Alternatively, if someone knows of Free WORD dingbats with the word "HOT" I could use that as well. Thanks.

Shareware : http://www.dafont.com/fr/chili-pepper-dingba.font
Free for private use only (not commercial) : http://www.dafont.com/fr/hot-secretary.font
Free for private use only (not commercial) : http://www.dafont.com/fr/hot-librarian.font

Thanks daaams. I've also found some free chili peppers and tried them out, but I'm not pleased with the result because not every extra-hot recipe ingredient is a chili. I have flaming letters, as well, but they don't do it for me either. I really need the word HOT with a conspicuous background -- something along the lines of Dan Zadorozny's soundfx.ttf . . . only with the word HOT, HOT! etc.

Picture at (http://iconian.com/fontimages/soundfx.gif)
Font download at (http://iconian.com/fontimages/soundfx.zip)

I'm actually surprised at the paucity of cooking dingbats. We have foods in abundance, but very little focused on the tools used in cooking. Or at least I'm having trouble finding them.

Why don't you make your own HOT using a comic font and your favorite graphics software ? Why do you need a dingbat for that ?

I can obviously design a graphic but I guess I was looking for a TT/OT/PS font that gathered frequently-used cooking utensils, spices etc. so that the _set_ could be quickly accessed by simply installing the font. Which begs the question:

How hard is it to design a font with just graphics? All the design work I've done over the years, I've never even explored the idea because I've always had such a rich diversity of dingbats it's been an "embarrassment of riches" and if anything I've had too many choices.

I guess I'll explore what's available in Freeware/OpenSource type design. Feel free to suggest any you've used. Thanks daaams.

Cooking ustensils : https://www.google.fr/search?q=cooking+utensils+vectors&tbm=isch
Spices : https://www.google.fr/search?q=cooking+utensils+vectors&tbm=isch
Browse the pages where the vectors come from, ensure the ones you like are free, and if so, download them.

And regarding how to create a font from vectors, search on this forum or on google.

Hey daaams . . . I really have to thank you for inspiring me to explore the freeware/opensource utilities! Fontforge! hell yeah! Jeez I don't know if I'll be able to fit all of my cooking-related graphics into one font.

Now how did that naughty crab sneak in there heh heh

heh heh
uh oh, I see thousands of man hours going to waste once I start this endeavor.

Do I care?

hell no!!!