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The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, 13th edition
Marion Cunningham, editor (Knopf)
Can a 94-year-old kitchen bible honor its 19th-century roots and
still keep abreast of new developments? That seems to be the
assignment Marion Cunningham, the current Fannie Farmer Cookbook editor, has set herself. In the 12th edition, published in 1979,
Cunningham cleared the shelves of the packaged contrivances that had
crept in over the decades, replacing them with fresh ingredients and
resurrecting some of Fannie Farmer's earliest entries. Now, with this
revision, she accommodates a few of the contemporary trends she
previously slighted: She reduces the amount of animal fat in some
recipes, admits ''new ethnic flavors'' here and there, and adds
chapters on outdoor grilling, microwaving, and vegetarian fare.
Cunningham's heart really isn't in these new directions — many of her
ethnic dishes are of the hyphenated — American variety, and her
vegetarian recipes rely heavily on butter, cream, and cheese- but she
had to make the gesture to maintain Fannie Farmer's status as a
comprehensive, all-purpose resource. Use it as you would your
reliable Aunt Fannie, who may be willing to bend a bit but is best
consulted for her tried- and-true recipes. B
The New American Kitchen Michael McLaughlin
(Simon & Schuster)
Unlike Marion Cunningham, McLaughlin takes a relentlessly creative
approach to the old, the nouvelle, and the retro in this menu
cookbook described by its publishers as ''postmodern.'' That's a fair
enough label for a sensibility that stirs sun-dried tomatoes (''the
catsup of the eighties'') into an old-fashioned meat loaf; tosses
cornmeal fettuccine and quail in a sauce of cream, cheese, Madeira,
red pepper strips, and shiitake mushrooms; and still accommodates a
''farm-inspired'' meal of glazed smoked ham. But as with postmodern
architecture, one person's harmony is another's mishmash. Which is
just to say that some of us prefer our turkey-and-cheddar sandwiches
without hot pepper jelly, our fish (and for that matter our vinegar)
without raspberries and sugar. McLaughlin describes his food as
casual and entertaining, which is true enough: Except for three menus
for holiday dinners, the dishes aren't elaborate, but they can be
showy. Like the Silver Palate Cookbook, which McLaughlin helped
write, this solo flight of fancy treats cooking as a performance art. B-
Mrs. Witty's Home-Style Menu Cookbook
Helen Witty (Workman)
The title is a tip-off to ''Mrs. Witty's'' stance in this collection
of well- honed favorites. Where other purveyors of American food
might pay homage to James Beard, Helen Witty confesses her debt to
Ann Batchelder, food editor at the Ladies' Home Journal during the
foursquare '40s and '50s. Witty begins defiantly with Batchelder's
recipe for that hard-times toast topper, creamed chipped beef. But
Witty differs from Jane and Michael Stern, those other celebrants of
American square meals: Where the Sterns wink at the kitsch in their
kitchens, Witty actually prefers such old-time staples as pot roast
and pineapple upside-down cake — and she makes a point of finding
excellent versions of them. This canny cook borrows a trick or two
from fancy French chef Jacques Pepin. But when she adapts his gratin
dauphinois she calls the dish scalloped potatoes. B+
Curries and Bugles: A Memoir and a Cookbook of the British Raj
Jennifer Brennan (HarperCollins)
Jennifer Brennan's comfort foods are of the glamorous sort.
Brennan grew up in India, a ''child and grandchild of the British
Raj,'' and was weaned on a ''fusion'' cuisine that combines cold ham and
naan bread, chapattis spread with Scotch whiskey marmalade, and a
cardamom-flavored basmati pilaf followed by ''tipsy laird'' trifle. Her
recipes may not reach the sumptuous heights attained in the cookbooks
of Madhur Jaffrey or Julie Sahni, but they are surprisingly
undemanding, yet still rich in Indian tradition. B+
