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Rating: 
Summary: HAMLIN AND McCULLOUGH RULE!
Review: An extraordinary achievement,which in the hands of lesser editors could have been a culinary joke or worse, a disaster. The care that Hamlin and McCullough put into the book is everywhere evident: graceful headnotes for each recipe, and tips about cooking based on real experience not only with these recipes, but a lifetime of food exploration and cultivated taste. A wonderful pastiche of ideas, from fine French chefs to able American home cooks. We have the editors to thank for scanning books, magazines, newspapers and newsletters, the net, and any other print-capable media, to choose these 100+ gems. As an experienced cook, I don't normally work from recipes, but I find myself developing a new discipline in the kitchen: following the recipe to the letter, based on trust and admiration for Hamlin and McCullough. Truly, these are the Best American Recipes. Bravo!
Rating:
Summary: My best kitchen friend
Review: Best cookbook I've ever purchased. My family still talks about my Christmas turkey that I marinated in apple cider vinegar and apple juice. All 13 dinner guests ranked it their favorite Christmas dinner. Many of the recipes are now considered "keepers" by my husband, imagine a lamb dish with oranges and anchovies--it's fabulous. I even travel to my daughter's home with this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Best Recipes
Review: Here is what some of us do--collect recipes from all kinds of varying sources, sorted through and published in book form.Tried few recipes thus far, and each lives up to rating: Scallop and Corn Chowder, unique Ricotta Hot Cakes with Honeycomb butter, Port-and-Black-Currant Glazed Chicken Thighs,Roasted Potatoes with Garlic,Lemon and Oregano. For a different closing meal treat, try "Roasted Apricots with Sugared Pecans and Dulce de Leche. It's simple and sooo sooo good! Unique--simple--- zipped up kind of cuisine, with outstanding variety of cuisines and sources--- great collection for varying levels of cook levels. Neat feature is wine offerings with each entree suggested.
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Summary: Great Techniques -- Great Recipes
Review: I am one of those cooks that has never had any formal training (beyond my mother/grandmother) -- so I appreciate the teaching and conversation beyond the recipe. For example, the book details homemade chicken soup and the technique for making an excellent base. This lets me experiment and expand on the ingredients that I like -- so that I can build my "perfect" recipe. The recipes have all turned out well and at the same time, have taught me a lot about cooking. This is an excellent book for an aspiring home cook.
Rating:
Summary: Every recipe is a winner!
Review: I liked this particular cookbook for a quartet of reasons: 1) It has quite a few recipes I've never seen before; 2)for the most part ingredients can be obtained in a regular grocery store; 3) the preparation techniques are within the reach of the average cook; and 4)from the way the recipes read, the final products would appear to taste great, yet appeal to the palates of the average eater. I've only used a couple of recipes so far; and since they have turned out so well, I'm looking forward to trying others.
Rating: 
Summary: Best Recipes for Jan 2002 - Oct 2002 ONLY!
Review: I own The Best American Recipes 1999 & 2000. The recipes I have tried from those books are very good (Pan Roasted Carrots & Creamed Scallions). While I had already made (and loved) some of the other recipes listed from several books in the series (because I have the cookbooks they were pulling them from), I have a huge issue with the newer publication of this seemingly successful book. How can a book claim to have the best recipes from all the varying resources for 2002 AND 2003... when it was published in October 2002?! I am noticing this in Jan of 2003, while we still have an entire year of new recipes yet to be released... and this book will clearly not have any of them. Since I cannot give this 2.5 stars (5 for the recipes and 0 for the misleading title), I opted for 3 because despite the title, it's a good book.
Rating:
Summary: Another must for your library
Review: I'm always intrigued by the recipes that are in magazines and on the back of foodstuffs. Where do draw the line in all the clippings laying around my office. I don't even know what's there anymore. What's a girl to do? Buy this cookbook quick. You'll love the recipes, the tips, everything. Where can I apply to become a recipe tester??
Rating:
Summary: Great recipes
Review: Now that I have gone through this cookbook, I need to go back and find the similar recipe books McCullough has done for the last four years. If this one is any indication, I predict that I will think I died and went to heaven. I cannot wait to try some of the recipes that I earmarked in this book--including some unusual soups, the Garlicky Sun-Dried Tomato Spread (looks good AND easy!), a salad made with prosciutto and sugar snap peas, an Italian beef stew, and more desserts than I have any right to want to taste! I especially liked the conversational tone of the book, the way the recipes are introduced and the tips that accompany them. It's kind of quirky, and I liked that!
Rating:
Summary: McCullough and Hamlin triumph in 1999 and 2000!
Review: This review refers to "Best American Recipes 2000." I noticed that Amazon hasn't always segregated these reviews by year, so I include this information. The review for the 1999 edition is at the bottom, due to Amazon's silliness with this.
I have trusted Fran McCullough ever since she co-authored "Great Food Without Fuss," another book full of easy-but-perfect and unusual recipes. I also loved McCullough and Hamlin's "Best American Recipes 1999," so I bought this for my birthday. WOW. I have had it for 2 weeks, and I cannot stop cooking from it. Just from browsing all the books in "Best American Recipes" series so far, I get the feeling that McCullough/Hamlin is the best co-author team in the series, but I haven't had the others as long, so I'll report back when I've cooked my way through the later ones.
So far, I have made:
Stuffed French Toast with Lemon-Cheese Filling and Blueberries: impressed even the most jaded of palates
Puffy Maine Pancakes: the classic Dutch baby pancake
Fresh Fig, Gorgonzola, and Walnut Salad with Warm Port Vinaigrette: worth the price of the book for the salad dressing alone (requires reducing 1 cup of nonvintage port)
Pasta with Baked Tomato Sauce: so easy, creamy, and lovely, but without any cream
Watermelon Salsa: a salad, actually. My husband and I devoured the recipe that "serves 4," and not because the recipe was skimpy!
Wine Grapes, Walnuts, and Olives: a magical transformation of basic high-quality ingredients. Great as a side dish, or on pasta.
All have perfect directions, incredible flavor, and helpful notes. Main dishes come with a "serve with" menu, with all the recipes included in the book. I love that! Who can resist a foolproof, perfect dinner party menu?
Both this book and the 1999 book have a whole menu for Thanksgiving dinner, including the turkey. Most years, I scour my hundreds of cookbooks and cooking magazines for the perfect menu, never trusting that a particular side dish or dessert will come out as promised. This Thanksgiving, the only hard thing will be deciding between the 1999 and the 2000 menus from the "Best American Recipes" series. From me, this is strong praise, as I have never in my 30+ years of cooking made a whole menu as written from a book or magazine.
Enjoy!
1999:
This review refers to "Best American Recipes 1999." Amazon sometimes prints a copy of the review under a different edition.
McCullough and Hamlin are a great team. They went to great lengths emailing everyone in the food world asking for the best recipes published in the preceding year. They came up with some real winners.
Lately, I'm addicted to the Watermelon Milkshake (yes, where else would you get a recipe that sounds so bad and tastes so good?) I have been freezing the watermelon so I can use Greek (drained) nonfat yogurt and still get that thick and frosty, made-with-ice-cream mouth feel. Lest you think I only like the book for inspiration and doctor/change the recipes, this is not true. I'm sure the vanilla ice cream version would blow my mind (and my diet!).
The Blueberry Lemonade is wonderful, and again, I never would have thought of it. Why not make a lighter, fresher version of blueberry pie in a glass? It's hot today, so I made mine in the blender with ice cubes instead of water.
Obviously, I really appreciate that every year of this series includes some non-alcoholic beverages that delight the taste buds. Enough of sickly-sweet punches!
Actually, clear and consistent goals are things that make this series great. Clearly, there is a Thanksgiving menu. Clearly, there are the nonalcoholic drinks. Clearly, there are summer salads and winter sides. Consistently, there are lovely brunch/breakfast specialties, often with the comment that one is perfect for the morning after Christmas. McCullough and Hamlin know how real people cook, what recipes they need, and they deliver!
Butter and Egg Soup For Newlyweds was as good as any "amuse buche" at a fancy restaurant, and I made it at the last minute on my own birthday!
This book has enticing recipe after recipe, with clear descriptions, clear directions, and perfect results. The "cook's note" next to each recipe helps, as does the suggested "serve with" menu and wine selection.
The suggested menus and wines disappear starting in 2003. I DO hope they are back for 2005!
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