Camille Glenn's Old-Fashioned Christmas Cookbook

Maybe, as you're contemplating the bill for cognac and bourbon, adding the third cup of cream to a custard of eight egg yolks and two cups of milk for Frozen Vanilla Souffle or starting on the 16th hour in the Country Ham Baked in Cider marathon, you'll have some twinges of guilt. But no one eating the results will. Glenn, a much-respected food writer, cooking teacher and author of The Heritage of Southern Cooking, gathers recipes filled with spices, liquor and dairy fat into 18 seasonal menus for tree-trimming parties, Christmas dinners and New Year's Eve celebrations. The dishes are deftly combined: the very rich sherry-spiked Oysters in Scallop Shells precedes the beautifully herbed (and sherry'd) Roast Quail with Tarragon. Glenn offers her strong culinary opinions freely: ""The use of sugar in a vinaigrette (or in mayonnaise) is an abomination!"" She's a stickler for the best ingredients, whether bought (like fine bourbon) or made (like her Cognac Vanilla). That doesn't mean she's an absolutist: her Best-Ever Pumpkin Pie calls for canned pumpkin, as fresh can be ""stringy."" The plentiful tips are genuinely useful: breaking off rather than cutting artichoke stems makes it easier to pull out fibrous strings; covering candy truffles with plastic wrap will make them sticky; allowing gingerbread to cool in the pan for five minutes helps prevent cracking. With her expansive spirit and generous menus, Glenn offers us one of the best holiday cookbooks available. (Oct.)