Despite the popularity of online recipe sites, publishers are still churning out cookbooks. Looking at cookbooks in a well-stocked bookstore or even on websites can be a daunting experience. I’ve developed a list of criteria to guide me in acquiring a new volume (or three):
- Am I likely to use it? Is this a cookbook that adds to my repertoire or knowledge base?
- Do the recipes look well-written and reality-based? Recipe testing and cookbook editing are lost arts.
- Do the number of recipes justify the cost? As an example: I searched amazon.com for cauliflower cookbooks for my post, The Cinderella Vegetable. One touted 25 recipes for $12.99. That comes to 52 cents per recipe. That flunked the value test. Twenty years ago I considered 10 cents per recipe a good value; however, one has to adjust for inflation. Nowadays if a cookbook costs more than 25 cents per recipe, the sidebars, photos, and how-to’s had better make up for the dearth of recipes.
A cookbook that fails the first two criteria are rejected outright. If the third criterion isn’t quite met, I just wait until the cookbook goes on the sale table.
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