America's Test Kitchen - General Discussion

[dubbel zout]

If the soap container has a pump, what's wrong with that? You can use the side of your hand to dispense the soap and keep the bottle clean. A battery-powered dispenser just seems like one more kitchen appliance. Also, if you knock it into the sink by accident, do you ruin it?

[Bastet]

On 6/27/2020 at 10:01 AM, RockShrimp said:

One of the things I immediately wondered about the soap dispensers is whether they had diversity in the testers... recognizing darker skin is notoriously an issue for automatic anything.

Because their taste test audiences are always so overwhelmingly white (as is the on-air talent), I try to keep an eye on the quick glimpses of recipe and equipment testing to discern the diversity of the staff.  It's hard to tell, because they have a lot of people doing hours worth of testing, and only show brief snippets under the VO summarizing that testing, but what little they show is predominantly white.

This is what they say (on the ATK website) about the staff:

Quote

To accomplish our goals, we rely on an exceptional group of diverse employees. Everyone brings their own mix of talents and characteristics, and is important to the process of creating our magazines, cookbooks, television shows, podcasts, and websites. America’s Test Kitchen seeks to hire a diverse group of employees that bring a wealth of skills, ideas, personal experiences, and multi-cultural perspectives to our endeavor and the marketplace we serve.

But in looking at the little shown of the folks who test recipes and equipment, they don't seem to be living up to that.  (Shocking, I know.)

[Yeah No]

On 6/28/2020 at 5:45 PM, Bastet said:

This is what they say (on the ATK website) about the staff:

Quote

To accomplish our goals, we rely on an exceptional group of diverse employees. Everyone brings their own mix of talents and characteristics, and is important to the process of creating our magazines, cookbooks, television shows, podcasts, and websites. America’s Test Kitchen seeks to hire a diverse group of employees that bring a wealth of skills, ideas, personal experiences, and multi-cultural perspectives to our endeavor and the marketplace we serve.

But in looking at the little shown of the folks who test recipes and equipment, they don't seem to be living up to that.  (Shocking, I know.)

Wow, they're patting themselves on the back for their diversity but there's only a few non-white people on the staff?  Amazing.  Then again, their use of the word "diverse" here might not even be in that context.  They're being vague enough that it might just mean people from different cultures but they aren't referring to skin color specifically.

Their lack of racial diversity is especially concerning considering that Boston's population is 25% African American.  And of course that's not even counting those of mixed race or other races.

Edited June 30, 2020 by Yeah No

[dubbel zout]

Create in NYC is having a Cook's Country marathon, and in the Hawaiian episode, Bridget tastes potato chips and is HORRIFIED to learn her favorite is—gasp! shriek!—a reduced fat kettle chip. Hee. Jack consoles her by noting she can eat 40 percent more chips because of the reduced fat. Bridget is mollified.

Edited July 5, 2020 by dubbel zout
more shock

[chessiegal]

3 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

Create in NYC is having a Cook's Country marathon, and in the Hawaiian episode, Bridget tastes potato chips and is HORRIFIED to learn her favorite is—gasp! shriek!—a reduced fat kettle chip. Hee. Jack consoles her by noting she can eat 40 percent more chips because of the reduced fat. Bridget is mollified.

Those are my favorite potato chips.

[dubbel zout]

Jack explained how they become reduced fat: After being taken out of the fat, the chips are put in a centrifuge and the excess oil is spun off. Since kettle chips tend to be thicker, they can withstand the spinning better than other chips. I had no idea, so I found this really interesting.

The next time I'm in the supermarket, I'm going to try the reduced fat Utz kettle chips, the winners. Just about any potato chip works for me, though when they're super greasy and/or super salty, I don't like them.

[chessiegal]

I buy the Utz reduced fat kettle chips in an 8 pack of mini-bags that are 100 calories each. I have no self control with a regular size bag.

[Bastet]

I vaguely remember that one - a little bit that I think their math was off, and mostly that her reaction upon the reveal was quite entertaining.

The CC re-run I got yesterday was the hot sauce taste testing (which always makes me laugh, thinking back to Chris Kimball's oh my stars, heat! reaction to his hot sauce taste testing).  My favorite is the runner-up, Tabasco (Frank's was the landslide winner), which is seemingly odd as vinegar is the number one ingredient, and I hate most types of vinegar.  But it's also the spiciest (highest on the scoville scale), so I'm sure that's why I prefer it. 

I wonder, though, if I tasted those two on their own, as she did, rather than in sauces, if I'd taste too much of the vinegar in Tabasco and lean towards Frank's.  Of course, the test audience had it in something and still far and away went with Frank's, so I guess this is just one of the few times I'm on a pretty different wavelength than ATK (I don't dislike Frank's at all, mind you).

[dubbel zout]

8 minutes ago, Bastet said:

(which always makes me laugh, thinking back to Chris Kimball's oh my stars, heat! reaction to his hot sauce taste testing)

Kimball was such a baby about heat. Now on Milk Street he rarely complains, though he still makes sure things aren't too spicy.

[buttersister]

I'm convinced that Kimball's newly acquired tolerance, if not fandom of heat is another way he differentiates his ATK/CI days from MS. Lawsuits, notwithstanding.

Local Create kept repeating the Tennessee pulled turkey recipe all weekend. Dunno, lots of fuss when my Instapot does a nice job. And I have their massive ATK cookbook and still get CI (for $5 a year).

 

[dubbel zout]

11 hours ago, buttersister said:

I'm convinced that Kimball's newly acquired tolerance, if not fandom of heat is another way he differentiates his ATK/CI days from MS.

That's what I thought, too. He still is kind of a jerk to the test cooks, though, so not everything has changed. Heh.

[RockShrimp]

anyone else giggle like a 12 year old at the rod testing segment?

[BigBingerBro]

Has anyone tried their "easy peel" hard boiled egg process?  They basically steamed them for 13 minutes.  I was surprised when they said and showed that there were no green rings around the yolks due to overcooking.  I always have that issue no matter what.

[chessiegal]

5 minutes ago, BigBingerBro said:

Has anyone tried their "easy peel" hard boiled egg process?  They basically steamed them for 13 minutes.  I was surprised when they said and showed that there were no green rings around the yolks due to overcooking.  I always have that issue no matter what.

I started doing it recently. It started by seeing an ad for a gadget that makes hard boiled eggs in the microwave, and I realized the gadget steamed them, Then I remembered that Alton Brown steamed them, so I looked up his recipe. He calls for steaming them 12 minutes. So I tried it in a saucepan using my steamer basket. After 12 minutes I put them in an ice bath for 5 minutes. They are perfect every time - no green ring and the shells just slide off.

[biakbiak]

Yeah the steaming method works fabulous. I do it if I am doing four or five eggs, more than that I bust out the Instantpot which is the same principle just under pressure. It seriously makes peeling eggs a pleasure! 

[AllAboutMBTV]

I started steaming eggs after reading Kenji Lopez-Alt's article on it in the NYTimes (last year?). After years of picking little mosaics of egg shells off the eggs, I can now get the shells off in three pieces. You can use fresh or old eggs right out of the refrigerator, no ice bath afterward is needed and no green rings around the yolks. Also unneeded: the old wives' tales of adding a bit of vinegar to the water or (my favorite, which I actually did for years) adding a wooden matchstick to the pot, the sulfur from which kept the eggs from cracking while boiling. It did work, I guess, so, thanks, Nigella Lawson!

[dubbel zout]

On 7/11/2020 at 11:50 AM, RockShrimp said:

anyone else giggle like a 12 year old at the rod testing segment?

When they mentioned people preferring a 12-inch rod, I thought of this post. Hee.

 

[chessiegal]

The reason to put the steamed eggs in an ice bath is to cool them down so you can handle them to peel. I've found it gets them to room temperature so they are ready to eat or make deviled eggs.

[Hallthat]

On 2/1/2020 at 3:52 PM, annzeepark914 said:

Oh, Lawdy... runny eggs. I recall an episode on Barefoot Contessa in which she cooked, then served rather wet scrambled eggs.  I love her shows & recipes but have never forgotten those runny eggs. Mine are always fluffy...never wet. 

I will never forget that B. Contessa episode....those eggs looked disgusting! I also remember an episode where Tyler Florence tells Ina not to whisk the eggs too much, it will make them tough.  I always thought it put more air into them so they would be fluffier!

[Bastet]

I just watched an equipment testing segment on can openers, and I love how much they hate the safety versions.

The "Shrimp Mozambique" segment made me hungry; I love piri piri sauce.

[letusprocrastinate]

On 9/12/2020 at 7:54 PM, Bastet said:

I just watched an equipment testing segment on can openers, and I love how much they hate the safety versions.

The "Shrimp Mozambique" segment made me hungry; I love piri piri sauce.

Just watched this episode, and Adam really bashed the safety can openers.  I also noticed the winner was a can opener that looks like the one most people have used for decades.

Wonder if they have ever done an electric can opener testing.

[BigBingerBro]

I just caught the Cook's Country episode where they made adjaruli khachapuri and it looked wonderful and rather easy.  Has anyone attempted this before?

[biakbiak]

1 minute ago, BigBingerBro said:

I just caught the Cook's Country episode where they made adjaruli khachapuri and it looked wonderful and rather easy.  Has anyone attempted this before?

I made it from a similar recipe a few weeks ago! Easy, tasty and pretty. 
 

[BigBingerBro]

Wow!  Nice job!!

[dubbel zout]

On a Cook's Country today, Bridget tasted lard, and at first I thought, She's a trouper for eating that plain. Jack took pity on her and used the three candidates in biscuits, which makes more sense, LOL. And because it was a pork product, she liked them all.

[Bastet]

Just now, dubbel zout said:

On a Cook's Country today, Bridget tasted lard, and at first I thought, She's a trouper for eating that plain. Jack took pity on her and used the three candidates in biscuits, which makes more sense, LOL.

I remember that one - I thought maybe it would be like the fish sauce tasting, but, nope, it was used as an ingredient rather than tasted straight.

I've never cared for biscuits (I'm not a big bread person in general, and biscuits are definitely something that is just there and at most I'm going to eat one to be polite), so that might actually work as a taste test for me - if it's the same recipe just with different brands of lard, I might be good at detecting what's better than others.

[Florinaldo]

The new season started airing her 2 weeks ago and in the first episode they mention that piri-piri is not easy to come by in US grocery store. Is that really the case? Here in Canada there is a national chain (Loblaws/Provigo) that has both a piri-piri sauce and a dry mix version of that Portuguese classic under its house brand, which would mean it is available all across the country. 

They also carry 2 or 3 other brands of the sauce, some under the accepted variant spelling "peri-peri" (which had nohing to do whith bottling one of the Sixth Doctor's companions).  😉

[Yeah No]

1 hour ago, Florinaldo said:

The new season started airing her 2 weeks ago and in the first episode they mention that piri-piri is not easy to come by in US grocery store. Is that really the case?

They sell it at my local ShopRite and "The Fresh Market" in CT, so it's really not all that hard to find, but it probably depends on the area.

[chessiegal]

You can get piri-piri sauce and seasonings on Amazon, so I'd say it's not hard to find.

[Mittengirl]

Meijer, a Michigan-based grocery chain with stores in the Great Lakes region, has four piri piri sauces, but the brand they carry calls it “peri peri”.  Maybe ATK needs to look at alternate spellings.  Or maybe broaden their horizons beyond whatever local stores they sent an intern to.

[biakbiak]

3 hours ago, Mittengirl said:

maybe broaden their horizons beyond whatever local stores they sent an intern to.

I often feel like they’re idea what is available in a “regular” grocery store is based on a small grocery store in a small town in the middle of nowhere that’s clientele hasn’t changed in decades. 

[chessiegal]

ATK does surveys with regular people on what you can find in your grocery stores. I'm a volunteer recipe tester. Sometimes they send me an email asking if I can find certain ingredients. So they don't do everything in a vacuum.

BTW, if you want to be a volunteer recipe tester, you can go to their web site and sign up. At least you used to be able to do that.

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 1/27/2020 at 1:38 PM, roughing it said:

I like the intro music much better than the olde twangy bluegrass.  It's a nice fresh update, and I associate the bluegrass with Chris Kimball, who I disliked before the scandal.

I usually skip all the stuff at the beginning, and just today heard the intro music.  I think it's awful.  Like, it's not even a song, just some notes strung together that don't seem to have anything to do with the images.  I didn't like the old song, particularly, but at least it was something.

Also, they did a taste test of ketchup, and said there's one that's so dominant it's become what ketchup should taste like or something along those lines.  And they included weird ones in the test, like one with bell peppers in it, maybe?  What I wonder is why they didn't include Hunt's, because Heinz may be dominant, but I'd expect Hunt's is in second place. 

It's like doing a taste test for colas and including Coke, RC Cola, and Cherry Coke, and leaving out Pepsi.

[Pietr]

after the first episode, I like the At Home variant.  It showed them cooking more like people at home actually do. 

Measuring things rather than having a bunch of prep bowls

Having to juggle limited counter space.

[Florinaldo]

We got the first episode of the At Home version today. No forced banter and only one person in charge seems to work well.

In the pre-show clip we saw quick views of most of their kitchens; they all looked so clean and pristine! Frankly, it was as if no one had ever cooked in any of them.

I wonder how much redecorating budget each cook got to revamp their kitchen (or at least thoroughly clean it and touch it up) in order to make it presentable for the camera.

Edited January 10, 2021 by Florinaldo

[biakbiak]

Well definitely be trying the Cóctel de Camarón soon, looked absolutely delicious. 

I liked the technique or rendering the fat for the chile verde con cerdo.

[freeser]

Is Elle's weight loss something that happened recently or have I missed a lot of the newer episodes?  I didn't realize it was her until she spoke and I recognized her voice.  

[chessiegal]

The home kitchens don't surprise me. It's what I would expect of professional cooks. I belong to a club where we cook in people's homes. I've been in kitchens nicer than what we saw on the show. Heck, every 2 weeks, my kitchen looks good enough to be camera ready after the cleaning crew leaves.

I cracked up at Bridgette's spatula with the happy face on it.

[Florinaldo]

2 hours ago, chessiegal said:

after the cleaning crew leaves

That is the crucial secret ingredient: a cleaning crew.

Professional chefs can be as messy as amateur ones and their kitchens will show signs of that. But if TV magic does its job, you wouldn't know it.

Since they do not have pay money for set maintenance this season, that budget item was most probably transferred to the various cooks's homes.

Are they are still keeping up with equipment testing? There are some fetaured for the second episode, but they may be retreads of old segments.

And what about the legendary extensive development process to come up with the recipes demonstrated; are they still going through it or are these straight from the cooks' personal fare? In the latter case, a whole bunch of test cooks would be on furlough (along with the equipment testers).

[chessiegal]

No reason test cooks can't be testing from home. Plus I'm sure they have many recipes ready to go.

[Florinaldo]

49 minutes ago, chessiegal said:

No reason test cooks can't be testing from home. Plus I'm sure they have many recipes ready to go.

Agreed, but it's more difficult to standardise the testing if everyone is on their own and they can't supervise directly what each is doing and make sure they are strictly following test protocols and are all using the same equipment and appliances, uniformly calibrated, which is easy to do in the test kitchen. Variations in ovens for example are notorious; perhaps they equipped every tester with the same model. Strict multiple replications of each variation in a recipe is part of their method.

They also often mention that the recipe went though many iterations with testers, but not this time around. They may have loosened their approach to testing because of the special conditions we all have to operate under. Perhaps we will learn more as the season progresses.

[chessiegal]

21 minutes ago, Florinaldo said:

Agreed, but it's more difficult to standardise the testing if everyone is on their own and they can't supervise directly what each is doing

That's why God made ZOOM.

[Florinaldo]

1 hour ago, chessiegal said:

That's why God made ZOOM.

Having done laboratory work, I can say ZOOM would not be sufficient for the task, so god is a failure.

Plus ZOOM does not make different models of ovens, mixers, broilers, etc, function with exactly the same performance characteristics.

If ATK still does extended recipe development, they must have found workarounds, including relaxing some of their standards (or buying everyone the same exact equipment).

Edited January 10, 2021 by Florinaldo

[BigBingerBro]

Assuming that they had previously tested numerous recipes pre-CoVid that never made it to an episode, could it be that they just pulled from a historical file and had them cook those for this season?

[Florinaldo]

4 hours ago, BigBingerBro said:

Assuming that they had previously tested numerous recipes pre-CoVid that never made it to an episode, could it be that they just pulled from a historical file and had them cook those for this season?

That's another very plausible workaround. But since theirs is a year-round operation, with testings, tastings and development going on all the time, this still means a portion of the staff is probably on furlough. With possible consequences for the next season.

[AllAboutMBTV]

I, too, enjoyed the look into the presenters' kitchens in the first episode of ATK At Home. I had to laugh at Julia's standing paper towel dispenser, which I'm pretty sure Adam pooh-poohed in a previous season. Also, her hair looked so much better, much less shellacked. (She also had a bandaid on her middle finger that came and went.) And agreed with the above poster in that the banter was not missed.

[chessiegal]

7 hours ago, AllAboutMBTV said:

I had to laugh at Julia's standing paper towel dispenser, which I'm pretty sure Adam pooh-poohed in a previous season.

I didn't notice it in Julia's kitchen, but I remember them saying you can't rip off a sheet with one hand. If it's the Oxo Good Grip that I have, they are dead wrong. I yelled at the tv during that evaluation that you must not know how to use it. I can easily take off a sheet with one hand. Did it today.

Edited January 12, 2021 by chessiegal

[biakbiak]

10 hours ago, AllAboutMBTV said:

ad to laugh at Julia's standing paper towel dispenser, which I'm pretty sure Adam pooh-poohed in a previous seas

Adam also had a standing one on the second episode that appeared to be the a version of the Simple Human one that won their testing last year. Julia’s appears to be the Oxo Good Grips which was also well reviewed.

Edited January 12, 2021 by biakbiak

[Automne]

I just saw one of the At Home episodes for the first time tonight and I liked it. It’s actually nice to see them in their home kitchens cooking because that fits in with the whole raison d'être for the show. Like let’s see them make the recipes where they don’t have top of the line professional equipment and a large amount of space. It makes me think of the now-defunct Panna app where you had professional chefs cooking their recipes in their home kitchens.

Edited January 14, 2021 by Automne

[MerBearHou]

3 hours ago, Automne said:

I just saw one of the At Home episodes for the first time tonight and I liked it. It’s actually nice to see them in their home kitchens cooking because that fits in with the whole raison d'être for the show. Like let’s see them make the recipes where they don’t have top of the line professional equipment and a large amount of space. It makes me think of the now-defunct Panna app where you had professional chefs cooking their recipes in their home kitchens.

I seem to miss 50% of ATK and I like the show so much.  How were you able to find it tonight?