Preface 11
Part I Childhood
Little House in the Big Woods Breakfast Sausage 17
"Hansel and Gretel" Gingerbread Cake with Blood Orange Syrup 24
In the Night Kitchen Scalded and Malted Milk Cake 32
Nancy Drew Double Chocolate Walnut Sundae 41
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies 53
The Indian in the Cupboard Grilled Roast Beef 60
The Boxcar Children Chocolate Pudding 67
Pippi Longstocking Buttermilk Pancakes 74
Anne of Green Gables Salted Chocolate Caramels 81
Homer Price Old-Fashioned Sour Cream Donuts 91
The Witches Mussel, Shrimp, and Cod Stew 99
The Secret Garden Currant Buns 107
Charlotte's Web Pea and Bacon Soup 117
Where the Red Fern Grows Skillet Cornbread with Honey Butter 127
Strega Nona Black Pepper-Parmesan Pasta 135
"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" Buckwheat Pancakes 140
Part II Adolescence and College Years To Kill a Mockingbird Biscuits with Molasses Butter 151
Lord of the Flies Porchetta di Testa 159
The Catcher in the Rye Malted Milk Ice Cream 165
The Bell Jar Crab-Stuffed Avocados 173
Rebecca Blood Orange Marmalade 179
Les Misérables Black Rye Bread 187
Great Expectations Pork Pie 194
Moby-Dick Clam Chowder 202
Down and Out in Paris and London Rib-Eye Steak 210
Pride and Prejudice White Garlic Soup 216
The Silence of the Lambs Crostini with Fava Bean and Chicken Liver Mousses 224
Middlesex Olive Oil Yogurt Cake 233
Brideshead Revisited Blinis with Caviar 239
The Corrections Chocolate Cupcakes with Peppermint Buttercream Frosting 245
The Aeneid Honey-Poppy Seed Cake 256
Mrs. Dalloway Chocolate Eclairs 264
Anna Karenina Oysters and Cucumber Mignonette 275
Part III Adulthood
The Bluest Eye Concord Grape Sorbet 285
A Confederacy of Dunces Jelly Donuts 290
The Dog Stars Whole Roasted Trout 298
The Hours Birthday Cake 305
"Goodbye to All That" Grilled Peaches with Homemade Ricotta 313
American Pastoral Hot Cheese Sandwich 319
Emma Perfect Soft-Boiled Egg 327
"The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether" Goat Cheese Pumpkin Pie 335
In Cold Blood Cherry Pie 343
The Little Friend Peppermint Stick Ice Cream 350
"Gimpel the Fool" Challah 357
In the Woods Chocolate-Covered Digestive Biscuits 363
Sometimes a Great Notion Blackberry-Hazelnut Coffee Cake 370
Gone Girl Brown Butter Crêpes 377
The Odyssey Red Wine-Rosemary Bread 382
"The Best Girlfriend You Never Had" Red Flannel Hash 388
The Secret History Wine-Braised Leg of Lamb with Wild Mushrooms 395
The Books in Voracious and Recipes they Inspired 403
Acknowledgments 407