Smithsonian Folklife Cookbook

Held annually on Washington, D.C.'s National Mall, the Festival of American Folklife has for 25 years celebrated our country's ``vast array of social and cultural traditions'' by inviting participants to cook and serve the foods of their regions. This exhaustive volume, compiled by the Kirlins and their team of researchers, is a record of past festivals and a collection of additional recipes sought from regions as far-flung as Hawaii to the Virgin Islands to the Upper Great Lakes. The recipes combine the traditional (steak and kidney pie, jambalaya, rice pudding) with the more contemporary contributions of recent immigrants (Vietnamese spring rolls and Senegalese chicken casserole). Also featured are rare backwoods recipes (baked raccoon with sweet potatoes, potato fudge, muskrat with corn). While fascinating reading (essays on all regions are vividly written), cooks actually attempting to use this book may be frustrated. Substitutions for unusual ingredients are rarely included (What would a cook use, for example, in place of the Spanish root or yucca in a recipe for pork pasties?). Illustrated. (Oct.)