab 

 - Boxed Brownie Mixes

Cakes baked in Bundt pans and tube pans are popular for a variety of reasons.

Recipes

 - Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake

 - Angel Food Cake

Equipment Corner

 - Bundt Pans

Pumpkin cheesecake stands second to the traditional pumpkin pie as a holiday dessert. Those who suffer from pumpkin pie ennui embrace pumpkin cheesecake as "a nice change," but the expectations are low.

Recipes

 - Spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake

 - Brown Sugar and Bourbon Cream

Tasting Lab

 - Cream Cheese

Pumpkin Cheesecake

When our test cooks eat in restaurants, they always come back to the kitchen and talk about the dessert. Dramatic and artful presentations rightfully garner a lot of attention.

Recipes

 - Chocolate Volcano Cake with Espresso Ice Cream

 - Caramelized Pears with Blue Cheese and Black-Pepper-Caramel Sauce 

Equipment Corner

 - Handheld Mixers

Four-Star Desserts

Equipment reviews, taste tests, and recipes from the test kitchen to the home cook. A team of test cooks that viewers have come to love and trust deconstruct recipes and reveal the test kitchen’s secrets to foolproof cooking at home.

Holiday Cookies

Seasons27

Season 5 Episodes26

Cast4

Discussion

Episode Summary