Cookbooks for book lovers
As a follow up to a previous PR Daily post on cookbooks for writers, let’s take a look at cookbooks for book lovers. In addition to challenging and novel recipes, literary cookbooks offer a glimpse into the life of the author, their characters, and the time, place, and culture they came from.
“Jane Austen Cookbook” — recipes are taken from the Austen family’s “Household Book.”
Would love to try: Martha’s Almond Cheesecakes
No thanks, I’ll pass: Wine-Roasted Gammon and Pigeon Pie
“Dinner with Mr. Darcy: Recipes Inspired by the Novels of Jane Austen” features authentic regency recipes adapted for modern cooks.
Would love to try: Strawberry Tartlets
No thank, I’ll pass: Calf’s Foot Jelly
“Dinner with Dickens: Recipes inspired by the life and work of Charles Dickens” includes menus and recipes from Dickens wife, Catherine, and recipes based on the food served in his novels.
Would love to try: Dickens family’s Twelfth Cake.
No thanks, I’ll pass: Dandelion Sandwich
Written by two Holmes experts, “Dining with Sherlock Holmes: A Baker Street Cookbook” features full menus from four famous meals that occur in the stories.
Would love to try: Breakfast at Baker Street
No thanks, I’ll pass: On the Chase
“The Hemingway Cookbook” has more than 125 food and drink recipes from the author’s life, collated from period recipes and his favorite restaurants.
Would love to try: Campfire Apple Pie
No thanks, I’ll pass: Fillet of Lion (“First obtain your lion.”)
For those who had trouble making it through “Ulysses”, try this. “The Joyce of Cooking: Food and Drink from James Joyce’s Dublin” is a traditional Irish cookbook and a shortcut (of sorts) to understanding his work.
Would love to try: Puddeny Pie
No thanks, I’ll pass: Oxtail Soup
Need another way to share your love of Shakespeare? “Cooking with Shakespeare” collects 180 recipes from the Elizabethan period adapted for modern cooks. “Passages from the plays relate the recipes to Shakespeare’s works and help students understand both his plays and the world in which he lived.”
Would love to try: Buttered Beere
No thanks, I’ll pass: Aphrodisiac tart with sparrows’ brains (the authors recommend substituting Spam)
Described as “part food memoir and part cookbook,” “Dinner with Tennessee Williams,” is a well-crafted story of the food and history of 1940s New Orleans. Each chapter is based on Williams’ plays.
Would love to try: Lavender, Honey, and Goat Cheese Beignets
No thanks, I’ll pass: Chicory Coffee
The 50 original recipes in “Leo Tolstoy’s family recipe book” give us a “glimpse of the family life of the author of Anna Karenina, War and Peace and other masterpieces. This book is an invitation to the writer’s home, where hospitality was a staple law, no matter where the family lived . . .”
Would love to try: Vegetarian beet borscht
No thanks, I’ll pass: Kasha (gruel)
Okay cooks and foodies . . . are there any recipes you would like to try?
This post was also published on Ragan Communication’s PR Daily.
