Doris Stine, age 16, of St. Augustine, Fla., for her question:

WHEN WAS THE FIRST U.S. COOKBOOK PRINTED?

We don't know when man started cooking his food, but we know that it was in prehistoric times soon after he learned to make and control fire. The first recipe didn't come along for millions of years and the first cookbook took many more centuries.

The first cookbook published in the United states dates back only a little over 200 years. Called "The Compleat Housewife, or Accomplished Gentlewoman's Companion," the book was printed in 1742 in Williamsburg, Va.

This first American cookbook wasn't always exact in its instructions. As an example, the directions often said, "take a handful of flour" or "use butter the size of an egg."

More than 200 years before the first American cookbook was published, a book of recipes and cooking instructions was published in London, England. This volume was printed in 1529.

The first American cookbook to carefully spell out the importance of uniform measuring cups and spoons was written by a lady named Fannie Merritt Farmer in 1896. The book was called "The Boston Cooking School Cook Book."

Today's cooking methods are actually based on those discovered centuries ago by primitive man. He learned that you can use either dry heat or moist heat.

Moist heat cookery of meat includes braising and cooking in liquids. Meats that are cooked by this method stay on the stove until the fibers can be cut apart easily with a fork. Any cookbook will tell you that braising may be done either on the top of stove or in the oven. Stewing is an example of cooking in liquids.

The dry heat cookery of meat includes broiling, roasting and frying. A cook must make an effort to either select tender cuts of meat or have them tenderized if the meat is to be broiled. One of the modern favorite ways to dry roast meat is to put it on a spit or rotisserie.

Early cookbooks included many recipes with instructions that weren't fully explained. One of the favorite recommendations was "use your own judgment." Other favorite directions included using a "pinch," "smidgen" "dash" of seasoning, or adding "fat the size of a walnut."

Instructions in early cookbooks for making bread sometimes included the suggestion that you should "add enough liquid to make a dough."

Tested recipes with exact amounts of ingredients are the standard used in most of the present day cookbooks. Even an inexperienced person shouldn't have too much trouble these days in following the instructions.

Many modern cookbooks even explain terms that might not be immediately understood by the novice chef. "Coddle," for example, means to cook slowly and gently in a liquid just below the boiling point and "julienne" means to cut food in match like strips.