This Cookbook from Cook’s Illustrated Will Turn You Into a Meat-Cooking Ninja

The book: Cook’s Illustrated Meat Book by The Editors of Cook’s Illustrated

The angle: Everything you ever needed, need, or will need to know about cooking any kind of meat imaginable.

Recipes for right now: Chicken-Fried Steak, Onion-Braised Beef Brisket, Swedish Meatballs, Thai Pork Lettuce Wraps, Pork Tinga, Indian Lamb Curry, Skillet Chicken Fajitas, Honey Fried Chicken, Old-Fashioned Chicken Pot Pie

Who would enjoy this book? Meat eaters, big and small.

• Who wrote it: The Editors of Cook’s Illustrated

• Who published it: America’s Test Kitchen

• Number of recipes: 425

• Other highlights: Woah. Seriously, woah. This encyclopedia of meat cookery would feel completely overwhelming if it weren’t so meticulously organized and artfully designed. This is Cook’s Illustrated at its finest.

The book starts with a primer on meat: how to store it, how to prep it, what it means to sear it — the whole shebang. Then each chapter (there are only 4 of them: Beef, Pork, Lamb and Veal, and Poultry) focuses on a different kind of meat, starting with an extensive shopping and prepping guide and then leading into the recipes. More side bars give info on tricky steps and other helpful hints. I’m pretty sure the pages of this book are extra-large just because there’s no other way to fit all the information in the book. (Even so, it’s very tempting to buy this book in Kindle form just to have it in my pocket when I’m out shopping.)

The book feels like The One. The one comprehensive cookbook on cooking meat that will be with you from now until the day you pass it on to your grandchildren.

Find the book at your local library, independent bookstore, or Amazon: Cook’s Illustrated Meat Book by The Editors of Cook’s Illustrated

Apartment Therapy Media makes every effort to test and review products fairly and transparently. The views expressed in this review are the personal views of the reviewer and this particular product review was not sponsored or paid for in any way by the manufacturer or an agent working on their behalf. However, the manufacturer did give us the product for testing and review purposes.