* THE REISSUES, THE REPRINTS, AND THE NEWER EDITIONS...

* THE REISSUES, THE REPRINTS, AND THE NEWER EDITIONS...

...all reflect a boom in the cookbook publishing business. A paperback reprint will lower the cost to the purchaser, and also give a publisher a chance to correct egregious errors or add a postscript. Some will reissue a book in paper covers with a new layout or photos. Others will rearrange existing material to present it as more informative text while keeping the focus tight. Some magazines will reissue popular or classic recipes in an "easy" format. Here are some recent "re-editions"...

15.SOURDOUGH FROM SCRATCH; slow down, make bread (Hardy Grant Quadrille, 2020, 2021, 160 pages, ISBN 978-1-78713-695-3, $24.99 flexiboard covers) is by James Morton. It is based on (and has been extracted from) a larger book published in 2020, "Super Sourdough". This is a basic guidebook at a decent price for an easy procedure that just takes time sitting around and must be routinely fed in even less time than a household pet. And no walking either – the perfect pandemic time occupier. The hardest part is just setting up a schedule for the various procedures. Sourdoughs work on their own but you do need to know how to take care of your starter. This is your refrigerated pet: yeast. Morton has a glossary of key ingredients and key recipes, plus advice on how to take care, how to get a "perfect" crust and crumb, and a long chapter on troubleshooting. He's got nine core recipes, including pretzels, crispbread, Danish rye, brioche, Frisco style white bread, and (of course) the levain. Everything is scaled (in metric) with bakers' percentages. A great looking basic manual, welcomed because of its troubleshooting section. Quality/price rating: 93.

16.THE NOODLE BOWL; over 70 recipes for Asian-inspired noodle dishes (Ryland Peters and Small, 2015, 2020, 160 pages, ISBN 978-1-78879-235-6, $19.95 hardbound) is by Louise Pickford, a food writer now living in France with over 15 cookbooks to her credit (many for Ryland Peters & Small). It was originally published in 2015 as "Oodles of Noodles", and is back again in a revised format. Here she runs through the basic types of wheat noodles, buckwheat, rice sticks, sweet potato, flat rice, cellophanes, vermicelli, rice paper, buckwheat, and more. There are 70 recipes here for mostly Asian noodles. After the basics, she delves into separate chapters called for in soups, salads, apps, stir-fries and curries. Each prep has a full colour photo. A very good, well-prepared book. Some interesting preps include steamed rice noodle dumplings with scallops; vegetarian spring rolls; shio ramen with pork and eggs; num banh chok; seared salmon and green tea noodle salad. The book could have been improved if it also used more metric in the recipes, or at least had a metric conversion chart. Quality/price rating: 88

17.EGGS ALL DAY (Ryland Peters & Small, 2016, 2021, 160 pages, ISBN 978-1-78879-346-9 $27.99 hardbound) is a publisher's book with recipe contributions from 34 different cookbook writers. But mostly they are from Miranda Ballard, Tonia George, Shelagh Ryan, and Laura Washburn. It ws originally published in 2016 as "100 Ways with Eggs". These are 100 ways to do eggs (boiled, baked, fried, scrambled) from breakfasts to salads, hashes, desserts and cocktails. There is also included the usual food safety notice for when dealing with raw eggs. Pea, basil and feta fritters with roast tomatoes caught my eye, as did matambre (Argentine stuffed flank steak). The book could have been improved if it also used more metric in the recipes, or at least had a metric conversion chart. Quality/price rating: 87.

Chimo! www.deantudor.com