cover image East Hampton Cookbo/

East Hampton Cookbo/

Ruth Spear. Dell Publishing Company, $9.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-440-50014-8

Members of the Ladies Village Improvement Society of East Hampton, N.Y., offer favorite recipes in a solid collection that reflects home-style cooking and party fare. This volume, privately published by Spear in 1975 in a limited edition, ``reflects food as a lifestyle rather than only food indigenous to the area,'' and its contents are less regional than mainstream American with a few East Hampton embellishments. Potato salad, chili, pecan pie and strawberry shortcake, included here, are at home anywhere in the U.S. However, eastern Long Island is an influence in seafood dishes, such as crab stew, sauteed blowfish, baked cod with tomatoes and three versions of clam pie. Local preferences also surface in varied, tempting uses of fruits. Blueberries appear in steamed pudding, muffins, pancakes and pie, while beach plums can be turned into pudding or jelly. International dishes from contributors ``with palates honed by travel'' are well within the standard American repertoire: paprikash chicken, risotto with mussels, creme brulee and moussaka. (June)