In the simplest case, the title tells you what you need to know about the dish the recipe aims to make:

Grilled Salmon with Peas, Potatoes, and Mint

[Gordon Hamersley: Bistro Cooking at Home p. 155]

Lentil Salad with Mozzarella and Prosciutto

[Georgeanne Brennan: Williams Sonoma Salad p. 94]

Roast Chicken with Rice and Nut Stuffing

[Mark Bittman: How To Cook Everything p. 362]

Maple Glazed Carrots

[Jack Bishop: Vegetables Every Day p. 83]

Modern recipe names tend to spell out the main ingredients in the dish, as do the names in modern restaurant menus. As eaters we are on the one hand increasingly fearless about new ingredients and new combinations; on the other hand, we learn more every day about nutrition and food sensitivities. Both trends make us interested in the make up of dishes that are new to us. When my good grandma made beef stew, it was well understood to contain cubed stew beef, carrots, potatoes, and onions, flour gravy, and some sprinkled parsley "for fancy." Now that I'm a grandma myself, my beef stew could as easily contain preserved lemons and green olives; or black-eyed peas and dried limes; or daikon, soy sauce, and star anise. The lactose intolerant, accustomed to bypassing cheesecake, will be delighted to try silken almond tofu cheezecake.

Some of these long names roll on pleasantly, some are a touch comical with overcompunction:

passionfruit yoghurt syrup cakes

[Julie Le Clerc: Little Café Cakes p. 34]

endive salad with meyer lemon, fava beans, and oil cured olives

[Suzanne Goin: Sunday Suppers at Lucques p. 37]

Six-Bean Salad with Horseradish, Giardiniera, and Pickled Red Onion

[Charlie Trotter: Charley Trotter's Vegetables p. 156]

Some names may be perfectly clear to some readers but not to all. Editors should help authors see where more explanation is needed:

Lavender Pistachio Pavlova

[Jerry Traunfeld: The Herbfarm Cookbook p. 270]

Traunfeld's headnote explains, "A pavlova is a large meringue filled with fruit and cream."

Mussels Gratin

[Ruth Reichl, editor: The Gourmet Cookbook p. 334]

Reichl's headnote says, "Steamed mussels meet tomatoes, cheese, and garlic in an easy one dish meal" and then adds, even more helpfully, "This is fork food, not finger food."

Velouté of Bittersweet Chocolate with Cinnamon Stick Ice Cream

[Thomas Keller: The French Laundry Cookbook p. 286]

Keller does not explain that a velouté is traditionally a savory sauce made with veal, chicken, or fish stock; his use of the term here is meant to suggest a texture, not a taste. He assumes (perhaps correctly) that no one trying to cook (or daydream) from his book needs this explanation.

Beet and Apple Strudel

[Barbara Kafka with Christopher Styler: Vegetable Love p. 176]

Kafka, one of the most intelligent recipe writers on the face of the planet, here forgets that a strudel, which is a multilayered Eastern European pastry, can be either sweet or savory, and so can beets and apples, especially in Eastern Europe. Even when I read down the list of ingredients, I'm not sure which this strudel is supposed to be. Half a pound of beets and one large apple call for only ¼ cup of brown sugar. To my mind, a beet and apple strudel might make a sweet but not too sweet side dish with a nice pork roast; then again, it might make a sweet but not too sweet dessert. I'd probably like it either way.