If possible, go to a real book store and look at the physical book.
Does the cookbook have an index?
Indexes help you find recipes.
Recipes that can fit on a single page, should be on a single page.
Bad page breaks make a cookbook harder to use.
Does the book have photos of the food?
Do you want photos?
Are the food photos next to the recipe?
Do you want to flip around to see the photo?
Does the book waste space with pictures of the author?
One photo of the author is enough.
Does the book waste space with touristic photos?
Does the book have an named author?
Does the cookbook cover something that you care about?
Ethnic or regional food, pressure cookers, parties, grills, baby food, fusion,
quick and easy, or fancy pants?
No Bookstores Near You
Do you live near a public library?
Do you have a friend (whose opinion you trust) that loves a particular cookbook
or cookbook author?
Go on Amazon and read the one-star reviews of the book.
Do the one-star people have the same kind of concerns that you would have?
Go to www.vegbookindex.com and look at the book summary.
Go to the list of books (by author or by title)
and click the link to the summary.
photos: how many photos.
author: who wrote the cookbook.
com: does the cookbook have good page breaks?
Last line: How many pages are in the cookbook? Does the cookbook has an index?
Use www.vegbookindex.com to find a cookbook that has a recipe for
what you want.
For example, look up
oatcakes,
chocolate-hazelnut, or
tapioca.
Serious Bread Baking Cookbooks
If you are serious about baking bread:
Look for baking cookbooks that give weights
(preferably in grams but ounces are better than nothing).
Weights are important because baking is chemistry.
Weighing is exact. A cup of flour is just an estimate.
If you want to do a third of a recipe, it is much easier to do it with weights.