The Complete Book of Chicken Wings

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

This book has only one serious problem — the binding. Cookbooks should open flat. Find a way to prop it open, though, and the book is a delight. The subject is presented with enough background to be interesting, enough variety to satisfy even the most devoted wing fanatic, and the sort of attention to detail that assures good results in the kitchen.

The 50 recipes for chicken wings are grouped by type: barbecued, Oriental, deep-fried, and international. The selection includes the well-known Buffalo-style, which started the wing fad, plus such exotics as tea-smoked wings, maple syrup wings, goat cheese wings, and drunken, crisp, curried, deviled, and pickled wings. Even peanut butter wings. Plus more conventional flavors (honey garlic, lemon honey, etc.).

Twenty supplementary recipes include lots of dips and salads and a few special desserts. There’s a section on buying, trimming, and boning wings, “wing etiquette,” and equipment and ingredients lists.

Measurements for ingredients are given in the imperial system only, which might be a minor irritant for some readers (now that many schools are using only metric in their cooking classes).

A few black-and-white photos are included: they do nothing for the book except give it a dingy, out-dated look. Ignore them and concentrate on those incredible recipes.