And the Pulitzer for "Best Recipe" Goes To....

July 4, 2014 11:36 AM

Looking for American recipes to take to tonight's 4th of July party? It's easy to find historic recipes. But why not look to America's great fiction writers instead?

Okay, so some of the recipes may be a little too elaborate for an Independence Day picnic, but you can keep them in mind for when you host!

Edgar Allen Poe: Eggnog

Kurt Vonnegut: 3 Musketeers Bars

Sylvia Plath: Tomato Soup Cake

Nathaniel Hawthorne: Chocolate Bread Pudding Trifles

Elizabeth Bishop: Chocolate Brownies

Ray Bradbury: Pappa al Pomodoro

Emily Dickinson: Coconut Cake (previously on Metafilter)

Ernest Hemingway: Pan-Fried Trout

Willa Cather: Spiced Plum Kolaches

Allen Ginsberg: Cold Summer Borscht

Katherine Mansfield: Orange Soufflé with Sherry Syrup

Henry David Thoreau: Hazelnut Raisin Bread (there's a rumor that Thoreau invented raisin bread. It's not true, but he may have helped popularize it).

And from film: Every recipe in 'Pulp Fiction'

posted by magstheaxe (7 comments total)

Related: Historical Cooking Project
posted by hepta at 12:18 PM on July 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

All of these are interesting and I'll surely be spending time in the kitchen with some of them but I'd like to add a couple of recipes from my favorite fiction writer foodie, Rex Stout. His Nero Wolfe Cookbook is a paragon of excess and has some marvelous recipes. For example, to demonstrate culinary virtuosity and pamper someone special, serve Quenelles Bonne Femme, page 188. If, like me, you enjoy tarragon and dislike cilantro (WNI3 calls cilantro the inedible leaves of the coriander plant and I've found other people sometimes notice this or the opposite taste preferences) try Chicken with Mushrooms and Tarragon, page 219. The whole thing is a romp through another time and a great cookbook read.
posted by Anitanola at 12:20 PM on July 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

Oh this is great, that Paper and Salt site is fabulous!
posted by freejinn at 1:18 PM on July 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

I also like that I can make the Ray Bradbury recipe more authentic by just opening up a can of tomato soup. There is something so very Brandburyesque about his favorite meal being Campbell's Tomato Soup.
posted by freejinn at 1:22 PM on July 4, 2014

TO MAKE COCK-ALE

Take eight Gallons of Ale; take a Cock and boil him well; then take four pounds of Raisins of the Sun well stoned, two or three Nutmegs, three or four flakes of Mace, half a pound of Dates; beat these all in a Mortar, and put to them two quarts of the best Sack; and when the Ale hath done working, put these in, and stop it close six or seven days, and then bottle it, and a month after you may drink it.

Plenty of recipes and brewing ideas. Along with tales of who's sleeping with whom.
posted by rough ashlar at 1:50 PM on July 4, 2014

"whelk what did you do last night?" "stayed awake reading a recipie book from 1669."
posted by The Whelk at 9:55 PM on July 4, 2014 [3 favorites]

You can't discuss recipes in fiction without mentioning Heartburn by Nora Ephron.
posted by SisterHavana at 1:19 AM on July 6, 2014