-The new edition of “The Oxford Companion to Food,” by Alan Davidson (Oxford University Press, $65) is structured like a dictionary. It starts with aardvark, which Dutch colonists named “earth pig” in Dutch because its meat is said to be as tasty as pork. It ends with zuppa inglese, the triflelike Italian dessert whose name derives not from “soup” but from “sop,” a word for a piece of bread soaked in broth. The book boasts 2,711 definitions and a vast index. It will prove a valuable addition to the knowledge-seeking epicure’s library.

-Jacques L. Rolland and Carol Sherman’s “The Food Encyclopedia” (Robert Rose, $49.95), styled as a dictionary, offers definitions for more than 8,000 foods. In some cases, such as flour, the main entry gives an exact definition (“the milled and finely ground starch product of cereal grains or vegetables”), while sidebars discuss common flour types and less familiar kinds such as barley and bean flours.

Both “The Oxford Companion to Food” and “The Food Encyclopedia” have more than a whisper of a British accent. The Oxford book is British, the Food Encyclopedia comes from Canada.

-Aliza Green weighs in, quite literally, with the nearly 5-pound “Starting with Ingredients: Quintessential Recipes for the Way We Really Cook” (Running Press, $39.95). It’s not organized like any cookbook we’ve ever seen, but it has its own internal logic, with sections arranged alphabetically instead of by food group. For example, do you have a chicken to cook? You’ll find it listed between chestnuts and chickpeas, and you’ll also find 14 recipes, types of birds, how to cut a bird into eight pieces and more. It’s slightly marred by artsy typography and design that makes eyes struggle.

-The eighth edition of “The Professional Chef” from The Culinary Institute of America (Wiley, $70) is as handsome throughout as its copperplate cover. Dedicated home cooks will find tons of info with photos, maps, step-by-steps and recipes that illustrate techniques. If you want to cook like a chef, first you need to think like one. This marvelous book will help.