Culinary Indexing SIG
A Special Interest Group of the American Society for Indexing
Information on Indexing
A Piece of Cake? Cookbook Indexing–Basic Guidelines and Resources
by Cynthia D. Bertelsen
Key Words, Vol. 7/No. 1 (January/February 1999), pp. 1, 6-12. Reprinted with permission
Cookbook indexing? Piece of cake, you think? Not so fast! Cookbooks are a special genre of literature (yes, literature!) that demand a certain expertise among writers and indexers. There are actually books available on how to write cookbooks1. So yes, there is an art and a science to it all, both cookbook writing and cookbook indexing. Contrary to popular belief, not just anyone can index a cookbook well.
Why
not? A cookbook index is just a list of recipes, isn't it? Well, no,
not really. Let's look at what cookbook indexing really demands. First,
subject knowledge is important here: you, the cookbook indexer, should
also be a cook, not of the Swanson's TV-dinner caliber, but rather of
the Julia Child or Alice Waters type. First-hand knowledge of cooking
is indispensable, and not just of American or English cooking. Working
knowledge of ethnic cuisines is also becoming vital for the cookbook
indexer, since many new cookbooks deal with ethnic and cultural aspects
of cooking. Memoir cookbooks, becoming more popular in the last few
years, infuse an historical flavor to the genre, too.
So
what is indexable in a cookbook? Obviously, recipe titles need to be
indexed. But here you can run into a number of distinctly different
cookbook index styles. Next comes the need to index the recipes by the
types of dishes (cakes, etc.), main ingredients, exotic ingredients,
and ethnic and cultural origin; and possibly health parameters (low-fat
recipes, etc.), meal types, holiday dishes, and cooking methods. Mixed
into all of these concerns lie a variety of problems such as foreign
words in recipe titles, multiple entries and synonymous terms,
cross-references, how to recognize proper names in recipes, and how
cooks use indexes.
To summarize, a good cookbook index should include the following indexable items:
* recipe names/titles
* types of dishes (cakes, etc.) or recipe category
* main ingredients
* exotic ingredients
* ethnic dishes under cultural or geographical location headings, where appropriate
* health concerns (low-fat, etc.), where appropriate
* meal types (breakfast, brunch, lunch, snacks, appetizers, supper, dinner, picnic)
* holiday dishes
* cooking methods
In addition, the cookbook indexer must also be concerned with a number of other issues:
* styles of capitalization and pagination in indexes
* alphabetization
* illustrations
* personal names in recipes (e.g., Aunt Helga's Sugar Cookies)
* proper names in indexes (e.g., Newburg, du Barry)
* multiple entries and synonymous terms (e.g,, duxelles = mushrooms)
* cross-references
* foreign words and sorting of foreign articles (e.g., à la, aux)
The
first three items in the list above do not demand any knowledge of
cooking on your part, but the rest of the items do. Let's go through
the cookbook indexing process now, step-by-step.
Indexing the Cookbook: The Step-by-Step Process
The
cookbook pages have just arrived and you, the indexer, are eager to
begin. But where should you begin? A glance at the title page will
usually remind you of the overall focus of the cookbook. A perusal of
the table of contents may illustrate the scope of the text. Since many
cookbooks generally contain little more than the recipes and a brief
note under the recipe title, reading the entire cookbook before
starting to enter terms into the computer is not always necessary.
However, several passes through the book will be necessary in order to
glean the most from the book.
Style
Before
a single term is entered into the computer, you must decide (with your
editor) what index style you will use2. Cookbook indexes are generally
arranged in letter-by-letter sorting and in indented style for entries:
Black beans
about
frijoles negros
Oaxaca tostada bites and rice
Black cherry soup
Black currant duck breasts
Black-eyed peas and barley
Black Label
Black sea bass baked in salt crust
Aside
from these two predictable pillars of cookbook indexing, there are
other aspects that vary according to the wishes of the editor and the
author. Capitalization may be as given in the example above, called
modified lowercase style, in which only the first word of the main
entry is capitalized. Another possibility includes a formal style, in
which all words in main entries (except for articles, coordinating
conjunctions, and prepositions) are capitalized, as are all subheadings
that are recipe names. Information about a recipe or food is not
capitalized:
Black Beans
about
Frijoles Negros
Oaxaca Tostada Bites and Rice
Black Cherry Soup
Black Currant Duck Breasts
Black-Eyed Peas and Barley
Black Label
Black Sea Bass Baked in Salt Crust
Another possibility is the modified uppercase style, in which all recipe titles are capitalized, but other main entries are not:
black beans
about
Frijoles Negros
Oaxaca Tostada Bites and Rice
Black Cherry Soup
Black Currant Duck Breasts
Black-Eyed Peas and Barley
Black Label
Black Sea Bass Baked in Salt Crust
The next option is the informal style, in which only proper names are capitalized:
black beans
about
frijoles negros
Oaxaca tostada bites and rice
black cherry soup
black currant duck breasts
black-eyed peas and barley
Black Label
Black Sea bass baked in salt crust
Last is the currently popular style which lists the recipe names/titles as given, with no inversions:
Lemons
Lemon Curd
Spicy Lemon Oil
Whole Preserved Lemons
The
problem with this style is that it takes up more space in the index
than other styles; it also ignores the need to put like ingredients
near each other in the subheadings. Another example of this style is:
Pies
Apple-Cranberry Pie
Aunt Jenny's Rhubarb Pie
Chiffon Pumpkin Pie
Deep-Dish Apple Pie
Rhubarb-Raspberry Pie
Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pie
Warm Apple Pie with Cheddar Cheese
Rhubarb,
apple, and pumpkin are scattered throughout the subheadings. As a cook,
I do not find this style useful, and when editors ask me to do an index
this way, I point out its shortcomings in terms of index space and
usability.
Page Numbers
Whitman
and Simon state that using inclusive numbers (for example, 323-25)
takes up too much space and that the cookbook user only needs to know
the page on which the recipe starts. They suggest that using page
ranges is only necessary when text, and not recipes, is indexed3. As a
cook, I do not agree with this, because if a recipe is long, spanning
several pages, I want to know that before I commit to the recipe. If a
recipe is long, it usually means "time-consuming" and therefore won't
do for a quick supper. Indexes that allow me to determine this
information without taking the time to turn to the recipe are much more
useful to me.
In some text-rich cookbooks, such as memoir cookbooks, page numbers for recipes can be set in bold type to ensure that the user does not look up something for which there is only discussion and no recipe.
Recipe Names and Main Ingredients
Indexing recipe names can be straightforward when it is a question of the type of dish and a main ingredient:
Pumpkin pie
Pie
Pumpkin
But
most frequently, more comes into play. What happens when you index
Lentil and Sultana Salad? In this case, there are two equally important
main ingredients:
Lentil(s)
and sultana salad
Raisin(s)
lentil and sultana salad
Salad(s)
lentil and sultana
Sultanas. See Raisin(s)
(This
example points to another style decision, that of the "s" being
enclosed in parentheses. Some editors like the style and others loathe
it.)
Or take deviled chicken with mustard coating, an example of cooking styles:
Chicken
deviled
Deviled chicken with mustard coating
Mustard
coating for deviled chicken
If
there were more than one deviled dish in the cookbook, a heading of
"deviled dishes" might be useful if you have unlimited space for the
index, not the usual occurrence.
When cooking methods are
included in recipe names, the cooking method is usually the subheading,
or is inverted if there is only one entry in the index:
Pork
chops, sautéed
Pork chops, sautéed
Lentil(s)
patties, deep-fried
Lentil patties, deep-fried
Fennel, braised
Another aspect of cookbook indexing concerns the cooking method and the main ingredient:
Beef
Ginger-Cured, Cambodian
Grilled, with Dipping Sauce
Grilled, with Lemongrass Paste
Marinated, with Lime Sauce
Stew, Sweet
Stir-Fried, with Bitter Melon
Stir-Fried, with Chinese Celery
Stir-Fried, with Pineapple
If you are lucky, your editor might give you the option of having two levels of subheadings as in:
Beef
Ginger-Cured, Cambodian
Grilled
with Dipping Sauce
with Lemongrass Paste
Marinated, with Lime Sauce
Stew, Sweet
Stir-Fried
with Bitter Melon
with Chinese Celery
with Pineapple
This
of course saves the repetition found in the previous example. However,
in my experience with multi-level cookbook indexes, this format
sometimes makes it more difficult to quickly grasp what it is that is
being, for example, stir-fried. There is an extra step there, which is
to find the words "Stir-Fried" and then to move the eye over and down.
If the print is small, this format can be less desirable. However, in
some cases sub-subheadings can be very useful, as in the following:
Bread soups
Acquacotta
from the Casentino
with ricotta, from Monte Amiata
with Wild Mushrooms
Ribollita
Tomato-Bread Soup
When space is crucial, run-in subheadings can be substituted for the usual indented style.
This
discussion must also include a comment on the growing tendency to
include many terms in thc recipe name/title that might appear to be
indexable but probably are not. For example, in the recipe Baked
Mexican Bananas with Cinnamon, cinnamon is a minor ingredient and there
is therefore no need to index the recipe under cinnamon. Another
example is that of Chinese Dumplings with Chives and Ginger, in which
chives are not a major ingredient in the recipe and neither is ginger.
Depending on the type of cookbook, however, it might be useful in some
cases to index "chives" or "ginger," in the case of an herb cookbook or
a book on spices, respectively.
Multiple Entries and Synonymous Terms
This is where knowledge of cooking becomes crucial:
Appetizers
hummus
Chickpeas
hummus
Dips and spreads
hummus
Garbanzos. See Chickpeas
Hummus
Middle Eastern dishes
hummus
Spreads. See Dips and spreads
Here
you have meal type (appetizers), main ingredient (chickpeas),
cross-references (dips and spreads, garbanzos, spreads), recipe name
(Hummus), and cultural or ethnic divisions (Middle Eastern dishes).
Knowledge of cultural culinary terminology becomes increasingly
important as greater numbers of international cookbooks are published.
(A number of resources are listed at the end of this article, which
will assist with culinary terminology.)
Personal and Proper Names in Recipes
Personal
and proper names in recipes are quite common. Attributions are usually
not indexed by name. Toll-House Cookies, Mornay Sauce, and Parker House
Rolls are all common recipe names and should be indexed as such. On the
other hand, Aunt Helga's Sugar Cookies or Luigi's Bean Soup should
preferably be treated as follows:
Cookies
sugar, Aunt Helga's
Bean(s)
soup, Luigi's
Soup(s)
bean, Luigi's
If
space permits, the titles could be indexed as they are given, but most
index users will look for the ingredient or the type of dish first
unless they have read the cookbook or used the recipe before.
Exotic Ingredients
Make
it a practice to read each recipe in depth, pulling out and indexing
ingredients that are considered exotic. Why? If a cook has to buy an
expensive special ingredient for a recipe, he or she will want to know
how else to use that ingredient before the mold grows on it or it dries
up. Exotic can be olives, anchovies, goat cheeses, fresh herbs, tapioca
or potato starches, unusual grains like spelt or teff, roasted fish
powder (yes!), etc.
Cross-References
Under
the section above, "Multiple Entries and Synonymous Terms," the index
user is referred from garbanzos to chickpeas, the preferred term. Other
examples of the use of see references might include:
Soups
stocks (see Stocks)
Stocks
beef
chicken
fish
vegetable
Broad entries like "Fruit" or "Vegetables" might merit the following see reference:
Fruit. See also specific fruits
choosing fresh
dried
salads
See also references refer the index user to similar ingredients or dishes:
Cornmeal. See also Polenta
storing
stuffings
Polenta
fried
sauces for
with three cheeses
Foreign Words and Recipe Names
Foreign
recipe names can be italicized, but a simpler method is to leave all
index entries in roman type. Some publishers require that both the
foreign and English titles be indexed with the translation in
parentheses after the main entry:
Black beans and rice (Moros y cristianos)
Moros y cristianos (Black beans and rice)
Putting
translations into subheadings can get messy, so it is better to choose
either the foreign version or the English version and consistently
include those in the appropriate subheadings. One way to handle this is:
Italian dishes
focaccia
insalata d'estate
marinara sauce
minestrone
risotto con salsicce e fagioli borlotti
Or,
use both English headings and Italian headings with the appropriate
language in the subheadings. If the audience for the cookbook is not
thought to have language ability and if the recipe names are given in
both the language and English, the English version should be given in
the subheadings.
Alternatively, recipe titles in the
foreign language can simply be written out as such, with the entire
recipe name as the entry. Of course, if the language is such that
several of the recipes begin with the same term, you may wind up with:
Bai Domnap Muk B'kong (Sticky Rice Topped with Shellfish)
Bai K'dong (Crispy Rice)
Bai K'dong K'tum (Rice Cake Treat)
Bai Laen B'kong (Shrimp-Fried Rice)
Bai Laen K'dom (Fried Rice with Crabmeat)
This
not an ideal situation, because it would be nice to have a
well-structured index in both English and the foreign language (in this
case Cambodian). An unknown language makes it difficult for the indexer
to be sure that the right term is being chosen, under which speakers of
that language would look. Would it be Bai (rice)? Where would the cooking terms go (Laen, etc.)? And what about K'dong or K'dom or K'tum?
This is not a common problem, but as more and more ethnic cookbooks get
published, more indexers will be faced with this situation.
Another
point to keep in mind is the presence of articles, coordinating
conjunctions, and prepositions in recipes with foreign names; these
function words should be ignored where appropriate in sorting:
Risotto
col cavolo rosso e la pancetta
coi fagiolini verdi e il peperone giallo
alla friulana col rosmarino e vino bianco
con salsicce e fagioli borlotti
Other similar such terms include:
"in the manner of"
à la (French)
au (French)
aux (French)
"with"
avec (French)
con (Spanish, Italian)
mit (German)
"and"
e (Italian)
et (French)
und (German)
y (Spanish)
The Process Summarized
Use
the criteria given in the previous sections as guidelines. Set up the
indexing software to format the index according to the criteria given
to you by the publisher. Start indexing by examining recipe names,
selecting main entries for main ingredients, and determining recipe
categories and meal types (if appropriate). Then select ethnic and
cultural headings (if appropriate), make cross-references where
necessary, and clarify any foreign words and their alphabetization.
A Last Word on How Cooks Use Indexes
Many
cooks shop by the season or the weekly special–in other words, they may
not know what they're cooking until they get it home from the market
and on the counter-top. Let's say hamburger was on special, so "Ground
beef" might be one way to find something new to cook ("I am not
going to make spaghetti again this week!") or perhaps some Indian
spices caught the cook's eye, so "Indian dishes" would be scanned
before "Keema" would be. On a hot day, the main entry "Salads'' might
be where the cook would look; I mean, who wants to make Coq au Vin when
it's 90 degrees outside and the air conditioner just quit? To put it
simply, think about what the cook wants, what she/he needs in a hurry,
and in as many scenarios as you can imagine. Then make the index fit
those scenarios.
Thérèse Shere adds:
A very critical difference between cookbook indexes and other indexes,
I think, is that cookbook indexes are used over and over by the same
reader to find the same entry. What this means to me is that it is more
important than ever not to penalize the reader for knowing exactly what
they're looking for. I want to find Red Lentil Soup with Lime under "R"
and Upside-Down cake under "U" when I look them up twice a month! In
other words, cooks will use an index to browse when they don't know
what they're going to make, but more commonly they will be looking up a
specific dish they have made before. One implication of this is when
you don't have room to double-post, I think it's better to put recipe
titles under the most specific ingredient name and then cross-reference
from the general to the specific:
Green beans
in Mixed Summer Vegetables
for Saint Anne's Day
Beans. See Fava beans; Green beans
and not have
Beans, green
in Mixed Summer Vegetables
for Saint Anne's Day
In other words, "Keema," as referred to above, had better be in the index on its own, and not just under "Beef, ground."
What
it boils down to is choices, choices, and more choices. The indexer has
many choices to make. Cookbook indexing a piece of cake? Not really,
but you do get an early crack at all those new cake recipes!
NOTES
1. For examples, see Barbara Gibbs Ostmann and Jane L. Baker, The Recipe Writer's Handbook (New York: John Wiley, 1997); Joan Whitman and Dolores Simon, Recipes Into Type (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993); and Judith Comfort, Writing Cookbooks (Bellingham, WA: Self-Counsel Press, 1997).
2. Recipes into Type, pp. 135-37.
3. Recipes into Type, p. 138.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Great
and special thanks are due to Thérèse Shere and Elinor Lindheimer, who
read the draft of this article and made substantial comments and
additions to the text.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Cynthia
D. Bertelsen, a nutritionist, librarian, and historian, indexes medical
books and journals full-time. Food- and nutrition-related subjects are
her preferred specialty, but she also indexes a wide range of other
subjects. After 15 years of living and working in various developing
countries, she went to library school and learned about indexing as a
career possibility. In her "spare" time, she writes articles about
indexing and cuisine; cooks and designs menus from her 1,500-volume
cookbook collection; and is active in her Catholic parish and in the
American Society for Indexing. She lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of
Virginia with her husband Mike, her son Erik, and two cats, Wags and
Jane.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: TERMINOLOGY RESOURCES FOR COOKBOOK INDEXERS
Often
the cookbook indexer needs to verify a term, find a series of
alternative terms, or clarify a term. The following resources, online
and print, can help in those circumstances.
Online Resources
Web
sites are constantly changing. These sites were operational and useful
as of January 1, 1999. Titles of Web sites are quoted directly. [Note
about this version: Dead links could not be found. A few links have
been changed to reflect current paths.]
ABC of Arabic Cuisine: http://www.arab.net/cuisine/welcome.html A select number of Middle Eastern food words.
Beer
Term
Dictionary: http://www.samadams.com/glossary/dicterm.htm Samuel
Adams brewery shares all the beer and brewing words you would probably
ever need to know.
Bread and Baking Glossary:
http://www.breadworld.com/tips/glossary/glossary.asp Fleischman's
Yeast provides you with an amazing list and definitions of bread and
baking terms, including types of breads.
Cajun
CookingTerms: http://www.neworleans.net/fdpages/abcspage.html The Times-Picayune's list of words associated with New Orleans
food is selective but useful.
Chocolate and Baking
Terminology Glossary: http://www2godiva/godiva/recipes/terms.asp Godiva Chocolate presents a comprehensive listing with
definitions of chocolate words.
Cooking
Dictionary: http://www.cafecreosote.com/Dictionary.html A
searchable dictionary with fairly specific terminology.
Cooking
Glossary: http://www.voicenet.com/~tjohn/gloss.html Another
fairly detailed glossary of cooking terms; not searchable,
unfortunately.
The Cook's
Thesaurus: http://www.foodsubs.com/ Lori Alden's "The Cook's
Thesaurus" is one of the most comprehensive and detailed online
resources.
Culinary Terms Glossary:
http://www.ddc.com/cheferic/gloss.htm Cooking styles and
terminology featured here; the main page has an alphabetic search
capability.
Eating Dictionary, by Gourmet
magazine: http://www.epicurious.com/cooking/how_to/food_dictionary/ Gourmet magazine's Epicurious Web site's food dictionary. Quite
detailed.
English-American Recipe
Translator: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/People/mbisbop/engfood.html
Translations of English food terms into "American."
Japanese
Food Glossary: http://www.kikkoman.co.jp/world/cookbook/index.htm
Kikkoman provides an alphabetically searchable list of common
Japanese food ingredients.
Middle Eastern Ingredients
Description and Cross Reference
Index: http://value.net/~stoma/bBook_Xref.html
A short list
of ingredients arranged by English names followed by Arabic names.
Poultry
Glossary: http://poultry.mph.msu.edu/ The American Poultry
Association's glossary of words associated with poultry production.
[Webmistress' note: although this page is present, I could not find a
link to the glossary.]
Science of Foods
Glossary: http://osu.orst.edu/instruct/nfm236/bed/glossary/index.html
Oregon State University provides this alphabetically searchable
list of food science terminology.
Scottish Food and Drink:
http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/home/scotland/fooddrink.html A
listing of traditional Scottish food and drink.
Spice
Encyclopedia: http://www.spiceadvice.com/encyclopedia/index.html
A searchable encyclopedia of spices, with a pull-down search tool.
Spice
Indexes: http://www.ang.kfunigraz.ac.at/~katzer/engl/index.html
Everything there is to know about some common spices (2,400),
arranged by an alphabetic index, an English index, a geographic index,
a morphologic index, a botanic index, and a spice mixture index.
Swedish-French-English
Gastronomic Glossary: http://www.bkwine.com/Ordlista/ordlista.htm
An interesting page with food arranged by category (cheese, fish,
etc.), with translations of each term into Swedish, French, and
English. Descriptions of foods.
Vegetables,
Asian: An
index of major Asian vegetables, with English names and Asian names
given. Photographs of most of the vegetables are included, and each is
described. (Link updated to new site in 2011.) http://www.cookingschools.net/
Vegetable Glossary:
http://www.enviroweb.org/vegweb/glossary/masterindex.html A
comprehensive listing of vegetables, with a master index.
Vegetarian
Glossary: http://www.vegetariantimes.com/essential/veggieglossary.html
Vegetarian Times' glossary of vegetarian ingredients, with
suggestions for culinary use.
Wine-Tasting Terminology: http://zebra.scarolina.edu/smell/wine_glossary.html
Print Resources
Additional
resources for foreign language terms include excellent general
cookbooks such as those written by Marcella Hazan and Julia Child,
among others.
Allison, Sonia. The Cassell Food Dictionary. New York: Cassell, 1990. [op]
Anderson, Kenneth N. International Dictionary of Food & Nutrition. New York: Wiley, 1993.
Achaya, K.T. A Historical Dictionary of Indian Food. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Barnette, Martha. Ladyfingers & Nun's Tummies: A Feast for Language Lovers. New York: Times Books, 1997.
Bartlett, Jonathan. The Cook's Dictionary and Culinary Reference. Chicago: NTC/Contemporary Books, 1996. Well-written guide to 3,000 terms. Cross-references are given in capitalized roman type.
Bloom, Carole. The International Dictionary of Desserts, Pastries, and Confections. New York: William Morrow, 1995. Over 800 baking terms included. Cross-references to related terms are included.
Claiborne, Craig. Craig Claiborne's The New York Times Food Encyclopedia. New York: Times Books, 1985. Over 1,000 entries for a wide range of food words.
Del Conte, Anna. Gastronomy of Italy.
New York: Prentice Hall, 1987. With 1,200 entries, this
well-illustrated book describes terms and gives English words for the
Italian terms, too.
Hering, Richard. Hering's Dictionary of Classical and Modern Cookery. Rotherham, UK: Virtue, 1994.
Hosking, Richard. A Dictionary of Japanese Food Ingredients and Culture.
Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1996. A unique source of
information on Japanese food and cooking terms for non-Japanese
speakers. Cross-references are in boldface type.
Igoe, Robert S. and Hui, Y. H. Dictionary of Food Ingredients.
Jacobs, Jay. The Eaten Word. The Language of Food, the Food in Our Language. New York: Birch Lane Press, 1995. Discusses English food terms, for alternative terms.
Labensky, Steven et al. Webster's New World Dictionary of Culinary Arts.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1997. Probably the most
comprehensive and up-to-date culinary dictionary available. Short
definitions for over 16,000 terms. Some cross-references given.
Lang, Jenifer Harvey. Larousse Gastronomique. The New American Edition of the World's Greatest Culinary Encyclopedia.
New York: Crown, 1988. Focusing chiefly on French cuisine, the "new"
Larousse does include more ethnic terms than previous editions. One of
the best culinary terminology resources available.
Livingston, A. D. and Livingston, Helen, ed. Edible Plants and Animals: Unusual Foods from Aardvark to Zamia.
Luce, Bernard. Dictionnaire gastronomique, Française/Anglais. Paris: La Maison du Dictionnaire, 1997.
Manjón, Maite. The Gastronomy of Spain and Portugal.
New York: Prentice Hall, 1990.With 1,000 entries, this well-illustrated
book describes terms and gives English words for the Spanish and
Portugese terms.
Mariani, John F. The Dictionary of American Food and Drink. New York: Hearst Books, 1994. Mariani includes over 2,000 terms for American food and drink.
------. The Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink. New York: Broadway Books, 1998. Mariani includes 2,300 terms for Italian food and drink.
Miller, Mark. The Great Chile Book. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press, 1991. Descriptions and photographs of 90 chiles from the world over.
Norman, Jill. The Complete Book of Spices: A Practical Guide to Spices and Aromatic Seeds. New York: Penguin, 1991. Descriptions and photographs of spices.
Ortiz, Elizabeth Lambert. Encyclopedia of Herbs, Spices, and Flavorings: A Cook's Compendium. New York: Dorling Kindersley, 1993.
Riely, Elizabeth. The Chef's Companion: A Concise Dictionary of Culinary Terms.
2nd edition. New York: Wiley, 1996. Cross-references are given in
boldface type and the book includes a wide range of ethnic cooking
terms.
Root, Waverly. Food.
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1980. Detailed essays on 200 common
foods. Abbreviations are explained (e.g., HE represents both heart and
herring).
Schneider, Elizabeth. Uncommon Fruits and Vegetables: A Commonsense Guide. New
York: Harper and Row, 1989. A compendium of exotic fruits and
vegetables. Scientific names are included, as well as other terms by
which the foods are commonly known.
Sinclair, Charles. International Dictionary of Food and Cooking. New York: Peter Collin Publishers, 1998.
Solomon, Charmaine. Charmaine Solomon's Encyclopedia of Asian Food, 1998.
Von Welanetz, Diana and Paul. The Von Welanetz Guide to Ethnic Ingredients. New York: Warner Books, 1982. Descriptions and cross-references to over 1,000 ethnic food ingredients.