Every well-used kitchen has at least one favorite cookbook, its pages spattered with oil and stuck together by the mortar of long-risen dough.

Like a song that resonates in time, reminding us of where we were when we first heard it played, a treasured recipe book brings us back to a delicious memory.

Whether it was mastering a dish to impress a prospective suitor, or experimenting with exotic ingredients in the world of ethnic cuisine, the sense of exhilarating accomplishment and discovery rushes back every time we take the book off the shelf.

Despite the downturn in publishing overall, cookbooks are still going strong, charting a 68 percent growth in sales from 2002 to 2008, when more than 3,200 titles were released, according to Bowker, a New Jersey-based publishing research firm.

With so many new books flooding the market, what makes a book a classic?

Straightforward, delicious recipes that don't involve a lot of fancy equipment are what Laurie Linn Huggins, a home cook from Bala Cynwyd, looks for in a cookbook. Huggins, who still has a book of handwritten recipes from her maternal grandmother, likes to experiment in the kitchen.

One of her go-to books is The New York Times 60-Minute Gourmet by Pierre Franey, from which she mastered paella, a dinner party standby.

"The recipes are sophisticated simplicity - and rather quick to prepare," she says, allowing her to create "interesting combinations with complexity of flavor" without spending a lot of time in the kitchen.

The most bedraggled book on her shelf is The Silver Palate Cookbook (Workman, $19.95), a seminal work published in 1982 that introduced a generation of cooks to raspberry vinegar and ratatouille and has sold more than 21/2 million copies. "The sour cream coffee cake from that book is always a hit," said Huggins.

Local caterer Steve Poses believes a successful classic cookbook must have a "point of view." And he should know. Poses formerly ran both the Frog and the Commissary restaurants here in town, and his first book, The Frog Commissary Cookbook, published in 1985 by Doubleday, is still a hometown favorite that has sold more than 150,000 copies.

"A book can be about sandwiches or about the complexity of food and exciting flavors, says Poses. "But it can't be vanilla."

Poses is about to release his second, self-published book, At Home by Steve Poses, A Caterer's Guide to Cooking & Entertaining.

Both his books, he says, are built around inviting dishes with a "multi-ethnic palate of flavors" that are interesting, but not overly exotic, and most importantly, the recipes are accessible.

"I have to feel as though I can do this," he says, "that the book was written just for me."

In a world where chefs sizzle with celebrity on cable stations like the Food Network, the Travel Channel and Bravo, a great cookbook shouldn't be about making the chef/author look good. "I want my book to make the reader look good," says Poses. "Other than that it's just so much food porn."

Poses admires The Zuni Cafe Cookbook (Norton & Co. $35), by Judy Rodgers, chef-owner of the San Francisco restaurant of the same name. "Judy explains sophisticated and technical aspects of cooking in a way that can significantly improve the readers' skill level."

Jennifer Pitt, a Queen Village resident who calls herself a daring yet practical cook, admits to having a problem with cookbooks: "I can't stop buying them," says the administrator for Communities in Schools of Philadelphia.

Despite her undependable oven, Pitt cooks all the time, often for friends in their kitchens. "I like to cook new things every time I cook, which is why I always go back to Joy of Cooking ($35 Bobbs-Merrill Co.). It teaches me something new with every recipe."

In her second year with a CSA (community-supported agriculture program), Pitt turns to Joy of Cooking when faced with seasonal vegetables that she's not used to cooking. "I never used to touch beets; now I know what to do with them."

Growing up in an Italian family, Diana Cercone was very familiar with homestyle Italian cooking. But it took Marcella Hazan's The Classic Italian Cookbook (Ballantine Books, $25) to teach her the breadth and richness of regional Italian cuisine. Cercone, a Bucks County writer and self-described cookbook maven, credits Hazan's warm, conversational voice for inspiring her to make everything from cannelloni to gnocchi.