More than 1 million home cooks rely on Cook’s Illustrated magazine to provide trusted recipes that work, honest equipment reviews and ingredient taste tests, and time-saving kitchen tips. Published by the hosts of America’s Test Kitchen television series, Cook’s Illustrated is known for an almost fanatical approach to creating the best recipes for the home cook’s favorite foods. To do this, they test every recipe 20, 30, sometimes up to 100 times in their own 2,500 square foot test kitchen where they make the mistakes so you don’t have to. They also test and recommend which kitchen equipment is the best to use, which supermarket ingredients really make a difference and which techniques work best for the home cook. And because Cook’s Illustrated is advertising free, you can trust their objective ratings to identify what products are worth your money and which to avoid. Subscribe to Cooks Illustrated here, or sign up for the Perfectly Plated Sweepstakes for the chance to win $5,000 in merchandise from Ballard Designs.
For a robust, sweet-tart sangria recipe, we started with cheap wine, which actually makes a better sangria than the expensive stuff. We experimented with untold varieties of fruit to put in our sangria recipe and finally concluded that simpler is better. We preferred the straightforward tang of citrus in the form of oranges and lemons and we discovered that the zest and pith as well as the fruit itself make an important contribution to flavor. Orange liqueur is standard in recipes for sangria, and after experimenting we found that here, as with the wine, cheaper was just fine, this time in the form of triple sec.
- 2 large juice oranges, 1 cut into ¼-inch-thick slices, 1 juiced
- 1 large lemon, cut into ¼-inch-thick slices
- ¼ cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons Triple Sec
- 1 (750-ml.) bottle fruity white wine (medium-bodied), chilled (see above note)
- 6 - 8 ice cubes
- Add orange and lemon slices and sugar to large pitcher; mash gently with wooden spoon until sugar dissolves and fruit releases some juice but is not completely crushed, about 1 minute. Stir in orange juice, Triple Sec, and wine; refrigerate for at least 2 and up to 8 hours.
- Before serving, add ice cubes and stir briskly to redistribute settled fruit and pulp; serve immediately.
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Sandy
I’m always interested in photos of food, but have to substitute ingredients because of allergies. This food looks fabulous! But I can’t have fruit, spinach, wheat, dairy, soy and olive. I love Ballard designs! How nice that they show it off with food!
Still looking for simple cooking… SR
Caroline @ How to Decorate
Hi Sandy,
Thanks for your comment. Unfortunately we don’t have any suggestions in terms of substitutions for these Cooks Illustrated recipes! We’re so sorry!
The How to Decorate Team