From the Ground Up

As any homemaker knows, Villas, the former food and wine editor for Town & Country magazine, drives home the point that once a food substance is ground up, there is very little that cannot be done with it. Here is a sweeping survey of 200 recipes, covering the highs and lows of minced chicken, beef, pork, and seafood. Villas employs dips, loaves, patties, casseroles, and sausages to create a multicultural mosaic that includes everything from gefilte fish to Scottish deviled kidney spread, from Russian salmon croquettes to Cincinnati chili. Along the way, some lost history is also unearthed. It turns out that the original Coney Island dog was actually a bun filled with chopped frankfurter, pickle, eggs, bacon, and sauerkraut, and that a truly authentic croques monsieur calls for the ham to be coarsely ground. Each two-page recipe starts off with a brief paragraph in which the author conveys some historical notes or serving suggestions. This is followed by a succinct ingredients list, and then the preparation instructions, which rarely consist of more than four or five steps. Like a fine batch of hamburger, the book itself is of uniform simplicity and composition throughout. (Oct.)