This week an event that 2,000 or more of you made possible becomes a reality at your local book store: The TIME Reader's Book of Recipes, published by E. P. Dutton.

You may recall that last year at this time I devoted a letter to the favorite recipes of TIME'S women readers, who had sent them to us in response to our inquiry. We had hoped that their replies would reveal a good deal about their cooking customs and the food products they use. They did that--and more. Many of the recipes were accompanied by an enthusiastic discussion of home problems and a general philosophizing about cooking.

One reader of that Publisher's Letter, Elliott Macrae, president of E. P. Dutton, thought that we should make a book of the recipes we had received. We thought so, too. Although there were about a thousand recipes on hand, we decided to get some more. A second request to women readers in the U.S. and overseas evoked another enthusiastic response--and 1,000 more favorite recipes. All 2,000 of them were turned over to Home Economist Florence Arfmann for sorting, testing, and the final selection of the 230 that now make up the recipe book.

The testing took a long time--and produced some delightful surprises. From time to time word would come from the Young & Rubicam experimental kitchen, of which Miss Arfmann is the director, that a recipe had turned out extraordinarily well and would somebody from TIME like to come down and taste it. Somebody always did, and took the recipe home for his wife to try. As Miss Arfmann's list of approved (as both unusual and practical) recipes grew, we began mailing some of them out to food stores to be displayed with their goods. Customers tried them and asked for more. So did many of us here at TIME--to our complete satisfaction and, in my case, expanded girth.

There was, for instance, an Edam Cheese dish (it's in the book), stuffed with fish and fruit, a Chocolate Pie which comes out in separate layers. Then, there are simple things like a Mountain Soup; exotic dishes like Moghal Rice from India, Avocado Ice Cream from Hawaii, and a Ground-Nut Chop from West Africa that should be an experience for any American palate.

Equally interesting were the comments that accompanied the recipes--so much so that we have appended a good many of them to the recipes in this book. Here is a sampling of them:

Zucchini "with Sour Cream Sauce. "This came originally, I think, from a hotel chef, changed a little as it was handed on to me by a friend, and I changed it further. I used it as a dish for a group in Philadelphia to which I belonged, and which went by a title I consider a triumph of anticlimax -- La Societe Gastronomique de Bryn Mawr ..." French Hunter's Dinner. "Don't be afraid of the lard. In the South of France lard is used to absorb the odor of flowers for perfume, and in this dinner it is used for the purpose of absorbing the odor of onions, mushrooms and celery with wonderful effect. Without the full half pound of lard the dinner is no good." Chess Cakes. "These are tasty morsels of early Americana, the recipe inherited through the generations and quite generally retained exclusively within the family. I have never seen a chess cake recipe published." Fish Lolo. "Lolo is Fijian for the juice extracted from freshly grated coconut ; do not mistake it for the milk of the coconut. When I originally tasted this, the fish was raw -- but it had been soaked in lemon juice for twelve hours and you would have sworn it had been cooked." Grandmother Coxey's Potato Soup. "I have never seen a printed recipe for this soup, but make it according to my father's recollection of how his mother (born and raised in Germany) used to make it for her family of eleven children."

As several of these comments suggest, many of these TiME-readers' recipes have not appeared in print before. Others have been contributed by TiME-reading women known for cookbooks of their own: Mrs. Irma Rombauer, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Frances Parkinson Keyes. As you may have guessed, The TIME Reader's Book of Recipes is not a standard cookbook but a collection of favorite recipes that are different from those you would find in such a book. It is entirely the work of TIME'S women readers, not TIME'S editors, and we have had a fine time--and some wonderful eating--putting it together. The Richard Erdoes illustrations on this page, which are taken from the book, convey some of that feeling.

No one is more entitled to a final comment on this book than Florence Arfmann, who has tested every recipe in it. Says she: "These women were as eager to exchange favorite recipes as good housewives have been since time began. And when you try their recipes, I think you'll see why women who read TIME, whatever their accomplishments in other fields, are women I have learned to respect as cooks."

Cordially yours,

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