When you’re ready to step up your culinary skills without investing in a cooking school, you should watch “America’s Test Kitchen” on PBS. It’s kind of a Consumer Reports version of a food show where they experiment with cooking products, recipes and techniques, testing them over and over until they come up with the best way of doing things. So instead of showing off some bizarre recipe you can make in three minutes, you might learn how to make perfect manicotti, with noodles that don’t fall apart, a sauce that’s not runny and a finished product you know will be perfect every time. You would also learn what the best noodles to use are, along with the best Parmesan cheese and the best garlic press.

Unfortunately, I am never home when the show airs, and I forget to record them. But I recently learned the shows came out on DVD. The latest collection from season 8 was released on July 15. It includes 26 programs on four discs that you can watch in entirety or go directly to a specific recipe without any interruptions. I’m still trying recipes from disc one, but so far they are all wonderful.

The recipes include rainy day barbecue pork chops, an incredible-looking lemon layer cake made with homemade lemon curd, cookie jar favorites, Kansas City barbecue, French classics and blueberry scones. And the manicotti — I’ve already made it twice. The test cooks discovered that instead of trying to stuff the cheese filling into slippery noodles that inevitably tear, you should use moistened no-boil lasagna noodles (preferably Barilla) and roll the pasta like they do in Italy. (Get the recipe by going to Sylvia Says at www.stjoenews.net).

The bottom line: For me, actually watching someone make a recipe eliminates any confusion. You can stop and rewind, if necessary, to see exactly how to spread the filling and roll the noodles, for example. My only complaint is you don’t get the printed version of the recipes with the DVD collection, so you will either need to write the recipe down as you watch or find them online at www.americastestkitchen.com. The collection sells for $39.95. To order, call (800) 949-8670 or visit http://shop wgby.org.

Sylvia Anderson can be reached at sylviaanderson@npgco.com