Daily Soup Cookbook

Organized by ingredients such as vegetables, beans, grains, and fruit, the recipes include old favorites like French Onion and Chicken Matzoh Ball soups, as well as less familiar brews such as Jamaican Pumpkin soup, Shrimp and Scallop Seviche, and Poblano Corn Chowder. In addition to a chapter devoted to chilis—Braised Pork Chili with Black Beans and Corn is a particular winner—the authors provide notes on ingredients and techniques, historical asides, and a series of tongue-in-cheek sidebars, offering, for example, the Periodic Table of Soups and Baby Names for the New Millennium ("Art E. Choke" is one).

If these digressions aren't always apt, there are always the soups, with several piece de resistance examples—Peking Duck; Lamb, Artichoke, and Rosemary Stew; and Saffron Mussel soup—guaranteed to please. A final section on stocks provides basic soup building-block information, and Things to Do with Leftover Soups offers next-day options, should any of the delicious bowls not be devoured instantly. —Arthur Boehm