Cook's Illustrated

The Best Breakfast

Supermarket Whole Bean Coffee

We secretly replaced our tasters' favorite gourmet coffee with supermarket beans. Could they tell the difference?

Favorite Snacks

Potato Chips

There are endless chip varieties and flavors, but which bag of plain chips should the purist reach for?

also inside

Pantry Staples

Balsamic Vinegar

Few foods demonstrate such a wide range in price or quality. Our tasters decode the mysteries of balsamico.

A Better Bread

Whole Wheat Bread

We rounded up nine types of 100-percent whole wheat bread and headed into the tasting lab to sample them plain and toasted with butter.

Inside The Test Kitchen

Supermarket Extra-Virgin Olive Oils

Supermarket Extra-Virgin Olive Oil

You get what you pay for with most supermarket extra-virgin olive oils: bland, bottom-of-the-barrel, and boring. Is there a brand worth buying?

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Hot Sauce

Our favorite won points for its "bright" and "tangy" notes and potent heat, making it good enough to be not just an ingredient, but also a condiment.

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Whole Wheat Flour

Flour

We set out to learn if there was a single all-purpose flour that could best handle most any recipe. Six months later, we had the answer.

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America's Test Kitchen