8 Ways America’s Test Kitchen Is Different from Other Food Sites

Why would anyone pay for a subscription when you can simply Google “free roast chicken recipe”?

At America’s Test Kitchen, we have nearly half a million digital subscribers (a number that is growing every week) for a reason. Here’s why we’re different from every other food site out there.

Some food sites boast of having nearly a million recipes published. At America’s Test Kitchen, it’s always quality over quantity. We have 15,000+ of the very best recipes, developed by professional test cooks in our state-of-the-art kitchen in Boston.

That includes every recipe you see on our TV shows and in our magazines, plus more from many from our award-winning cookbooks. (We’ve published 36 books’ recipes online with plans for more.)

Why only 15,000 recipes? No company can match our rigor. On average, it costs $11,000 in ingredients, labor, and research to develop just one recipe. And every recipe is tested up to 40 times, each version tweaked and finessed until it can't be improved upon.

(Our Texas Barbecue Brisket recipe took two years and 500 pounds of beef to get right!)

And this process includes you via our Recipe Testers Community. Our recipes don’t publish unless 80% of our at-home testers approve.

Our philosophy: By the time we put our ATK name on a recipe, it’s bulletproof. See our recipe development process:

The same rigorous standards that we hold for recipes we apply to our industry-leading equipment and ingredients reviews. From start to finish, all 7,500+ products we’ve reviewed—whether it’s air fryers or fish sticks—undergo a six-week research and testing process.

(Pssst: Many of our product reviews competitors have secretly consulted with us to learn our process.)

See our product testing process:

You’re not only getting a food website, but you're getting access to a team of food-focused personalities, each sharing their deep expertise.

Into food science? Dan Souza’s your guy.

Want expert advice on equipment and gadgets? See Hannah Crowley and Lisa McManus.

Morgan Bolling is here for all things meat and barbecue. Elle Simone Scott is our expert on entertaining and food styling.

Kevin Pang weighs in on Chinese cooking. Ashley Moore offers expertise on quick and easy weeknight dinners.

In the comments section of our members-only recipes, you’ll often find the recipe developer personally answering your questions.

Don’t like annoying pop-up ads? Can’t tell if something you read is really sponsored content? Don’t worry. We don’t accept any advertisements on our site.

When you subscribe to America’s Test Kitchen online, you get access to the nearly 800 TV episodes we’ve produced since 1999—all 23 seasons of our flagship America’s Test Kitchen and 15 seasons of Cook’s Country.

Plus, there are nearly 1,000 subscriber-only recipe videos we’ve produced for our magazine, Cook’s Illustrated—with more added on a regular basis. That’s at least 50 times the ATK video content that’s available on our YouTube channel alone.

Here's a taste of a full episode of America's Test Kitchen and Cook's Country:

• The TV shows, podcasts, video shorts, and book content under the America’s Test Kitchen banner.
• The science of cooking and precision of recipes from Cook’s Illustrated.
• The storytelling and culinary exploration from Cook’s Country.

You'll also have full access to our brand new cooking app for iOS and Android, which has all 15,000+ recipes, 7,500+ product reviews, 800 TV episodes, and thousands of videos in one convenient app. (As of publication date, it had a 4.1 star rating in the Apple Apps store.)

There’s a reason half a million people trust America’s Test Kitchen enough to subscribe to our digital site. 

Can we give you a 14-day test run, on us?