Beat This! Cookbook

In this revised and updated edition of Ann Hodgman's 1993 book, there are fewer breads and cakes, and more main dishes, vegetables, and sides. Recipes are arranged in alphabetical order rather than in categories, making this book better for browsing than for looking up a particular dish (although there is a traditional index). The premise, that the recipes are the best of their type ("there's just no point in trying any other recipes for these foods but these," Hodgman asserts), at first seems a bit haughty and also doubtful. But Hodgman admits that these matters are subjective ("doesn't every cookbook author think her recipes are the best?"), and the book emerges as a truly personal collection of tried-and-true formulas for classics like brownies, apple pie, roast chicken, beef stew, artichoke dip, and mashed potatoes. There is, in a sense, something very enticing about trying these recipes; anticipation is high as one thinks, "Will this really be the meatloaf recipe I've been waiting for all my life?" In the case of the banana bread, for example, it just might be. So if you've been looking for that perfect pot roast or carrot cake but haven't quite found it, or if you need a dish you can count on to serve to a crowd, give Hodgman's recipes a whirl. (Mar.)