It isn't just the cooking book... they are all like that. When I started crafting (started with ingots, then later sword making) I had to have someone explain it to me... I couldn't make heads or tails out of the books. They tell me what I am capable of doing... just not what I need to do in order to actually make something useful.
I think that a generic list of abilities, like currently exist can be useful, but why can't I just have a "recipe" for short sword, or gold stock, or apple pie?
Just out of curiosity, how is making them savable going to help a new player learn to use them? I know that an experienced player could reorganize the text and make it usable out of game, but that doesn't seem helpful to those that don't already know what they are doing.