Indexes for cookbooks.

Cookbook indexing is its own specialty. A cookbook index has to anticipate how cooks actually search (by ingredient, by technique, by what’s in the fridge, by memory). It also asks for cultural knowledge: that semolina is central to southern Italian cooking, that chilies define Sichuan, Hunan, and Guizhou cuisines, that fatback, salt pork, and streak o’ lean are often interchangeable in Appalachian kitchens.

I’ve spent years treating cookbooks as both reading and kitchen help. I cook three to five times a week. I like following a recipe precisely—the author’s world and my kitchen briefly merge for the meal. Paula Wolfert’s ethnographically specific recipes reward that kind of close attention. Fuchsia Dunlop’s Sichuanese cooking lets me spin up a frugal meal from Chinese pantry staples and whatever’s seasonal. Cal Peternell’s beans and toast guidelines are exactly the kind of plain practical writing that respects the home cook. That dual feeling—for the ritual of careful cooking and for the everyday weeknight kind—is what made me want to index cookbooks, not just read them.

One principle that guides my culinary indexing decisions: I want a cook who looks something up in the index and turns to that recipe to be glad they did. A tertiary ingredient in a handful of recipes might deserve an entry if it’s the kind of thing a cook bought a bottle of and is looking to find a use for. Doubanjiang in a Sichuan cookbook depends on concentration: if it’s in nearly every recipe, the entry is useless; if it’s in a specific cluster (mapo, homestyle tofu, a few stews), the entry helps cooks find those dishes. Daikon in a Vietnamese cookbook: if the cook has half a daikon left, can they use it? If the book features it beyond pickling, an entry earns its place. If the daikon mostly appears as a few token cubes in a stew, the cook would feel their time was wasted.

Baxter, Brian.
In the Catbird Seat.
Turner Publishing, 2024.

Locke-Hardy, Corrie.
The Revolution Will Be Well Fed.
Raspberry Bow Press, 2024.

Van Roekel, Blake, and Stefanie LeJeunesse.
Genuine Skagit Cooking.
Raspberry Bow Press, 2024.

For my full indexing bibliography across scholarly publishing, art publishing, trade nonfiction, and cookbooks, see the Work page.

For cookbook indexing inquiries, please email matthew@matthewmaclellan.com.

When writing, it helps to include: the book’s title and cuisine or subject focus, approximate page count (including recipes and front matter), whether page proofs are final or forthcoming, your target delivery date, and the publisher.