Which food mags deliver most for the money?

Recipes and food stories appropriate for the most celebratory of seasons were tempered last month with no shortage of eulogies for Gourmet magazine.

I never counted myself among the publication’s fans, although I’ve come to appreciate, since its demise, the contributions it made to the industry and its significance in the minds of humble home cooks and chefs, alike.

However, I did recently learn, from the most recent wire story paying tribute to Gourmet, how to work the newsstand to obtain the best food magazine for one’s money. In the past, I’ve subscribed to Food & Wine, due in no small part to its promotion through Bravo’s “Top Chef,” one of my favorite food-meets-reality shows. I’ve also spent happy hours with Bon Appetit after a friend received a free subscription and was only too happy to share once she read it.

So I was pleased to see the Chicago Tribune gave Bon Appetit props for usability, versatility and substance. And with an average of 74 recipes per issue at the cost of about 7 cents per recipe, it delivers more in that arena than any other food publication.

Of the seven magazines the Tribune reviewed, Only Taste of Home’s recipes come in cheaper, but there are fewer of them per issue, compared with BA. Comparison between the two’s target readers and content is pretty irrelevant, anyway.

Keeping the Tribune’s story in mind, I had no qualms about purchasing BA’s February issue for $4.99 today at the Las Vegas airport to read on the flight home. I considered Fine Cooking, tempted by its “ultimate mac-n-cheese” cover but recalled I would be paying about double BA’s cost per recipe. (Fine Cooking’s average number of recipes is 53 per issue for 14 cents per recipe, the Tribune reported.)

Food & Wine is a close contender with BA, delivering 62 recipes per issue at a cost of 8 cents per recipe. But as the Tribune pointed out, it tends to be light on kitchen techniques, heavy on profiles of people in the biz, and it can be tough to discern F&W recipes from some ads. Been there, done that.

I already have marked about a dozen recipes in BA I plan to try, albeit with a few modifications of my own. But browsing recipes keeps a cook’s creative juices flowing. It’s all in the intent to try something new and perfect a technique rather than following a menu plan to the letter, I think.

Before I could even give a second thought to mac-n-cheese, there was BA’s take on the topic on one of its opening pages. Granted, it was just an invitation to visit its Web site to find mac-n-cheese recipes, but that was easily accomplished. And as someone who works with recipes every week, mulling over how best to deliver them to readers, I appreciate BA’s decision to use the Internet as an infinite repository to expand content rather than be bound by printed pages.

BA even brought a smile to my face with its shout-out to New Sammy’s Cowboy Bistro, named this time one of the country’s “top 10 best new romantic getaways.” Now a firm fixture in Talent, the 20-year-old restaurant may be a little too quirky to oust The Jacksonville Inn as most romantic restaurant from the hearts of locals, but if you’ve never been, give it a try. If you’re interested in the local food movement and wine, it guarantees an evening of stimulating conversation.