Or you may find enough information in books now being marketed to the health-conscious public. These books typically include the values of fat, carbohydrates, protein, sodium and other nutrients for hundreds of foods. Some grocery stores sell such "food guides" along with the magazines at the checkout stands. Or you can ask at a bookstore or a health food store that sells books.

To do the calculations, you would list all the ingredients that go into a recipe. For each ingredient, you would list, in columns, the values you want to compute -- for instance, the calories, fat and fiber -- for that particular quantity. You'll need to use a calculator to adjust these by the quantities in your recipe; for instance, if the chart gives you a calorie value for 1 cup of flour, and your recipe calls for 2/3 cup, you would write down 2/3 of the number of calories in the chart. Then add up the columns and divide each by the number of servings in your total recipe. You'll need to do some additional figuring if you want to determine such things as what percentage of the total calories consists of fat, or what proportion of total fat is saturated fat.

If you have a large number of recipes you want to analyze, you might want to get one of the computer programs that do this job for you. These programs typically include a database of foods, along with their nutrient values. You enter the quantities you use in your recipe, and the program figures the values for each ingredient, generates the totals for your recipe, and divides by number of servings. Some of these programs are easier to use than others; some are simply awkward. Personally, I no longer use them, and I've found that most people give up on them after a very short time. I think they're good learning experiences, but once you have the basics, you can do the calculations in your head or on paper.

I can honestly say that all the good nutrition books of the past few years have abandoned the notion of compulsive calorie-counting, and most of the books that focused on having people count calories are out of print. Some of the other nutrient values may be more useful to you, particularly proportions of fat, protein and carbohydrate, and perhaps amounts of fiber or sodium. I hope you discover that the old family recipes are actually very healthy. If not, don't blame grandma. She probably offered them with a spoonful of love, and that is proving to be the healthiest dose yet.