Posted on: Wednesday, June 5, 2002

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
The recipe for a good cookbook

By Wanda A. Adams
Food Editor

Someone asked the other day what makes a good cookbook.

First, it's your interest in the subject. Many community and fund-raiser cookbooks are pretty amateurish, but there are several I use frequently for their local-style recipes.

But for a $25 cookbook, my standards are high. I expect the recipes to have been tested and to work as advertised. I expect the recipe style to be logical. And I expect well-researched information and a cross-referenced index.

Although a few of my cookbooks use a narrative recipe format (ingredients are nested in the text), they are rare classics — James Beard's "Delights and Prejudices," M.F.K. Fisher's books.

In general, I think ingredients should be given in list form, in the order in which the they will be used, followed by technique. Every ingredient should be included, including those that might seem "obvious," i.e., water for boiling, flour for dusting the counter, garnish.

I want Julia Child-style detail. I am not intimidated by a long recipe if it's giving me information that helps me succeed — warnings like, "it will look underdone but it will continue cooking once it's removed from the oven" or visual keys such as "process until it forms pea-size lumps."

How do you tell this about a book before you cook from it? First, spend some time in the bookstore. Look carefully through pretty much every page in the book. Find a recipe with which you are familiar and read through it, mentally assembling the dish. Ask yourself, does this fit with what I know?

Now check the index. Anyone who spends time creating a good index probably spent time testing the recipes and becoming familiar with the ingredients. Pick a dish and try to find it several different ways. Chicken Paprikash should be listed under Chicken, Meats, Paprika, Paprikash, Hungarian and possibly also under the technique, Braising, or style of dish, Casserole or Stew.

I'm also fond of alphabetical ingredient and/or technique guides. These are helpful when you're unfamiliar with the cuisine or the book's aim is to teach particular techniques (such as cake-baking or pressure-cooking). I love books that offer master recipes and then suggest variations.

Pictures aren't necessary, but they help. We're all more likely to prepare a recipe if we know what it's supposed to look like. Books in which every recipe is pictured, and every recipe is contained to one page (so you don't have to stop and wash your hands in order to turn the page) are appealing.

But because the cost of that much photography is high, these books tend to be expensive and relatively thin. I'd rather invest in a more comprehensive book on a particular subject than buy a bunch of lightweight, pretty books.