Cookbook is one of the main parts in the Shake user's manual.
For the 4.1 manual you can find it in Part III, Chapter 32, page 963.
It is the hands-on description on real work with footage and building macros:
Really one of the more useful parts of the manual I'd recomend to read thru once in a while snce some of its tips are really clever.
It shows some compulsory macros which come bundled with Shake (although you have to install them).
I use a lot the KeyChew macro, and all of them have their logics and can both help and teach a lot.