Periodicals

The doctor’s waiting room and the beauty parlor are full of them. Flea markets thrive on them, and many attics and basements are stacked with those too interesting to throw away. Food magazines, an integral part of American life, are a ready source of information and pleasure.

Filled with full-color photographs of mouthwatering dishes, food magazines are hard to resist, promising tempting family meals or elaborate gourmet feasts. Travel articles highlight recipes from exotic places. Magazines appealing to almost every taste continue to flood the newsstands, yet many twenty-first-century cooks admit they never use food magazines to cook with. They admire the photographs and read the recipes with pleasure but never take the book into the kitchen.