The Make-Ahead Cook: 8 Smart Strategies for Dinner Tonight

The book contains some repeat recipes from other American Test Kitchen cookbooks, mostly in the Slow Cooker section.It is not a book devoted to one make ahead strategy, rather it contains eight different techniques. I enjoyed the variety of ways to prep from making ahead by several hours to freezer meals that keep for a month.Prep Ahead contains 27 recipes designed to be prepped the day before and then cooked the day of. Reheat and Eat contains 17 things to can cook, some several day a head, and then reheat the day you need them. Bake and Serve has 17 recipes that can be prepped the day before and then baked off the next day. From Fridge to Table contains 20 mostly cold or room temp dishes that go straight from the fridge to the table, sometimes with a small amount of work.Shop Smart advises how to shop and then turn the ingredients into three different recipes. There are eight menus of three recipes each, two are vegetarian. The Sunday Cook shows you how to make a large amount of food and then use the left overs later. There are recipes for roast chicken, turkey breast, pork, roast beef, pot roast and leg of lamp and then two different options to use the left overs from those large meals.Come Home to Dinner is 22 slow cooker recipes, but many of these appear in their other slow cooker cookbooks. Stock the Freezer has 19 freezer recipes that each make two casseroles, one of which can be baked the day you make the item and the other can be saved.What I like the most about this cookbook are not the recipes themselves (though I have made the meatloaf, several pasta salads, the curried chicken thighs over brown rice and the enchiladas and all are excellent), but the techniques they teach. I never would have thought to put a meat loaf on a cooking rack to bake so the grease would drain off nor would it have occurred to me how to keep enchiladas from getting soggy while sitting over night in the fridge.(I won’t give away their method, but it is ingenious.)I think the weakest sections are the Slow Cooker section, which is a lot of things that even if I haven’t seen them before, they feel super familiar, and the Freezer Section, which contained some manicotti that were a disaster when I attempted them.While I agree this isn’t a freezer cookbook, as some reviewers have pointed out, I never thought it was going to be. I don’t own a big freezer and much prefer to prep one day and cook the next. As someone who works full time, loves to host and has to plan ahead to do so, I’ve really loved this cook book.

America's Test Kitchen is such a wonderful resource, with its scientific attitude toward cooking and tireless trials of myriad approaches to the same recipe. Its Make-Ahead Cookbook is full of good things, like ways to:- Prep ahead to create ready-to-cook meals,- Produce make-ahead stews,- Cook three dinners out of one grocery bag, and- Create slow-cooker classics.I feel obligated, however, to take the book to task for failing to include what I consider an obvious category of make-ahead recipes: homemade convenience mixes. I had assumed there would be a section on these and was disappointed not to find one. Otherwise, The Make-Ahead Cookbook is the usual font of wisdom you would expect from America's Test Kitchen. As an example, a section entitled "Getting to Know Your Freezer" includes a list of "10 Things You Didn't Know You Could Freeze." What are they? No fair telling. The book is nicely formatted and full of good-quality color photos of many dishes, both things I consider important in a cookbook. I especially like the little hints that precede each recipe, something I've appreciated in other cookbooks by America's Test Kitchen..

The best section of the book is the Shop Smart chapter. To have both your menu planning and grocery list already made for you? It is fabulous. I would buy the cookbook for this section alone. The slow-cooker chipotle beef tacos are also excellent, and the leftover meat is great as a sub for chicken in chicken spaghetti. I love to cook, and I enjoy spending a lot of time in the kitchen. This is NOT a quick cookbook - it is a make-ahead cookbook. I'm able to get lots done in the morning so that I have less to do at 5pm when my kids are melting down and needing attention, but I still spend a large amount of total time in meal preparation.

This book is worth every penny and then some. I've never bought a cook book (I'm 25 and have used the Internet for pretty much everything I've ever cooked) but I'm kicking myself for not buying this sooner. Perfect for those of us that want to cook good heathy meals but often resort to frozen pizzas or worse on hectic weeknights. I work outside the home and have a 1 year old so this is great. The quality of the pages is super nice and most sections lay flat while cooking. It's a not a miracle worker (u still have to do work to prep and cook) but it helps u be smart about when ur doing the work, and have nice backup options in the freezer when u just can't lol. The first section is also amazing with tons of storage tips and tricks.

I love the different chapters that offer multiple ways to plan ahead, whether it's freezing, partially cooking, or crockpots. I've tried two recipes so far (the mac n cheese and the black bean chili) and both have been great. I love that the writers modified the recipes to stand up to being reheated, and provide detailed instructions on how to do so without drying it out. This Mac N Cheese is my new go-to for taking casseroles to friends who are ill, have had a baby, etc. This is my second cookbook from America's Test Kitchen and I love them both. The product and ingredient recommendations as well as technique instructions are so helpful. They really do apply science to what they do and the results show!

I bought this book as a gift. You really can't go wrong with America's Test Kitchen books. As the name implies, all of the recipes in their books are "tested," before they make it to print. This ensures that every recipe works, is good, and is reliable. I have a ton of cooking experience (I even worked as a chef at one point) and some of my favorite recipes come straight from the pages of America's Test Kitchen. Everyone who likes to entertain (or even just have a home-cooked dinner on the table every night), could benefit from a "make-ahead" cookbook. This is a great gift for anyone who loves to cook, or even just as a gift to yourself.

I love recipes from America's Test Kitchen. They are always extremely well tested, so you know they are going to work for you the first time. The recipes in The Make Ahead Cook are no exception. Each recipe starts with a section entitled "Why this recipe works", which explains exactly why the recipe comes together so well, and all the choices and decisions the chefs made while testing the recipe. (To me, this is perhaps the best part of the book!)Every nearly recipe has a wonderful full colour picture, and many also feature some preparation shots. These are super handy for letting you know if you are on the right track or not.The book is broken down into nine chapters, ranging from Make-Ahead 101 to Bake and Serve to Stock the Freezer. The recipes themselves cover a wide range, many with meat (beef, pork, chicken, and fish), but also some more vegetarian-friendly options.The ingredients, generally speaking, are ones you should be able to find at any decently stocked grocery store.Like most America's Test Kitchen recipes, the majority of the recipes in this book are not simple "throw a few ingredients together, reheat, and eat". For the most part, these are multi-step, complex (but very well explained) recipes. But the results are totally worth it. Spend the weekend preparing these, and you will spend the week eating some of the best food you've ever made.This recipe book has earned a place in my regular cooking rotation. It is excellent.

Love this book. We've already cooked 12 things from this book. Such a good combination of all sorts of meal types and all make ahead in different ways. Helps a lot with meal planning too. One chapter gives you one grocery list to make three different meals. Something for everyone here and nothing is overly complicated.

Awesome collection of recipes for many different types of make ahead meals. If you are expecting quick and low effort recipes you will be disappointed. They are still typical Cooks Illustrated recipes with lots of steps and required prep time, but the results are always solid.

We bought it as a gift but after thumbing through it we bought another copy for ourselves. For working people it really fills a need. The recipes we have tried are tremendous.

It was worth the money