Taste of Home Best Loved Recipes...Review

Real recipes from real home cooks—they’re what make Taste of Home one of America’s most popular—and most trusted—names in home cooking. Over the years, we’ve featured tens of thousands of recipes in our magazines and websites. But what makes this book so special is that it features not just great recipes. Not just award-winning recipes.

These are our best-loved recipes: The ones that conjure up heavenly aromas, that bring you back to Sunday dinner tables, summer picnics and holiday parties, that call vividly to mind the special cooks who made them. The ones that make you close your eyes, smile and say, “Mmmmm!” They’re all here—cook-off winners and bake-sale favorites, must-have comfort foods and secret family recipes, regional specialties packed with flavor and style.

This collection contains 1,485 of the most requested, most beloved dishes, all submitted by Taste of Home readers. Recipes for all occasions are included from Blueberry Cheesecake Flapjacks to Caramel Apple Bread Pudding, mouthwatering main dishes from Creamy Seafood-Stuffed Shells to Chicken with Rosemary Butter Sauce, and delicious dessert recipes from Magnolia Dream Cheesecake to Chocolate Ganache Tarts. Here’s what else is included:

Top 100 favorites recipes
Prep/Cook Times
Recipe comments from our web community
Everyday ingredients
Easy-to-follow directions
How-to photos
Cooking tips
26 chapters
20 photo sections with 400 full-color photos

The most cherished magazine features are included: Mom Made it Best, Our Favorite Contributor’s Meals, Mealtime Express, Cooking for One or Two, Grand-Prize Winners and Potluck Picks. Besides special features, the remaining chapters cover everything from appetizers and beverages to entrees and sides and breads and desserts.

This is a big cookbook and it's bulky.  It took several evenings for me to look through the entire thing and mark recipes I wanted to try and there were a lot.  One cold evening, however, I remembered a soup recipe I'd seen and I found it easily in the Index.  And, like you've come to expect from Taste of Home recipes, I had all the necessary ingredients on hand which was nice.

One thing I have always loved about the Taste of Home magazines is the photos.  Nearly every recipe in a magazine will have a photo.  Here, there are about 400 photos for 1485 recipes and those photos are bunched together in sections.  Not my favorite structure.  I prefer photos with the recipes.

The Mealtime Express section is cool, with the whole menu planned by theme: Mexican, Sandwiches, etc.  The Index is good and something that will be well used, as it's the quickest way to find a particular recipe and you can search by alphabet or main ingredient or recipe type.  There's also an index where you can search by year, but I'm not sure why you would. I also liked that there were suggestions from people who had commented online after preparing some of the recipes.

One of the recipes I've prepared is Mexican Chicken Corn Chowder and it was a hit.  You can see the recipe here.  It will go into our soup rotation.

Overall, this is a cookbook I like.  It's one that I know will get a lot of use.

Thanks to Leyane at FSB Associates for the opportunity to review this book.  You can purchase your own copy here.

Read 11/12

* * * *
4/5 Stars