Yucatán: Recipes from a Culinary Expedition

The Yucatán Peninsula encompasses some 76,300 square miles, or roughly 132 miles for every page of this epic endeavor, surely the largest and most comprehensive exploration of Yucatecan cooking to be found north of the Gulf of Mexico. Sterling, who runs a culinary institute in Mexico devoted to this specific cuisine, comes at his topic from all angles. The first 60 pages are an encyclopedia of key ingredients, with descriptions and culinary uses for items like dragonfruit, sapodilla, and black persimmon. The next two chapters compare inland foods to coastal cuisine, while the three chapters after that explore home cooking and “stands along lonely jungle roads,” the cuisine found in the peninsula’s three largest cities, and the specialties of back-road pueblos, respectively. Among the more than 275 recipes, are savory options like pork belly confit and mincemeat-filled maize dumplings, and sweets that make ample use of Mayan chocolate, such as the chocolate frozen custard with achiote, vanilla, allspice, and chile. A chapter on basic techniques, such as making tortillas and cooking tamales, rounds out the work, while an excellent categorical index of the recipes makes it easy to search out entrees based on ingredients rather than region. (Mar.)