table talk / By Judy Hodgson

Dirty, dog-eared — A tour through time-tested recipe books

(June 21, 2007)  Quick. What recipe is on the dirtiest, most dog-eared page of your favorite cookbook? And how old is that book?

I’ve been thinking recently about cookbooks, old and new. A few weeks ago the San Francisco Chronicle published an article on the 25th anniversary of The Silver Palate Cookbook , a collection of recipes, menus and thoughts on cooking that took its name from the wildly successful upscale New York deli started in 1977 by Julee Rosso, a marketing genius, and Sheila Lukins, a caterer.

Left: A recent picnic prepared from our new cookbook, Bruschetta, Crostini and other Italian Snacks, by Maxine Clark: Char-grilled bruschetta topped with: olive tapenade, soft eggs, white bean spread, fresh arugula in olive oil, tomatoes, anchovies, red p

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My Silver Palate is now spineless and easily falls into 10 or more sections. It requires a heavy rubber band to hold it together when I finish using it. It’s a good thing the book has just been updated — with photos! — and reissued. Yes, I’ll buy it again. My husband and I have a life-long love of cookbooks that began more than 40 years ago. Are they expensive? Well, we figure once we get a single fantastic meal out of a new cookbook, it’s paid for itself, and each time we use it thereafter is a bonus.

On one of the most trashed pages in my Silver Palate is the recipe for Chicken Liver Pate with Green Peppercorns that my husband still makes once in a while. In even worse shape are the first pages of “The Cookie Basket” chapter, with my all-time favorite pecan squares.

What’s the appeal of this book? The Chronicle says, “Reliable is the word that pops up in any conversation with Silver Palate devotees. Even if your kitchen skills are limited, you can’t go wrong with the recipes from this book.”

Last month my husband had one of those significant decade birthdays and he didn’t really want a party. He also insists his favorite restaurant is our kitchen, so I started searching for a special recipe from one of our vintage cookbooks.

The first book I pulled out was Vincent Price’s ATreasury of Great Recipes published in 1965. (Yes, the same Vincent Price of ghoulish movie fame.) He and his wife Mary had traveled all over collecting recipes from some of the world’s most famous restaurants and had adapted them for the American kitchen. The photos are gorgeous and the actual menus of the restaurants are included often with prices. You’ll be happy to discover, for instance, that at Sardi’s in New York one could enjoy a Roast Half a Long Island Duckling Bigarade with Lima Beans for $4 and Baked Alaska for two for $3.50. On that book’s grubbiest page is one of our most beloved recipes, something from the restaurant Tour D’Argent in Paris called ” Noisettes Des Tournelles ,” lamb chops in a classic onion sauce (soubise) served with a second sauce made by deglazing the pan with Madeira. (This is a great time of year to make soubise sauce, with all the sweet, juicy onions at the farmers’ markets.)

I also found a second cookbook we bought the year we were married, 1966. Don’t laugh. It’s called ThePlayboy Gourmet and it’s illustrated with sketches of tiny women in black stockings lounging about in martini glasses. Again, the appeal of this book is that these are recipes anyone can follow since the target market was obviously guys who didn’t necessarily know how to cook but wanted to impress their date with a fancy meal and get lucky.

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