A year's worth of Sunset recipes now under one cover

Sunset, April, 1988

A year's worth of Sunset recipes now under one cover

Keeping track of your favorite recipes in Sunset Magazine has been handsomely simplified by our newest book, the Sunset Recipe Annual, 1988 Edition.

In this first collection (Lane Publishing Co., Menlo Park, Calif. 94025; $19.95), all the food articles that appeared in Sunset Magazine in 1987 are organized in chapters according to the month when they originally appeared. Because the magazine publishes four separate editions --North, Central, South, and Desert --recipes that may not have appeared in the edition you receive will be included in this 352-page book. It's hardbound and in full color.

To help you locate a recipe, three indexes each focus on a specific categorization: the article index gives you the names of stories containing certain recipes; an index of recipes lists them by title; and the general index categorizes recipes according to ingredients.

Setting the stage for this new series, we also published a kick-off anthology of recipes taken from more than 50 years of the magazine. Called The Best of Sunset and published in 1987 ($19.95), it recaps the magazine's food history before this annual collection.

Bringing the annual together

The magazine's home economics editors and Sunset Book editors worked hand-in-hand, assembling each chapter with the completion of each magazine issue. This close relationship between Lane Publishing Co.'s magazine and book divisions is a long-standing one; our cook books are based on recipes developed for the magazine. And to reach the magazine's pages, recipes must be critically approved by taste panels and home economics (food) editors; recipes are tested and retested until they meet our criteria for quality and achievability.

More than 800 recipes from a year of Sunsets

Because Sunset Magazine focuses on other topics--gardening, travel, and building --as well as food, it may come as a surprise to know that there are more than 800 recipes in this new book; the magazine typically publishes 700 to 900 recipes in a year.

Sunset is subtitled "The Magazine of Western Living," and our recipes reflect this perspective. The emphasis is, and has always been, on innovative ways to deal with food, wine, and entertaining. The approach varies: exploring the potential of an individual ingredient, like the onion; making an in-depth study, such as how to cure the perfect pickle; or seeking the quickest, most effective way to turn out memorable meals for family and friends, like a potluck Thanksgiving.

Photo: Sunset's home economics staff celebrates production of the first Sunset Recipe Annual. The 1988 edition is a convenient collection of all food articles that appeared in 1987 Sunset magazines

Photo: Recipes submitted by Sunset readers for publication in the magazine are rated by ballot; a panel of 10 tasters does the voting