T1B

Got a solicitation in the mail to subscribe to Cooks Illustrated magazine. Looks sorta interesting. Anyone ever read it? I don’t currently subscribe to any eats-related magazines. I’ve read Bon ApeTit, but would never pay money for it.

Thought about subscribing to that one and / or others in the past.

You have to ask yourself...will you really read it?
Do you have the time to try a lot of new recipes?
Are you in the market for new cookware or appliances?

For me, though it sounds interesting...probably not.

I get Food and Wine. Have been getting it for about 5 years. I skim through it to get ideas, but I rarely do any recipe to the letter. Mostly because the recipes generally have some kind of ingredient I don't have easy access to. I do enjoy the fall/winter editions the most because they usually have very interesting recipes for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners I like to try out. This year I did a pumpkin bisque over Thanksgiving that was excellent.

All in all, I receive this as a yearly gift from my mother in law. She renews my subscription yearly as part of my birthday presents. Personally, I would not buy it myself. Not because I don't like it, but more because I don't have the time or make the time to really get into it. Work, vacations, kids, hobbies all seem to trump sitting down and reading a mag.

I had kept all my past issues, but when we recently moved, my wife asked me if I was really going to go back and read the damn things. I admitted to myself probably not so trashed them all. So, now when I see something in there I think is interesting, I just tear it out and put it in my personal cookbook of recipes in a section of "things to do" and chunk the rest of the mag.

CI is one of my least favorite publications on the subject. Decent recipes and ideas but I'm sorry....hire a fucking food photographer. Food is such a visual thing that only good color photos do it justice.

Fine Cooking is by far the best mag to subscribe to. Great recipes, never had one go wrong. Excellent ideas and themes and not piles of adverts and product sponsored 3 page sections. I paid less than 70 bucks for 3 years which is a steal. Nice thing is that in the final issue of the year there is an index that will help you look up anything from that year with the issue and page number so finding anything is easy.