Preface xi
Part I Childhood
Little House in the Big Woods Breakfast Sausage 3
"Hansel and Gretel" Gingerbread Cake with Blood Orange Syrup 8
In the Night Kitchen Scalded and Malted Milk Cake 13
Nancy Drew Double Chocolate Walnut Sundae 19
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies 27
The Indian in the Cupboard Grilled Roast Beef 32
The Boxcar Children Chocolate Pudding 37
Pippi Longstocking Buttermilk Pancakes 42
Anne of Green Gables Salted Chocolate Caramels 47
Homer Price Old-Fashioned Sour Cream Donuts 53
The Witches Mussel, Shrimp, and Cod Stew 58
The Secret Garden Currant Buns 64
Charlotte's Web Pea and Bacon Soup 71
Where the Red Fern Grows Skillet Cornbread with Honey Butter 78
Strega Nona Black Pepper-Parmesan Pasta 83
"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" Buckwheat Pancakes 87
Part II Adolescence and College Years
To Kill a Mockingbird Biscuits with Molasses Butter 95
Lord of the Flies Porchetta di Testa 101
The Catcher in the Rye Malted Milk Ice Cream 105
The Bell Jar Crab-Stuffed Avocados 110
Rebecca Blood Orange Marmalade 114
Les Misérables Black Rye Bread 119
Great Expectations Pork Pie 124
Moby-Dick Clam Chowder 130
Down and Out in Paris and London Rib-Eye Steak 135
Pride and Prejudice White Garlic Soup 139
The Silence of the Lambs Crostini with Fava Bean and Chicken Liver Mousses 145
Middlesex Olive Oil Yogurt Cake 151
Brideshead Revisited Blinis with Caviar 155
The Corrections Chocolate Cupcakes with Peppermint Buttercream Frosting 159
The Aeneid Honey-Poppy Seed Cake 166
Mrs. Dalloway Chocolate Éclairs 171
Anna Karenina Oysters and Cucumber Mignonette 179
Part III Adulthood
The Bluest Eye Concord Grape Sorbet 187
A Confederacy of Dunces jelly Donuts 191
The Dog Stars Whole Roasted Trout 196
The Hours Birthday Cake 201
"Goodbye to All That" Grilled Peaches with Homemade Ricotta 207
American Pastoral Hot Cheese Sandwich 211
Emma Perfect Soft-Boiled Egg 216
"The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether" Goat Cheese Pumpkin Pie 221
In Cold Blood Cherry Pie 226
The Little Friend Peppermint Stick Ice Cream 231
"Gimpel the Fool" Challah 236
In the Woods Chocolate-Covered Digestive Biscuits 240
Sometimes a Great Notion Blackberry-Hazelnut Coffee Cake 245
Gone Girl Brown Butter Crepes 250
The Odyssey Red Wine-Rosemary Bread 254
"The Best Girlfriend You Never Had" Red Flannel Hash 258
The Secret History Wine-Braised Leg of Lamb with Wild Mushrooms 263
The Books in Voracious and the Recipes They Inspired 269
Acknowledgments 273
Index 275