My wonderful family... always helping me out... lol.

Many people know by now I'm trying to lose weight... (and doing well at 12lbs lost, a healthy 2-3lbs a week avg) In this respect I've gotten a gift magazine subscription.

Cook Illustrated

Wonderful magazine! This just doesn't give you recipes and say have at it... this magazine actually TEACHES you how to cook. It gives you the why and how of what you are doing. It tells of their own experiments, what worked, what didn't, and their opinion why. Very well done.

Also, I now know more than I ever wanted to know about eggs... what's inside them, what's outside them, how to use them, what effects age has on taste, and ability to cook with, how to store them, what that pouch of air on the large end of the egg is all about... etc.etc.

I also now know which spatula I'm going to buy next time I'm at a Kitchen Supply shop.

Anyone else have a good experience with this magazine?

What others do you people find useful?

I found it a bit too dry for my taste.

It's pretty technical but the recipes are great after they've tested them 150 times. The product reviews are awesome. Because they don't accept advertising they are willing to rate a less expensive or less known brand higher than the established ones. It's one of my favorites.

Lately Food and Wine has been interesting. The recipes are usually good and not incredibly complex as in some cooking mags.

It is a bit dry, but I enjoy this publication. Some of their recipes are superb. This is where I got the pan roasted chicken recipe (tweaked it a little bit). De-lish

One of my friends swears by it, but I've never purchased it. I always pick it up at the bookstore and thumb through it but haven't found an issue yet that inspires me.

I'm not much of a recipe follower, but I found this to be a good foundation. The evaluations of equipment are great. I've bought cheaper and better knives since reading it.

I love Cooks Illustrated. More so for the information, it's like the Consumer Reports of culinary pursuit. Packed with good stuff. The actual BOOK has some great recipes.

I love it! I've found some great new recipies in there. It's almost like Consumer Reports for food.

Good, but we finally cancelled in favor of Cuisine at Home and Fine Cooking. Those are both excellant magazines.