The Best American Recipes 1999

The Best American Recipes 1999
The Year's Top Picks From Books,
Magazines, Newspapers & the Internet

Edited by Fran McCullough and Suzanne Hamlin
Series Editors

The Best American Recipes 1999
What if you could subscribe to all the leading food magazines and read the food section of every major newspaper in the country every single week, not to mention intriguing regional papers? What if you could line your bookshelves with every one of the year's best titles and were able to surf the net to find little-known tantalizing recipes, and could have fabulously simple recipes from the back of boxes, recipes from cooking contests and restaurant newletters? and what if you had all the time and expertise to test them all-selecting only the very best.

With The Best American Recipes 1999 you can.

The Best American Recipes 1999: The Year's Top Picks From Books, Magazines, Newspapers & the Internet, edited by Fran McCullough and Suzanne Hamlin, is a hard-won, far-ranging appetizer-to-dessert collection of recipes that add up to many spectacular meals. From across the nation, and from more than 100 cooks and chefs, there are recipes for dress-up, casual, family and make-your-own occasions. Some are unique, some are ethnic treasures, and others are delicious twists on American classics. In addition, the authors included sidebars on cooking techniques, ingredients and wine and beverage suggestions.

"This was a book waiting to happen," says Fran McCullough. "When Suzanne Hamlin and I were approached to be co-editors of this project, we thought "This idea is so great, why hasn't it been done before?" Hamlin adds, "We were able to select recipes from any source. We have no vested interests. We never knew where we would find the keepers-until we tasted them."

Every one of The Best American Recipes made it through an arduous selection process to save other cooks from disappointment. The two editors searched every imaginable source to come up with the year's best. They talked to food editors and checked out Web sites. They cooked their way through more than 500 recipes. Often they found that the ones that looked spectacular on the page yielded pleasant results but not great.

That led the editing duo to ask the question: What is a great recipe? For them, it's one you that you immediately know you want to make again and share with other people. It's one that your friends beg for, the one that earns a permanent place in your culinary repertoire.

There are recipes for every conceivable holiday and celebratory gathering as well as of effortless weekday dinners. For the upcoming fall and winter entertaining marathon, choices include Sweet and Spicy Pecans, Honey-Apple Turkey, Cranberry-Mango Salsa, Cumin-Roasted Sweet Vegetables, Pumpkin Gratin and Wild Rice Turkey Soup. For a midnight millenium celebration, there is Champagne Oyster Stew; for a January 1st reality check there is Weezer's Cheese Pie. For dark and stormy nights, Nancy Silverton's Definitive Hot Fudge Sauce; for serious coffee breaks, Aunt Gussie's Filbert Balls; for a showstopping finale, Lemon-Almond Pound Cake. There are culinary magic tricks such as the Amazing Five-Hour Roast Duck and Breakthrough Polenta. For easy, but memorable everyday dinners, there are Southwestern Black Bean Burgers and The New Chicken Cordon Bleu. For man's best friends and their obedient human servants, there is a succulent French Country Soup for Dogs and Their Owners.

McCullough and Hamlin are both longtime observers of the food scene. They both raised families while working full-time, cooked endless rounds of holiday dinners and entertained friends both spur of the moment and grandly. Fran McCullough is a book editor who discovered such notable cookbook authors as Paula Wolfert, Deborah Madison and Diana Kennedy. She is also the best-selling author of The Low-Carb Cookbook and coauthor of the James Beard award-winning Great Food Without Fuss. Suzanne Hamlin is a founder of the New York Daily News food section, is a food writer for the New York Times and writes for national magazines. During her 30 years as a food writer, Hamlin has worked with the nation's top chefs and culinary talents.

The Best American Recipes 1999 is a main selection of The Good Cook, a division of the Book-of-the-Month Club.

Buy the Book!

The Best American Recipes 1999
The Year's Top Picks from Books,
Magazines, Newspapers and the Internet
Series Editors: Fran McCullough and Suzanne Hamlin
Houghton Mifflin Company, October 1999
Hardcover, $26.00, 228 pages
8 full-color photographs
ISBN: 0-395-96647-7
Information provided by the publisher.