Episodes - Cooks CountryTV

Forgotten Cakes

Join us as we re-create two classic cakes from the 1960s. Christopher Kimball shares tips for error-proof baking, and Jack Bishop reveals which milk chocolate won our taste tests.

Chocolate Blackout Cake

It’s been over 35 years since once-renowned Ebinger’s Baking Company in Brooklyn closed its doors. We set out to recreate one of its most beloved recipes.

Strawberry Poke Cake

This cake was invented in 1969 to increase Jell-O sales. But when we made the recipe, we encountered dull strawberry flavor and soggy boxed-mix cake. Here’s the fix.

Milk Chocolate

Flavor and creaminess defined our favorites among 10 brands.

All-American Picnic

Learn to make super-crunchy fried chicken. Pair it with our classic potato salad, or with the potato chips that won our taste test of top brands.

Extra-Crunchy Fried Chicken

We wanted to create juicy, rich tasting fried chicken at home without the big mess, and with a crust as crunchy as KFC.

All-American Potato Salad

Most potato salads aren’t what they could be—the potatoes are mushy or the vinaigrette is bland. Here’s how to make perfect American-style potato salad every time.

Hard-Cooked Eggs

Hard-cooked eggs are prone to greenish-colored yolks and sulfurous odors. Our tests uncovered what causes the problem and how you can make perfect hard-cooked eggs every time.

Potato Chips

There are endless chip varieties and flavors, but which bag of plain chips should the purist reach for?

Autumn Supper

Making pork roast is tricky. Which cut is best and how do you keep the meat moist? Our unique seven-hour recipe will change the way you think about the other white meat.

Old-Fashioned Roast Pork

Cooking a pork roast is tricky, as the lean meat quickly dries out in the oven. Here are the tricks to keeping roast pork moist and flavorful.

Cranberry-Apple Crisp

Although it’s hard to imagine that apple crisp needs much improvement, we liked the tartness and texture cranberries added to one of our favorite standard desserts.

Pepper Mills

Pepper mills come in a vast range of styles and materials, but what really matters to us and other serious home cooks is performance.

Barbecued Chicken

Grilled chicken with barbecue sauce seems simple. So why does this recipe often fail? Our unique method guarantees perfect results. Serve with our easy baked mac and cheese.

Classic Barbecued Chicken

Our foolproof recipe for barbecue chicken produces perfectly cooked meat that boasts intense flavor from the grill and a liberal application of tangy-sweet barbecue sauce.

Classic Barbecued Chicken on a Gas Grill

Our foolproof recipe for barbecue chicken produces perfectly cooked meat that boasts intense flavor from the grill and a liberal application of tangy-sweet barbecue sauce.

Best Potluck Macaroni and Cheese

So many macaroni and cheese recipes slump into a runny mess. Our baked mac and cheese is creamy, sturdy, and rich.

Barbecue Sauce

In one supermarket, we found more than 30 varieties of barbecue sauce. In the end, we found a few brands that came pretty close to homemade.

California Grilling

Bridget Lancaster teaches Christopher Kimball how to cook a garlicky tri-tip roast on the grill. She also prepares California barbecued beans and Santa Maria-style salsa.

California Barbecue Tri-Tip and Beans

We'll show you how to avoid the charred exterior and very rare center that often plagues grilled barbecue tri-tip, while pairing it with our convenient version of barbecued beans.

Santa Maria Salsa

Unexpected ingredients like celery, dried oregano, and Worcestershire transform this from ordinary salsa.

Salsas

Can jarred salsas make a decent alternative to homemade?

Essential Grilling Gadgets

What equipment do you really need to cook outdoors?

Diner Favorites

Enjoy a diner-style brunch at home with impossibly tall and fluffy omelets, crusty, deeply browned home fries, and the best store-bought orange juice as judged by our tasters.

Fluffy Diner-Style Cheese Omelet

Our goal: impossibly tall and fluffy diner-style omelets that are loaded with cheese and other fillings.

Short Order Home Fries

A diner breakfast simply isn’t complete without a side of crusty, deeply browned home fries. Here’s how to replicate them at home.

Orange Juice

High-end orange juices claim to taste better and fresher than ordinary not-from-concentrates. At twice the price, are they a sweet deal?

Cast-Iron Skillets

Is cast iron the original nonstick pan? Do recent innovations improve on this traditional kitchen workhorse?

Feeding a Crowd, Italian-Style

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Feeding a Crowd, Italian-Style

Everyone loves Italian food. We share the secrets to making extraordinary meatballs and marinara and the perfect "Sunday gravy"—a slow-simmered sauce with several kinds of meat.

Meatballs and Marinara

We wanted a way to make big meatballs that were tender and moist and had enough structure to hold their shape.

Italian Sunday Gravy

Italian gravy is a hearty tomato sauce cooked with everything from meatballs to pork chops. Our tests helped uncover which meats yielded the best taste, texture, and convenience.

Jarred Pasta Sauce

Just as important as what our tasters did like—good tomato flavor and a chunky texture—was what they didn't like: overpowering dried herb flavor.

Large Saucepans

Now that even low-cost manufacturers are offering fully clad cookware, do you still need to shell out $200 for a good pot?

Midwestern Favorites

Learn to replicate fall-off-the-bone Chicago-style ribs and discover the secrets to Cincinnati’s unique chili. We’ll also reveal the winner of our cheddar cheese taste test.

Chicago-Style Barbecued Ribs

Chicago ribs are typically smoked at about 200 degrees for at least eight hours. This slow-and-low cooking method delivers the moist, tender meat that defines Chicago ribs.

Cincinnati Chili

Warm spices and a host of unexpected garnishes lend this regional chili its unique flavor. We wondered if we could recreate this Midwestern dish in our test kitchen.

Cheddar Cheese

Supermarket cheddar cheeses can be pale imitations of authentic farmhouse cheddars, but they are cheap and widely available. Some are even worth eating.

Regional Chops

Learn to grill double-thick chops and how to give them authentic smoke flavor. The test kitchen also perfects a recipe for whiskey-glazed pork chops.

Smoked Double-Thick Pork Chops

We’ve discovered how to get great taste, good color, and perfect tenderness out of grilled double-thick chops.

Smoked Double-Thick Pork Chops on a Gas Grill

We’ve discovered how to get great taste, good color, and perfect tenderness out of grilled double-thick chops.

Tennessee-Whiskey Pork Chops

A popular restaurant serves a "Jack Daniel’s" pork chop that sounds better than it really is. The concept, however, sounded good enough that we wanted to perfect it at home.

Top Kitchen Essentials

We've tested thousands of knives, pots, pans, and gadgets over the years. Here's a list of the items that we feel are essential in every kitchen.

Southern Regional Recipes

We share the test kitchen’s method for simplifying Lexington-style pulled pork, and explain how to make the perfect Memphis coleslaw—a barbecue-joint staple.

Lexington-Style Pulled Pork For Charcoal Grill

Lexington-style barbecue requires hours and hours of grilling. We found the way to simplify this classic recipe without sacrificing flavor.

Memphis Chopped Coleslaw

Our Memphis slaw is studded with celery seeds and green peppers, and is tossed with an unapologetically sugary mustard dressing that’s balanced by a bracing hit of vinegar.

Hot Dogs

Americans spend $1.5 billion on store-bought hot dogs. We compiled a 20-person tasting panel to determine where that money should be spent.

Tabletop Grills

Can you bring restaurant-style tabletop grilling home?

Steakhouse Favorites

Learn the technique for perfectly broiled steaks, and discover the secret to super-stuffed potatoes. Adam Ried tells us which steaks knives make the cut.

Broiled Steaks

We usually rely on a red-hot skillet or the grill for putting a crusty sear on steaks, but we wondered if our oven’s broiler could do the job just as well.

Super-Stuffed Baked Potatoes

Picture the perfect stuffed baked potato, with garlic, herbs, and cheese packed into a perfectly crisped potato-skin shell. Here’s how we recreated this steakhouse classic.

Steak Knives

Which set of steak knives can really cut it?

Electric Knife Sharpeners

When your kitchen knives go dull, is there a quick, cheap, and easy way to restore their cutting edge and get back to cooking?

Electric Knives

Electric knives might seem like relics of the 1960s, but we wanted to see if these knives had any place in the modern kitchen.

Sunday Dinner

Learn how to make an unforgettable garlic roast beef and mashed potato casserole. Christopher Kimball also reveals what you need to know to select the perfect cut of meat.

Sunday-Best Garlic Roast Beef

We wanted to find an alternative to prime rib that’s less expensive and faster to cook—without sacrificing flavor.

Mashed Potato Casserole

Mashed potato casserole, with the promise of fluffy, buttery, creamy potatoes nestled under a savory golden crust, is the perfect make-ahead dish during the holiday season.

Liquid Dish Detergent

We wondered how "natural," more ecologically friendly detergents stacked up against traditional supermarket brands.

Easy As Pie

Bridget Lancaster explains how to a make foolproof pie crust and then prepares an incredible raspberry chiffon pie. Jack Bishop searches for the best store-bought pie crust.

Raspberry Chiffon Pie

A chiffon pie is pretty, but it often tastes more like sweet foam than fruit. Our tests found a way to make a chiffon pie that's creamy, light, and packed with fruit flavor.

No-Fear Pie Crust

When it comes to frustration, few kitchen tasks can rival that of making pie dough. We set out to find pie dough that we could make without fear.

Pie Crusts

While tasters didn't find any store-bought crusts comparable to homemade, they thought one would do in a pinch.

Old-Fashioned Roast Beef Dinner

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Old-Fashioned Roast Beef Dinner

We make a classic American meal starting with a juicy roast with a rich, meaty gravy.

Classic Roast Beef and Gravy

The best roast beef is cooked gently to keep all its juices inside. But without enough pan drippings, how do you make a rich, beefy gravy?

Perfect Popovers

We create a foolproof recipe that produces tall popovers with a crisp exterior and custardy interior every single time.

Plastic Wrap

Our tests showed that wraps either cling or keep food fresh—not both.

Bridget Lancaster reveals the test kitchen’s secrets to a perfect lemon meringue pie with a sky-high topping that won’t weep. And Erin McMurrer makes easy Icebox Key Lime Pie with perfect texture and real lime flavor.

Mile-High Lemon Meringue Pie

Meringue pie can be tricky to prepare. We figure out how to make a perfect lemon meringue pie with a sky-high topping that doesn’t weep.

Icebox Key Lime Pie

Authentic Key lime pie used to be a simple, no-cook dessert. But it contained raw eggs, a no-no in modern times. We develop an eggless refrigerator recipe as bright and custardy as the original.

Stand Mixers (Inexpensive)

Can you buy a solid mixer for under $200?

Rise and Shine

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Rise and Shine

Our Ultimate Cinnamon Buns are tender, gooey, and unapologetically large. We also create a better-than-the-box pancake mix that delivers made-from-scratch flavor even faster.

Ultimate Cinnamon Buns

Ultimate cinnamon buns should be tender, gooey, and unapologetically large. Tragically, most recipes yield lean buns—and ultimate disappointment. We fix that.

Better-Than-The-Box Pancake Mix

We set out to create our own homemade mix, one that delivers store-bought ease and made-from-scratch taste.

Maple and Pancake Syrup

Does it pay to buy the priciest syrup in the aisle—and does it even need to be real maple?

Stovetop Griddles

Which models can take the heat?

Surefire Seafood

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Surefire Seafood

Uncover the test kitchen’s method for making smoky Wood-Grilled Salmon at home. We also reveal the tips and techniques you’ll need to make flavorful stuffed shrimp that holds its shape and is never rubbery.

Wood-Grilled Salmon

Salmon grilled directly on a cedar plank is a Northwest favorite. But can you enjoy wood-perfumed grilled salmon without hunting down hard-to-find planks?

Baked Stuffed Shrimp

We wanted crisp, flavorful stuffing and perfectly cooked shrimp without heading to a restaurant.

Wood-Grilled Salmon

Salmon grilled directly on a cedar plank is a Northwest favorite. But can you enjoy wood-perfumed grilled salmon without hunting down hard-to-find planks?

Tartar Sauce

The best tartar sauce should be creamy and balanced—and definitely not gloppy.

Top Kitchen Essentials

We've tested thousands of knives, pots, pans, and gadgets over the years. Here's a list of the items that we feel are essential in every kitchen.

Super Fudgy Cake

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Super Fudgy Cake

We update a Pillsbury Bake-Off classic reengineering the recipe to replace a no-longer-made ingredient. Christopher Kimball also reveals the top test kitchen tips about how to use your oven for baking.

Tunnel of Fudge Cake

The original recipe relied on a now-defunct ingredient. But that didn’t mean this historic cake needed to be out of production too.

Boxed Brownie Mixes

Do any come close to homemade?

Southern BBQ

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Southern BBQ

Bridget Lancaster makes Big Bob’s famous Alabama BBQ Chicken with a unique white barbecue sauce. She serves it along side Tangy Apple-Cabbage Slaw.

Alabama BBQ Chicken

We recreate this classic Alabama BBQ dish, one that features an ingredient unfamiliar to most cooks: white barbecue sauce.

Tangy Apple-Cabbage Slaw

We reveal the secrets to tender cabbage, crunchy apples, and the sweet-and-spicy dressing that brings them together in this Southern barbecue side dish.

Iced Tea

Do specialty packages blended specifically for iced tea really make a better pitcher than a chilled-down version of the old-fashioned stuff?

Fail-Safe Thanksgiving

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Fail-Safe Thanksgiving

Bridget Lancaster makes an Old-Fashioned Roast Turkey with Gravy, revisiting a classic technique known as larding. She also reveals the secrets to quick and easy Garlic Mashed Potatoes.

Old-Fashioned Roast Turkey with Gravy

Even with a lot of time and effort, white meat can be dry, chalky and flavorless. We set out to find an easy, foolproof method that ensures moist, flavorful meat.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Infusing mashed potatoes with the flavor of roasted garlic is easy—if you have an extra hour to roast a head of garlic. Our goal was to find an easier way.

Frozen Dinner Rolls

How often do you really have the time to bake a yeast roll from scratch?

Texas Beef Barbecue

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Texas Beef Barbecue

We bring a Texas favorite home—Shredded Barbecued Beef and we pair it with a unique take on a classic side dish: Ranch Potato Salad.

Shredded Barbecued Beef

Barbecuing a beef roast until it’s smoky and tender sounds like a great idea. But dry, bland meat isn’t much reward for a day’s worth of cooking. We find a better—and faster—way.

Ranch Potato Salad

Bottled ranch dressing sounds like a quick way to dress up potato salad, but most versions are dull and bland. We fix that with a homemade dressing and a novel approach for flavoring the spuds.

Whole Wheat Bread

Our tasters wanted wheat, not sweetness.

Stovetop Desserts

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Stovetop Desserts

Bridget Lancaster solves the problem of mealy peaches and shows host Christopher Kimball how to make juicy Skillet Peach Cobbler with crisp cobbles. Erin McMurrer updates an old-fashioned recipe for Blueberry Grunt using a Dutch oven.

Skillet Peach Cobbler

A watery filling and soggy cobbles are just two of the more common problems with this classic summer fruit dessert. We set out for a solution.

Blueberry Grunt

This oddly named dessert promises juicy berries topped with biscuity dumplings—and there’s no need to turn on the oven. But it can easily become a soggy, bland mess.

Fresh Lemon Substitutes

We found two emergency substitutions.

Ice Cream Makers (Inexpensive)

Could a $50 appliance make ice cream that tasted creamier and fresher than our favorite store-bought brand? Yes… and no.

Perfect Pork

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Perfect Pork

We make Grilled Mustard-Glazed Pork with a deeply caramelized crust and Christopher Kimball shares the test kitchen tips for gas grilling. Later, Erin McMurrer makes Cider-Braised Pork Chops in a skillet.

Grilled Mustard-Glazed Pork Loin

We dress up pork roast by giving it a flavorful, deeply caramelized crust on the grill and serve it with a savory-sweet mustard glaze.

Cider-Braised Pork Chops

Discover the test kitchen’s secret to infusing pork chops with deep, rich apple flavor.

Coarse-Grain Mustard

Coarse-grain mustard is considered by many a must for grilled sausage or a ham sandwich. Which one should you buy?

Historical Cakes

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Historical Cakes

Bridget Lancaster bakes our bright and tender Red Velvet Cake and Erin McMurrer updates a 100-year-old recipe for Cold-Oven Pound Cake.

Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Beyond this dessert’s shocking bright red color, there’s something more—an extra-tender cake and fluffy cream cheese frosting.

Cold-Oven Pound Cake

A 100-year-old recipe claims that starting in a cold oven yields a pound cake that is especially tall and boasts a crisp crust. Can this unlikely recipe really work?

Loaf Pans

Loaf pans range in price from $4 to $75. Are the higher prices justified?

Chili and Cornbread

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Chili and Cornbread

We’ll reveal the secrets to authentic-tasting Chili con Carne at home and how to make Southern-Style Skillet Cornbread with hearty corn flavor.

Chili Con Carne

We create a simple, authentic-tasting version of this Tex-Mex classic using supermarket ingredients.

Southern-Style Skillet Corn Bread

Dry-toasting the cornmeal before mixing the batter maximizes the corn flavor in this savory bread.

Can Openers

Which model blows the lid off the competition?

Fried Chicken

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Fried Chicken

Host Christopher Kimball demonstrates the safe and proper way to fry at home, while Bridget Lancaster shares the test kitchen techniques for making crisp and spicy Creole Fried Chicken. Later Bridget shows the steps for perfect, grilled corn on the cob.

Creole Fried Chicken

Our fried chicken is deeply seasoned with the complex, lively heat of black, white, and cayenne peppers.

Grilled Corn on the Cob

Grilling corn sounds like a simple proposition—but our research found dozens of failed cooking methods for this classic summer vegetable.

Microwave Popcorn

Americans spend over $1 billion annually on unpopped popcorn kernels. Is there a brand of microwave popcorn that can come close to homemade popcorn?

Dutch Ovens

Our favorite Dutch ovens cost more than $200. Ouch! Is there a cheaper version that performs almost as well? Yes. It costs $40.

FEATURED EPISODE: SOUTHERN BBQ

Chocolate Blackout Cake

Strawberry Poke Cake

Milk Chocolate

Extra-Crunchy Fried Chicken

All-American Potato Salad

Hard-Cooked Eggs

Potato Chips

Old-Fashioned Roast Pork

Cranberry-Apple Crisp

Pepper Mills

Classic Barbecued Chicken

Classic Barbecued Chicken on a Gas Grill

Best Potluck Macaroni and Cheese

Barbecue Sauce

California Barbecue Tri-Tip and Beans

Santa Maria Salsa

Salsas

Essential Grilling Gadgets

Fluffy Diner-Style Cheese Omelet

Short Order Home Fries

Orange Juice

Cast-Iron Skillets

Meatballs and Marinara

Italian Sunday Gravy

Jarred Pasta Sauce

Large Saucepans

Chicago-Style Barbecued Ribs

Cincinnati Chili

Cheddar Cheese

Smoked Double-Thick Pork Chops

Smoked Double-Thick Pork Chops on a Gas Grill

Tennessee-Whiskey Pork Chops

Top Kitchen Essentials

Lexington-Style Pulled Pork For Charcoal Grill

Memphis Chopped Coleslaw

Hot Dogs

Tabletop Grills

Broiled Steaks

Super-Stuffed Baked Potatoes

Steak Knives

Electric Knife Sharpeners

Electric Knives

Sunday-Best Garlic Roast Beef

Mashed Potato Casserole

Liquid Dish Detergent

Raspberry Chiffon Pie

No-Fear Pie Crust

Pie Crusts

Classic Roast Beef and Gravy

Perfect Popovers

Plastic Wrap

Mile-High Lemon Meringue Pie

Icebox Key Lime Pie

Stand Mixers (Inexpensive)

Ultimate Cinnamon Buns

Better-Than-The-Box Pancake Mix

Maple and Pancake Syrup

Stovetop Griddles

Wood-Grilled Salmon

Baked Stuffed Shrimp

Wood-Grilled Salmon

Tartar Sauce

Top Kitchen Essentials

Tunnel of Fudge Cake

Boxed Brownie Mixes

Alabama BBQ Chicken

Tangy Apple-Cabbage Slaw

Iced Tea

Old-Fashioned Roast Turkey with Gravy

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Frozen Dinner Rolls

Shredded Barbecued Beef

Ranch Potato Salad

Whole Wheat Bread

Skillet Peach Cobbler

Blueberry Grunt

Fresh Lemon Substitutes

Ice Cream Makers (Inexpensive)

Grilled Mustard-Glazed Pork Loin