CONTINUING the posts on my Easter menu, I offer this excellent recipe for French rolls by Fine Cooking magazine. It is the best recipe for rolls I have made (and I have made quite a few.)

First a few words about the all-important, pressing subjects of cookbooks, cooking magazines and culinary knowledge. As I say below:

 My own personal philosophy of cooking is that the purpose of any given culinary effort is not the immediate meal. It is the knowledge and closeness gained. Regardless of the outcome of cooking efforts, every experience in the kitchen results in knowledge – knowledge of our materials – and an intimacy with these materials, which are the intriguing and unassuming products of nature and human artifice. The cook is scientist, craftsman and lover of woods, fields and factory. Also, a cooking experience is a thinking experience. Though Plato had insulting things to say about cooks, contending they could never attain philosophical excellence, we do in our own way possess the philosopher’s gift of time for meditation. The hands work in concert with the mind.

I am a prolific reader of cookbooks and have done a general tour of the cooking magazine world, leaving out some of the more recent ventures. I know there are excellent cook’s websites. Generally, however, I do not like to read recipes online, probably because my habits were formed in the pre-Internet age. This is a personal predilection and no comment on the ambitions or efforts of culinary bloggers, many of whom I am sure are excellent.

If I lived in a more earthy culture where many people cooked and shared their experiences, I would have no need for many cookbooks or magazines. But, as it is, variety and new recipes break the drudgery of cooking and are inspirational. My habit of reading recipes and cookbooks has bordered on an addiction at times. I am not proud of that, but it has had wholesome effects. Besides, I mostly have brought it under control. Now when I see a new cookbook in the library (our libraries have great cookbook collections) or at a used book sale, I no longer get the same tight feeling in my chest, the sensation of unremediated lust.

In the future, I will offer selections from my list of favorite cookbooks. Some women are born with decorating skills. They can sew curtains and upholster chairs and create decoupage masterpieces. I have modest ability in these departments. As if in compensation, I possess higher ability as a cook. This runs in the family. My older sister borders on genius. Like many geniuses, she is subject to the whims of inspiration and does not possess the organization skills to match her muse. She is an artist, and sometimes paints on an over-sized canvas. She made homemade sausage, homemade hamburger rolls, and homemade ice cream by herself for 300 people for a fund-raising event last year. I’m sure many of the people who attended this event left in a cloud, blissfully floating on air. Such is the power of my sister’s food.

Most of my sisters have what James Beard referred to as “taste memory.” Many people have this, but not everyone. I can read a recipe and, with a few exceptions, immediately call to mind what it will taste like. This taste memory makes it possible to read cookbooks in the way some people might read nonfiction or novels. I go through the book or magazine from front to back. Unlike with nonfiction or a novel, I usually do this in one sitting, and make a mental note of the recipes I know will work, returning to them later or committing them to memory right then and there. I always have a running list of recipes in mind, unless I am extraordinarily busy with other things, that functions as a menu planner.  I refresh the list by reading books or magazines.

I frequently read cookbooks or cooking magazines when I am not planning a meal. This practice is rewarding. I read cookbooks when I am too tired for anything else and when I want to escape into the utopian, carefree world of imagined meals and gatherings. My own personal philosophy of cooking is that the purpose of any given culinary effort is not the immediate meal. It is the knowledge and closeness gained. Regardless of the outcome of cooking efforts, every experience in the kitchen results in knowledge – knowledge of our materials – and an intimacy with these materials, which are the intriguing and unassuming products of nature and human artifice. The cook is scientist, craftsman and lover of woods, fields and factory. Also, a cooking experience is a thinking experience. Though Plato had insulting things to say about cooks, contending they could never attain philosophical excellence, we do in our own way possess the philosopher’s gift of time for meditation. The hands work in concert with the mind.

I do not like the magazine Bon Appetit. There may be curmudgeonly stubborness in my opinion so don’t take offense if you like it. I consider it a joke. Cook’s Illustrated has some decent recipes but can be neurotically obsessive with its test kitchen ventures. I’m not interested in these wonky experiments. It’s dull going, and some of the recipes are sheer duds.  I have  gotten some good recipes from Cook’s Illustrated and return to my back issues now and then, but not regularly.

Fine Cooking is another story. It was until recently the best cooking magazine. It was clear, challenging, interesting and disinclined to trendiness. The recipes were uniformly excellent. Unfortunately, in the past year and a half, it has undergone a major redesign. The result is unfortunate. There are more graphics, more faddish recipes, and less text. I still read it sometimes in the library and Xerox occasional recipes. However, for the most part, I rely on old issues, which I use over and over. Their ongoing special themed issues are also good. I highly recommend buying the back issues dated before 2010, which come in bound books as well.

Now for the recipe for rolls, I offer this one from Fine Cooking online. A few words of advice:

* If you’re not accustomed to making bread, make these ahead and freeze them. They freeze well.

* They are big, filling rolls. You do not need more than one per person.

* You can knead the dough by hand or by machine.

* The high temperature of the oven is essential. Preheat the oven at least one half hour ahead of time. Spritz the oven with water at least twice while cooking.

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