From LQWiki

In Linux a cookbook is a procedure for getting started with a user task, including learning about, finding, downloading, installing, configuring, and using the tools necessary to do the task.

A cookbook can also be a book of small code segments that the reader can use to do various magic things in programs. Cookbooks, slavishly followed, can lead one into voodoo programming, but are useful for coders trying to monkey up small programs in unknown languages. This function is analogous to the role of phrasebooks in human languages.

This article is based, in whole or in part, on entry or entries in the Jargon File.