The Cook's Book of Uncommon Recipes: A Kitchen Companion

Hill's ( The Cook's Book of Indispensable Ideas ) latest volume is most emphatically designed for browsers. About 200 recipes, the heart of the work, are alphabetized by ``the most important word in the title.'' Following are a troubleshooting chapter and, mercifully, an index. Many foods here are not uncommon, but good nonetheless. Hill's uncomplicated tomato soup tastes like fresh tomatoes. Less orthodox but equally easy is a so-called Italian vegetarian chili (listed under ``I'') relying on black beans, eggplant and zucchini. There is even a special hot chocolate laced with nut liqueur and rum. Although the book is a pleasure to skim, its organization can fragment data. Directions for curried chicken breasts ignore the book's own recipes for curry powder and garam masala. Hill offers elliptical instructions for dinner rolls or pumpernickel bread, and buries information about working with yeast dough in a section titled--without apparent irony--``Why Do Things Sometimes Go Wrong?'' (Aug.)