Cheese

Broccoli, 16, 26

and chicken, 22, 23

Cheese

and baked ham, 18

cheddar, 5-11, 14, 16-20,

22-24, 26-27

cottage, 5, 15

cream cheese, 11-12

and spinach, 12

and egg noodle, 5

grated, 19

jack, 10, 27

and macaroni, 5

parmesan, 13

romano, 13

soup, cheddar, 16

swiss, 19

Cheeseburger, 11

Chicken

baked, 22, 25

boiled, 21

breast, 25

and broccoli, 22, 24

casserole, 26

divan, 26

enchiladas, 24

fryer, 22,25

leftover, 24

and rice, 22

sonora, 27

stuffing, 25

tetrazzini, 21

Clam, 13

Corned Beef, 6

Ham

baked with cheese, 18

leftover, 19

and noodle, 18

and potatoes, 20

quiche, 19

and rice, 17

Hamburger, 7-11, 13

hotdish, 11

and rice, 6

Italian

Florentine, 13

chicken divan, 26

chicken tetrazzini, 21

Macaroni, 16, 18, 21

and cheese, 5

Meat

chicken, 21-27

corned beef, 6

ham, 17-20

hamburger, 6-11, 13

sausage, 20

pork, 21

steak, 12

turkey ham, 18

Mexican

chicken enchiladas, 24

chicken sonora, 27

chili casserole, 7

taco casserole, 9

taco pie, 10

taco quiche, 8

sonora chicken, 27

Noodles

see pasta

Pasta

chow mein, 15

egg noodle, 5, 6, 18

macaroni, 5, 16, 18, 21

shell noodles, 13

Potatoes, 20

chips, 19, 22, 24

and ham, 20

tater tot, 7

Quiche

ham, 19

Taco, 8

Rice, 12

and ham, 17

and hamburger, 6

and sausage, 20

and shrimp, 14

wild, 17

Sausage

and rice, 20

Seafood

chopstick tuna, 15

clam, 13

classic tuna, 15

shrimp and rice, 14

tuna and biscuits, 14

tuna casserole, 15

tuna divan, 16

tuna supper, 17

Shrimp

and rice, 14

Soup

beef, broth, 12

celery, cream of, 26

cheddar cheese, condensed, 16

chicken

broth, 21

cream of, 22, 26-27

noodle, 15

mushroom, cream of, 6-7, 11-20,

24-25, 27

onion soup, mix, 12

Sour Cream, 5-8, 10, 13, 16-17, 22

Spinach, 13, 17

and cream cheese, 12

Steak

baked round, 12

Stuffing

chicken, 25

Taco

casserole, 9

pie, 10

quiche, 8

seasoning, 8, 10

Tater Tot, 7

Tortillas, 8, 24, 27

Tuna

and biscuits, 14

casserole, 16

chopstick, 15

classic casserole, 15

divan, 16

supper casserole, 17

The primary tool of an index is that of a finding tool. It should act as a resource to assist the user in finding the information they need in a fast and efficient way. An index becomes a burden if it is laden with too much information, and is essentially a sort of bulleted summary of the book. This is a mistake commonly made by first time indexers. I encountered this problem when indexing this cookbook.

When I first began thinking about indexing a cookbook, I studied a number of cookbooks from my own collection. I then perused those indexes, making mental notes of what I thought constituted a successful index for a cookbook. The worst cookbook I looked at only indexed the recipe names, and not the key ingredients. Most of them were too vague. When I am looking through the index of my cookbooks, I am looking for not only the key ingredients and special techniques, but other special ingredients that might lie in some recipe in the book. Many times I am forced to thumb through all of the recipes to find that one ingredient. Therefore, I felt that my index needed to be slightly more comprehensive. However, I did not want to go as far as indexing everything right down to the salt and pepper. It was a difficult line to draw between too much and too little information. I tried to keep the entries to various food groups, categories of food, and nationality.

Indexes generally include the names of important people associated with the book, magazine, etc. events, dates, and various concepts discussed within it. A cookbook on the other hand is very basic, and covers various issues such as ingredients, techniques, and preparation method. As this was a cookbook solely about casseroles, one was limited from discussing many of these concepts, and stuck basically to key ingredients.

The one cookbook I felt did an admirable job of indexing its contents was my hand-me-down 1953 Joy of Cooking. This was the one book I used as a reference when trying to write my own cookbook index. It offered just enough information to help you find what you were looking for, without getting frustrated with too much or too little information. The categories were kept very simple and to the point. Though I did not analyze the book in great detail, the following two articles were an excellent resource in understanding the intricacies of cookbook indexing:

Bertelsen, Cynthia D. “A Piece of Cake? Cookbook Indexing – Basic Guidelines

and Resources.” Key Words. 7, 1 (1999); 6-12.

Sassen, Catherine. “Indexes in Classic Cookbook: An analysis of the

indexes in The Joy of Cooking, 1931-1997.” Key Words.

9, 1 (2001); 9-11.

Sassen discusses the various changes in the index of the Joy of Cooking over the years, noting subjects and entries that were left out, and later added or changed. She also offered and overview of the simple tips for indexing cookbooks by Bertelsen, on the “dos-and-don’ts” of indexing cookbooks. Bertelsen’s article emphasized a need for cookbook indexers to be cooks themselves, though “not of the Swanson's TV-dinner caliber, but rather of the Julia Child or Alice Waters type”. A strong understanding of various ingredients, styles and techniques is needed.

The first step in indexing this cookbook was to read through it and get a feel for the various items to be added to the index. From there, I began to highlight the key words or ingredients, and add them to an alphabetical list, using the letter by letter technique. I tried to keep the list consistent. This particular cookbook was found on a web page containing other free online cookbooks. It was available in .pdf format, which meant it could be downloaded and printed up like a book. All of the pages contained traditional page numbers. Many of the e-book cookbooks I found were hyper linked, and did not contain page numbers. Because of its traditional nature, I used the “Back-of-the-book style of web indexing”. However, rather than linking each of the entries to the corresponding page, I used a traditional numbering system.

To complete the assignment, I conducted an index evaluation to determine “the effectiveness, efficiency, and value” as stated by Cleveland. I began by checking my page numbers, and traced them back to the very item they related to. I then ran spell check to ensure everything was spelled correctly. Those words that were not in the spell check program, I checked against the spelling in the cookbook, assuming that the author got them right. While doing one last scan of the entries and subentries, I determined that not all of them were needed, and could be deleted without taking away from the index.

Cookbook indexing is an art in itself. Thinking this would be an easy resource to index, as it is one of my passions, I jumped into it feet first, only to realize that it was much more difficult than I thought. There were more rules to follow, and options to take into account. I discovered that one must have not only a thorough understanding of this subject matter before tackling the indexing of it, but also very strong and well developed indexing skills.