Name: America's Test Kitchen
Genre: Documentary
Rating: 5.3
Cast: Julia Collin Davison, Bridget Lancaster, Jack Bishop, Christopher Kimball, Lisa McManus

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Julia Collin Davison

Bridget Lancaster

Jack Bishop

Christopher Kimball

Lisa McManus

Dan Souza

Adam Ried

Keith Dresser

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.

America's Test Kitchen

What is America's Test Kitchen?

America's Test Kitchen tackles tomato sauce.

Recipes: Pasta and Fresh Tomato Sauce with Onion and Bacon, Pasta and Fresh Tomato Sauce with Garlic and Basil, Pasta and Fresh Tomato Sauce with Chile Pepper and Basil, Rustic Slow-Simmered Tomato Sauce with Meat

Tasting Lab: Which Canned Tomatoes Should You Buy?

Science Desk: Taste

Tomato Sauces for Pasta

The secret to really crispy, browned skin and moist, flavorful meat

Recipes: Roast Stuffed Crisped-Skin Turkey

Tasting Lab: Turkeys -- What's in a Name?

Equipment Center: Digitals Top Instant-Read Thermometer Ratings

The Perfect Roast Turkey

Should you roast in a hot oven or a moderate oven? How do you get crisp skin and moist, tender breast meat? We answer these questions and more.

Recipes: Easy Roast Chicken

Tasting Lab: Kosher Bird Wins Chicken Tasting

Science Desk: What is the Difference between White and Dark Meat?

Great Roast Chicken

Why is stew often tough and flavorless? We explore how to buy the right cut of meat, how to sear it for flavor, and how to cook it until tender.

Recipes: Hearty Beef Stew, Carbonnade a la Flamande (Belgian Beef, Beer, and Onion Stew)

Equipment Center: Dutch Ovens

Beef Stew

Do your pork roasts and chops come out dry and tasteless? Here's how to cook tender, juicy pork using some simple kitchen tricks.

Recipes: Garlic Studded Roast Pork Loin, Country Mustard-Shallot Sauce with Thyme

Equipment Center: Electric Knives, Updated

Science Desk: Why is Fat Important?

Perfect Pork

The America's Test Kitchen team cooks salmon in a saute pan, on a grill, and under a broiler, and we find that it takes 10 minutes or fewer to cook it right.

Recipes: Broiled Salmon with Mustard and Crisp Dilled Crust, Simple Pan-Seared Salmon, Herb-Poached Shrimp with Cocktail Sauce, Simple Grilled Salmon

Science Desk: Fibers and Fatty Acids

How to Cook Salmon

Throw out your wok! Stir-fries can be simple, quick, full of flavor, and, best of all, prepared without special equipment.

Recipes: Stir Fry with Ginger Sauce, Stir Fry with Curry Sauce, Stir Fry with Hot-and-Sour Sauce, Stir Fry with Lemon Sauce, Stir Fry with Orange Sauce

Tasting Lab: Patience Pays Off for Soy Sauce

Equipment Center: Skillets (Nonstick) - Do Electric Knives Really Work?—Archived

Stir Fry Made Easy

Everyday foods like meat loaf and garlic mashed potatoes are popular for a reason; they're easy to make and they can taste great.

Recipes: Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Meat Loaf with Brown Sugar (Ketchup Glaze - Loaf Pan Variation)

Tasting Lab: Ketchup

Science Desk: Starch in Potatoes

Sunday Dinner

Want to fry, scramble, boil, or poach an egg? Cover eggs while frying, use high heat for scrambling, never add eggs to boiling water, and use a skillet, not a saucepan, for poaching.

Recipes: Foolproof Boiled Eggs, Fried Eggs for Two, Fluffy Scrambled Eggs, Poached Eggs

Equipment Center: Skillets, Nonstick

Science Desk: The Science of Cooking Proteins and Egg Coagulation

Cooking Eggs

Everyone loves cookies, but it's not easy to make cookies at home that taste and look as good as a bakery-made cookies.

Recipes: Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies, Big, Super-Nutty Peanut Butter Cookies, Big Chewy Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies

Tasting Lab: Unorthodox Chocolate Chips

Science Desk: How Baking Soda Works

Cookie Jar Classics

Learn how to make a simple-as-boxed-cake recipe that's virtually foolproof. Then frost and decorate the cake with ease.

Recipes: Rich and Tender Yellow Layer Cake

Equipment Center: Cake Pans

Science Desk: Protein Content in Cake Flour

The Perfect All-Purpose Cake

Make a foolproof pie crust that even a five-year-old could roll out. We also show you the secrets of pumpkin and pecan pies.

Recipes: The Best Pie Dough, Perfect Pecan Pie, The Best Pumpkin Pie

Holiday Pies

The test kitchen team focuses on marrying a lightly sweetened fruit base to different toppings.

Recipes: Fruit Crisp, Fresh Berry Gratin, Blueberry Cobbler

Tasting Lab: Chinese Cinnamon Tops

Equipment Center: Food Processors (Full-Size)

Crisps, Cobblers, and Gratins

Making pureed soups is a balancing act. Small changes can have major effects. The test kitchen has worked out all the kinks and created three great soup recipes.

Three Pureed Vegetable Soups

Spaghetti alla carbonara and pasta with pesto are quick and easy ways to put an outstanding pasta dish on the table. The test kitchen pairs the pastas with a simple green salad.

Pesto, Carbonara and Salad

With the right techniques, a spaghetti supper can rival any fancy meal. The test kitchen reveals the secrets for success.

Spaghetti and Meatball Supper

To satisfy everyone, the test kitchen developed two pizza recipes—a deep-dish pizza that bakes in a pan as well as a cracker-thin pie that’s in and out of the oven in just 10 minutes.

Pizza Night

Lunch is ready in the test kitchen. Two classics--tuna salad and grilled cheese--along with a fancy steak sandwich are being served.

Simple Sandwiches

Shrimp is quick to prepare, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Step into the test kitchen and learn how to become the shrimp expert in your home.

Shrimp Classics

The test kitchen explores how to properly sear a steak, make a flavorful pan sauce, and fry up hot, crispy french fries.

Steak Frites

The test kitchen shares our fried chicken recipe that is the result of five years work and incorporates many unusual techniques.

Fried Chicken and 'Fixens

Although chicken cutlets can be delicious, they can also be tough or dry if cooked wrong. We take three classic preparations—Marsala, breaded, and stuffed—and explore ways to make these chicken dishes really good.

Chicken Cutlets 101

We move the test kitchen out back to make juicy hamburgers and grilled veggies.

All-American Cookout

Shish kebab, rice pilaf, and baba ghanoush are perhaps three of the greatest dishes from the Middle East. The test kitchen discovers the best way to prepare each specialty.

Middle Eastern Barbeque

The test kitchen unlocks the secrets for making fresh margaritas, flank steak fajitas and chunky guacamole.

Fajitas and Margaritas

The test kitchen figures out how to bring the most flavorful, most beautiful bird to the holiday table.

Thanksgiving Dinner

Christmas dinner is not the time to experiment with new recipes or techniques. The test kitchen gives you these foolproof recipes for holiday family favorites.

Christmas Dinner

The test kitchen’s challenge is to cook short ribs until they are fall-off-the-bone tender while removing as much of the grease as possible.

Winter Supper

Southern food has a special place in the test kitchen. In this episode, the test kitchen shows you how to prepare roast fresh ham, cream biscuits, and greens.

Ham, Biscuits, and Greens

We turn the test kitchen into the neighborhood bakeshop and make tender blueberry muffins and delicate cream scones.

Muffins and Scones

Bacon, eggs, and potatoes are the classic components of an all-American breakfast. The test kitchen makes sure the bacon is crisp, the omelet is tender, and the home fries are perfectly browned.

Bacon, Eggs, and Homefries

If you are going to spend the time making French toast and waffles, they better be good. The test kitchen gives the recipes that deliver.

French Toast, Waffles, and Breakfast Strata

Everyone loves bar cookies—especially the cook, because there's no need to form individual balls of dough. But baking dough in the pan, rather than balls on a cookie sheet, can cause problems. We show you how to avoid them.

Bar Cookies

The test kitchen turns out French tarts that put even the finest pâtisseries to shame.

Two French Tarts

Those cream-topped pies in the revolving case at the diner always look better than they taste. We show you how to prepare Chocolate Cream Pie and Key Lime Pie at home—with amazing results.

Diner Pies

The test kitchen has made hundreds of pie doughs. Learn how to make the resulting recipe, which is the culmination of years of kitchen work and testing.

Apple Pies

Nothing quite says summer like a slice of peach pie or a bowl of cherry cobbler. The test kitchen reports on the best ways to make these classic desserts.

Peach Pie and Cherry Cobbler

Light summer desserts, made with or accompanied by fruit, are perfect for summer eating. The test kitchen tackles the problems of panna cotta, rhubarb fool, and summer berry pudding.

Chilled Summer Puddings

The test kitchen figures out how to make showy desserts with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of flavor.

Chocolate Desserts

We turn soggy nachos and candy-sweet sangria into serious party food.

Party Foods

Less is more when it comes to hearty soups.

Hearty Soups

We rescue two favorite vegetable dishes from the clutches of the cafeteria.

Dressing Up Vegetables

A taste of real French cooking—without spending all day in the kitchen.

Bistro Basics

The perfect steakhouse dinner—salad with creamy blue cheese dressing and seared filet mignon—is often a fantasy. In the real world, the lettuce is limp, the dressing gluey or watery, the steak overcooked or not properly browned, and the sauce characterless. The test kitchen shows you how to solve each of these problems.

Steak House Dinners

Chinese food at home (without a laundry list of hard-to-find ingredients).

Chinese Takeout

Chicken in a Flash

We return two classic pasta sauces to their original glory.

Pasta Classics

Simple ingredients are often the basis of special and uncommonly good dishes.

Pasta Quick and Easy

Skip the marinade and don't bother to sauté the aromatic vegetables.

Beef Burgundy

The best chili: hearty, heavy on the meat, and spicy.

Texas Chili

The secret to great casseroles: keep the ingredients as fresh tasting as possible.

American Casseroles

Pork Chops, Two Ways

Big, juicy, smoky ribs and classic potato salad.

Backyard BBQ

We prepare an elegant salmon dish . . . on the grill.

Barbecued Salmon

Free up your oven and grill a better tasting bird.

Thanksgiving from the Grill

We turn meat and potatoes into something memorable.

Holiday Dinner

Spiral-sliced ham and good green bean casserole. (Really!)

Ham Dinners

Brunch that's worth making, even when company isn't coming.

Weekend Brunch

It takes more than speed to make the best quick breads.

Quick Breads

Rustic Bread at Home

We take two cookie classics and make them great again.

Cookie Jar Favorites

We solve the problem of soggy crusts and mile-high meringue.

Lemon Meringue Pie

We perfect two classic summer American desserts.

Shortcake and Cobbler

One old-fashioned, moist and homely, the other elegant, dense and ethereal.

Two Chocolate Cakes

Restraint is key for the perfect New York-style cheesecake.

New York Cheese Cake

We give much needed makeovers to two classic salads. Salad seems so easy. Just dress some leafy greens and serve, right?

Recipes: Basic Tossed Green Salad; Greek Salad; Wilted Spinach Salad with Bacon Dressing

Tasting Lab: Red Wine Vinegar

Salad 101

Say goodbye to thick, bland gazpacho and soggy tomato tarts. It’s feast or famine when it comes to good tomatoes.

Recipes: Gazpacho; Quick Summer Tomato Tart

Tasting Lab: Mozzarella Cheese

Summer Tomatoes

The notion of dinner made in a single pot is certainly alluring. Two complete meals from a pot; one a classic, the other a surprise.

Recipes: Beef Chili with Kedney Beans; Indoor Clambake

Equipment Center: Crock Pots

Tasting Lab: Tomato Puree

One-Pot Wonders

We solve the problem of porridge-like chowder and bready crabcakes. Clam chowder and crab cakes are available in most every seafood restaurant in the country. These dishes both have their origins along the East Coast and have been subjected to numerous changes (most not for the better) as they became more popular.

Recipes: New England Clam Chowder; Maryland Crab Cakes

Tasting Lab: Mayonaise

East Coast Seafood

We bring a taste of New Orleans into the home kitchen. Jambalaya and bananas Foster are two of our favorite dishes from New Orleans.

Recipes: Jambalaya; Bananas Foster

Equipment Center: Ice Cream Scoops

Tasting Lab: Vegetable Broth

New Orleans Menu

Skip the marinara and try these two vegetable sauces. Tired of the same old marinara sauce?

Recipes: Pasta with Mushrooms; Orecchiette with Broccoli Rabe and Sausage

Equipment Center: Herb Choppers

Tasting Lab: Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Freedom from Red Sauce

Everyone knows pasta is quick. That's one of the reasons Americans (and Italians) love it.

Recipes: "Quick" Bolognese; Four Cheese Pasta

Tasting Lab: Tomato Paste

Quick Classic Pastas

Pot roast can be the ultimate comfort food or a huge waste of time. We solve the problem of dry, gray, tough meat.

Recipes: Pot Roast with Root Vegetables; Skillet Green Beans

Equipment Center: Vegetable Choppers

Pot Roast

Say goodbye to dry, tough, candy-like roasts. The marketing of the “other white meat” would be amusing if today’s pork weren’t so lean and flavorless.

Recipes: Maple-Glazed Pork Loin; Wild Rice Pilaf

Equipment Center: Food Storage Containers

Maple-Glazed Pork Roast

We perfect two roadside classics: chicken-fried steak and coconut cream pie. Truckers often know where to find the best home cooking.

Recipes: Chicken-Fried Steak with Gravy; Coconut Cream Pie

Tasting Lab: Graham Crackers

Truck Stop Classics

A skillet can turn out hundreds of chicken dinners. For most Americans, chicken breasts are the holy grail of weeknight cooking. (We think thighs are more flavorful, but that’s another story.)

Recipes: Pan-Roasted Chicken Breasts; Almond-Crusted Chicken Breasts with Wilted Spinach

Equipment Corner: Traditional Skillets

Chicken in a Skillet

Two French takes on an American promise. Herbert Hoover may have promised Herbert Hoover may have promised Americans a chicken in every pot, but no ne said that chicken couldn't be French.

Recipes: Chicken Provencale; Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic

Equipment Corner: Kitchen Shears

Tasting Lab: Vermouth

Chicken in a Pot

We take the mystery out of properly grilled steaks. It’s hard to beat steak and mashed potatoes for both simplicity and flavor.

Recipes: Blue Cheese Mashed Potatoes with Caramelized Onions; Grilled Steaks

Equipment Center: Kitchen Shears

Tasting Lab: Mail-Order vs. Supermarket Steaks

Steak and Potatoes

Steak tips and steak fries sound like bad menu offerings from your local low-rent steakhouse. We rescue steak tips and fries from low-rent steakhouses.

Recipes: Steak Tips; Steak Fries

Equipment Center: Grill Brushes

Steak Tips

Stir-fries at home that are better than takeout. Ordering Chinese takeout is like playing Russian roulette. 

Recipes: Stir-Fired Pork with Eggplant; Stir-Fried Beef and Broccoli

Equipment Center: Electric Woks

Tasting Lab: Oyster Sauce

Stir Fry 101

Say goodbye to bad Americanized versions of pad Thai and sesame noodles. We no longer think of noodles as just Italian.

Recipes: Pad Thai; Cold Sesame Noodles

Equipment Center: Flat Bottom Woks

Asian Noodles

Americans love Italian food - and rightly so.

Recipes: Chicken Diavola; Frico; Strawberries with Balsamic Vinegar

Tasting Labs: Balsamic Vinegar

Italian Classics

We bring two classics into the home kitchen for great results in a fraction of the time. 

Recipes: Simplified Cassoulet with Pork and Kielbasa; 30-Minute Tarte Tatin

Tasting Lab: Diced Canned Tomatoes

French Food in a Flash

Say goodbye to leaden scones and pound cake. In the test kitchen, we think afternoon (or morning) tea is an excellent excuse to whip up a batch of scones or a golden loaf of lemon pound cake. Making these simple baked goods at home certainly yields better results than what you can buy.

Recipes: Lemon Pound Cake; Oatmeal Scones

Equipment Center: Citrus Juicers and Reamers

Tasting Lab: Supermarket Teas

Tea Time

We solve the problem of rubbery omelets and dry, hockey puck muffins. Sunday brunch sounds so civilized.

Recipes: Denver Omelet; Corn Muffins

Equipment Center: Rubber Spatulas

Tasting Lab: Baking Powder

Sunday Brunch

Few recipes deliver so much pleasure for so little work as pancakes. The batter comes together in minutes, and the cooking time is brief. Why, then, do most Americans never make pancakes from scratch?

Recipes: Blueberry Pancakes; German Apple Pancakes

Equipment Corner: Electric Gridles

Tasting Lab: Fresh vs. Frozen Blueberries

The Pancake Show

Good cookies don’t really require any more work than bad cookies. Unless, of course, you are willing to consider dry, crumbly, tasteless packaged cookies from the supermarket - but we aren’t.

Recipes: Thin and Crisp Chocolate Chip Cookies; Coconut Macaroons

Equipment Corner: Potholders

Tasting Lab: Refrigerator Cookie Dough

When local berries are in season, we like to showcase them in simple desserts. Two simple showcases for fresh summer berries.

Recipes: Summer Berry Pie; Berry Gratin with Lemon Sabayon

Equipment Corner: Ice Cream Makers

Summer Berry Desserts

We solve the problem of dry, sticky, flavorless cakes. A sheet cake is like a with training wheels--it's hard to fall off.

Recipes: Chocolate Sheet Cake; Carrot Cake

Equipment Corner: Milk Chocolate

Easy Sheet Cakes

Light, creamy, and great lemon flavor--neither too fleeting nor too harsh.

Recipe: Lemon Cheesecake

Equipment Center: Springform Pans

Lemon Cheescake

Two desserts that pull out all the stops yet are easy to prepare.

Recipes: Chocolate Mousse Cake; Chilled Lemon Souffle

Tasting Lab: Unsweetened Chocolate

Showstopper Deserts

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

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