This is a comprehensive collection of authentic recipes, some 500 in all, for drinks and dishes that more than 150 American authors since the late 18th century are known to have enjoyed. The book should appeal to amateur chefs and so-called "foodies" who may want to test some of the recipes in their kitchens; to American literature instructors and scholars who may use it as a teaching tool; and general readers who will read it for pleasure. In effect, this is a celebrity cookbook to which many literary celebrities, living and dead, have contributed, among them Harriet Beecher Stowe, Rudolfo Anaya, Denise Chavez, Emily Dickinson, William Faulkner, Harlan Ellison, Ursula Le Guin, Benjamin Franklin, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Jack London, Allen Ginsberg, Lafcadio Hearn, Ernest Hemingway, Jack Kerouac, Elmore Leonard, Bobbie Ann Mason, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Leslie Marmon Silko, Gertrude Stein, Onoto Watanna, Eudora Welty, Walt Whitman, and Gerald Vizenor.

Table of Contents:
Table of Contents Acknowledgments Preface The Recipes Conrad Aiken delete5 • Scrapple Bronson and Louisa May Alcott delete5 • Berry Pudding Without Eggs • Biscuit Without Milk • Cake Without Eggs • Ginger Snaps • Graham Cake • Tomato Catsup Horatio Alger, Jr. delete6 • Egg Plant Pilau • Graham Muffins David Amram delete7 • Omelette Rudolfo Anaya delete7 • Sardinas de Lata (Sardines from the Can) Sherwood Anderson delete9 • Baked Anonymous delete9 • Boston Brown Bread • Breakfast Dish • Cheese Relish • Chowder, an Old Recipe • Colonial Punch • Corn Bread • Corn Pone • Eve’s Pudding • Oatmeal Pudding • Old Virginia Mince Pie • Oyster Cocktail • Plum Pudding • Plum Pudding • Stewed Duck and Peas Susan B. Anthony delete16 • Apple Tapioca Pudding Catharine Beecher delete17 • Cheapest Beef • Coffee • Fish Skin for Coffee • French Pot au Feu • Fricassee Chickens • Mush or Hasty Pudding • Shoulder of Lamb • Spanish Olla-­Podrida • Succotash • Tomato Catsup Henry Ward Beecher delete20 deleteBarbeque • Biscuits • Reed-­Birds • Succotash, or Corn and Beans • Tomatoes • Turtle Bean Soup Elizabeth Bishop delete22 • Brownies Lillie Devereux Blake delete23 • Last Century Blackberry Pudding • Tropic Delicacy Edwin Booth—Breakfast at Delmonico’s delete23 • Terrine de fois gras (Terrine entière de ­foies-­gras) Kay Boyle delete24 • Ratatouille Rowayton Oliver Bell Bunce delete25 • Dandelion Wine • Orange Loaf Cake • Robert E. Lee Cake John Burroughs delete26 • A Frickasie (Colonial Recipe) John Cage delete27 • Homemade Bread Helen Campbell delete28 • Candied or Crystallized Fruit or Nuts • Deviled Ham • Gingersnaps • Irish Stew • Tomato Catsup Alice Cary and Phoebe Cary delete30 • Boiled Apple Dumplings • Compote of Apples • Minced Chicken • Plum Pudding • Snow Balls Willa Cather delete31 • Christmas Plum Pudding • Cream Raymond Chandler delete33 • Gimlet Denise Chávez delete33 • Delfina Spanish—Really Mexican—Rice Lydia Maria Child delete33 • Beef • Currant Wine • Mince Meat • Plum Pudding • Pumpkin and Squash Robert P. Tristram Coffin delete35 • Lobster Stew John Esten Cooke delete36 • Perfection Salad Rose Terry Cooke delete36 • Frizzled Dried Beef • Scalloped Fish Susan Coolidge delete37 • Browned Oysters • Easy Chicken Salad • Molasses Pie • Rhode Island ­Johnny-Cake • Spiced Shad • Squash Pies William A. Croffut delete39 • Clam Soup • Peas Stewed in Cream • Stuffed Cabbage • Sweet Pickle Bernard DeVoto delete40 • Lobster • Martinis à la DeVoto Charles Dickens—Dinner at Delmonico’s delete41 • Aspic of ­Foies-­Gras (Aspic de ­foie-­gras) • Bécassines (English Snipe, Broiled) • Consommé à la Sévigné • Salmon à la Victoria (Saumon à la Victoria) • Tenderloin of Beef à la Lucullus (Filet de bœuf à la Lucullus) Emily Dickinson delete50 • Black Cake • Chocolate Dessert • Cocoanut Cake • Gingerbread Dorothy Dix delete52 • Barbequed Chicken Abigail Scott Duniway delete52 • Chicken and Gravy as Mother Did It • Pure Salt Rising Bread • Transparent Jelly (No. 1) • Transparent Jelly (No. 2) Elizabeth Fries Ellet delete53 • Jugged Hare • Scotch Haggis • Seven-­Years’ Catsup Harlan Ellison delete54 • Café Ellison Diabolique Nora Ephron delete55 • Mashed Potatoes William Faulkner delete56 • Curing Hams Shoulders Bacon • Hot Toddy Erna Fergusson delete57 • Buñuelos or Sopaipillas (Fried Puffs) • Chile con Carne • Chiles Rellenos • Corn Meal Tortillas • Enchiladas with Flour Tortillas • Frijoles (Beans) • Green Corn with Green Chile • Posole (Hog and Hominy) • Quesadillas • Pastels (Pastry) • Pastelitos • Tortillas, Corn Meal Annie Adams Fields delete62 • French Toast • Walnut Cake Zelda Fitzgerald delete62 • Breakfast Benjamin Franklin delete62 • Apple Pudding (Pour faire un pudding de pommes) • Beer with Essence of Spruce (Maniere de faire de la Biere avec de l’Essence de Spruce) • Broiled Steaks (Tranches de bœuf grillées) • A Cheap and Good Soup • Mince Pie (Recette d’un pâté haché) • Orange Shrub • Oyster Sauce for Boiled Turkey (Sauce d’huitres pour un dindon bouilli) • Puff Paste (Pâte feuilletée) • Rice Pudding Baked (Pour faire un pudding de riz cuit au pour) • Roast Pig (Pour rôtir un cochon de lait) • Sauce for Boiled Ducks or Rabbits (Sauce pour des canards ou des lapins bouillis) Jessie Benton Frémont delete65 • Ham Bones Horace Howard Furness delete66 • Cream Cheese Erle Stanley Gardner delete66 • Case of the Caretaker’s Cat Cocktail Charlotte Perkins Gilman delete67 • Synthetic Quince Allen Ginsberg delete67 • Cold Summer Borscht Grace Greenwood delete68 • Prune Pudding Sarah Josepha Hale delete68 • Chicken Pie • Puff Paste • Pumpkin Pie • Roast Beef • Roasted Goose • Roasted Pork • Roasted Turkey • Stuffed Loin of Mutton Gail Hamilton delete71 • Beaten Biscuit • Blackberry Jam Cake • Brown Bread Cakes • Soft Gingerbread Marion Harland delete72 • Arrowroot ­Blanc-­Mange • Beef Tea • Boiled Ham • Broiled Chicken • Brunswick Stew • Chicken Jelly • Chicken Pie • Country Pork Sausages • Fried Chicken • Galantine • Lobster Chowder • Mince Pies • Mother’s Crullers • Omelette aux Fines Herbes • Peach Marmalade • Potted Herrings • Pumpkin Pie • Ragout of Liver • Roast Chine • Roast Duck • Roast Pig • Roast Spare Rib • Roast Turkey • Strawberry Shortcake • Sweet Potato Pudding • Tomato Aspic and Shrimp Salad • White (Asparagus) Soup Harvard Club of New York—Dinner at Delmonico’s delete83 • Charlotte Russe • Consummé Imperial (Consommé à l’Imperiale) • Potatoes Souffléd (Pommes de terre soufflés) • Sweetbreads, Parisian Style (Ris de veau à la Parisienne) • Italian Salad (Salade à l’Italienne) Nathaniel Hawthorne delete90 • Corned Beef Lafcadio Hearn delete91 • Boston Brown Bread • Bouille-­Abaisse • Calves’ Feet Jelly • Country Fried Chicken • Crayfish Bisque • Gelatine Snow Pudding • Gumbo of Okra or Filee • Graham Muffins for Dyspeptics • Jambalaya of Fowls and Rice • Mint Juleps • Pudding • Rich Wedding Cake or Black Cake • Tomato Catsup • Tomato Soup with Vegetables Lillian Hellman delete95 • Pot Roast Ernest Hemingway delete95 • Bloody Mary • Chop Suey • Daiquiri • Fried Trout • Picadillo John Hersey delete98 • Sliced Steak Sandwich Isabella Beecher Hooker delete98 • Soup Regency • Sponge Cake • Veal Croquettes Robinson Jeffers delete99 • For a Poet’s Palate Thomas Jefferson delete99 • Apple Toddy • Ice Cream • Persimmon Beer Ronald Johnson delete101 • Green Chile Sauce • Huevos Rancheros • Mexican Summer Soup Helen Keller delete102 • Golden Gate Salad Jack Kerouac delete102 • Green Pea Soup • Pâte de Porc Gras Caroline Kirkland delete103 • Bread Ted Kooser delete104 • How to Make Rhubarb Wine Ring Lardner delete105 • Dry Martini Harper Lee delete105 • Crackling Bread Ursula K. Le Guin delete105 • Crab Nebula • Líriv Metadí or Valley Succotash • Primitive Chocolate Mousse Elmore Leonard delete107 • Elmore’s Southron Breakfast Treats Aldo Leopold delete107 • Deer Steaks Eliza Leslie delete108 • Beefsteak (Broiled) • Beefsteak (Fried) • Catfish Soup • Fine Puff Paste • French Mustard • Green Corn Pudding • Lemon Pudding • Lobster • Maccaroni • Mock Turtle or Calf’s Head Soup • Mushroom Catsup • Pepper Pot • Pickled Oysters • Pickled Tomatoes • Pork and Beans • Roasted Beef’s Heart • Stewed Carp • Tomato Catsup Meriwether Lewis and William Clark delete115 • Boudin Blanc (White Buffalo Sausage) Olive Logan delete116 • Veal Cutlets in Papillottes ­(Curl-­papers) Jack and Charmian London delete116 • Corned Beef and Cabbage • Hawaiian Salad • Italian Spaghetti • Roast Duck Henry Wadsworth Longfellow delete118 • Veal Cutlets with Tomato Sauce • Vegetable Soup Anita Loos delete119 • Kitten’s Tongue James Russell Lowell delete119 • Eleanor Makes Macaroons Charles Fletcher Lummis delete120 • Atole de Piña (Pineapple Gruel) • Cajeta de Camote y Piña • Cajeta de Celaya • Cajeta de Leche • Candied Peaches • Chile Sauce • Chiles Rellenos de Picadillo (Stuffed Green Peppers) • Gato De Liebre (Hare Pie) • Guaxolote en Mole Verde (Turkey in Green Sauce) • Ostras de la Buena Mujer (Good Woman’s Oysters) • Pichones Borrachos (Drunken Pigeons) • Pollos de la Bella Mulata (Chicken à la the Beautiful Mulatto) • Quesadillas de Prisa ­(Hurry-­up Cheese Cakes) • Stuffed Potatoes (Peru and Bolivia) John D. MacDonald delete125 • Ceviche de Caracol • Meyer’s Superior Cocktail Dip • Tolbert’s Chili for One Hundred Mary Peabody Mann delete126 • Pandowdy • Pigeon Soup • Scalloped Oysters • Sponge Cake Bobbie Ann Mason delete128 • Boiled Custard Mary McCarthy delete128 • Meat Loaf Herman Melville delete129 • Clam Chowder H. L. Mencken delete130 • Jump Stiddy S. Weir Mitchell delete130 • Milk • Raw Soup • Tea Vladimir Nabokov delete131 • Eggs à la Nabocoque Lorine Niedecker delete132 • Bread Pudding • Chicken Loaf • Corn and Cheese Fondue • Jello Salad • Swedish Meatballs Catherine Owen delete134 • American Walnut Catsup • Cigarettes à la Reine • Compote of Pigeons • Cutlets Chaudfroid à la Russe • Genoa Cake • Mock Haggis Walker Percy delete137 • Cud’n Walker’s Uncle Will’s Favorite Mint Julep Receipt Katherine Anne Porter delete137 • Genuine Mole Poblana Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings delete138 • Alligator-­Tail Steak • Blackbird Pie • Crab à la Newburg • Okra à la Cross Creek • Wild Duck Mary Roberts Rinehart delete141 • Baked Tomatoes Kenneth Roberts delete142 • Beans • Hot Buttered Rum • Stewed Coot Theodore Roosevelt delete143 • Mint Julep—Kentucky Style • Spice Cake Dori Sanders delete145 • Easy Peach Cobbler Saturday Club of Boston delete146 • Parker House Rolls Benjamin Shillaber delete147 • Boston Baked Bean • Cucumber Catsup Lydia Sigourney delete147 • Apples with Cream • Beef Soup • Calves’ Feet Jelly • Cordials • Raisin Pudding Leslie Marmon Silko delete150 • Bacardi Golden Rum Cake Upton Sinclair delete151 • Apples Gary Snyder delete151 • How to Make Stew in the Picante Desert—Recipe for Locke & Drum William Stafford delete152 • Gormeh Salzee (Persian Lamb and Parsley Stew) Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas delete153 • Bass for Picasso • Chowder Alice B. Toklas and Pâte à Beignets • Gougère, a Burgundian Pastry • Haschich Fudge John Steinbeck delete156 • Mysterious Striped Bass • Old Fashioned Slaw Harriet Beecher Stowe delete157 • Bread and Fruit Pudding Gene ­Stratton-­Porter delete158 • Miner’s Lettuce Salad Luci Tapahonso delete158 • Náneeskaadí (Indian Bread or Tortillas) Ida Tarbell delete159 • How to Mix a Salad Bayard Taylor delete159 • Gothic Punch Bayard Taylor—Dinner at Delmonico’s delete159 • Bigarade Sauce (Sauce à la bigarade) • Lima Beans, Thickened Mâitre d’Hôtel (Haricots flageolets, ­maitre-­d’hotel) • Green Peas, English Style (Petits pois a l’Anglaise) • Potatoes, Dauphine (Pommes de terre Dauphine) • Shrimp Sauce (Sauce aux crevettes) • Tenderloin Steak with Madeira, Half-Glaze (Filet de bœuf au madère, demi-­glace) • Tomatoes Stuffed with Fresh Mushrooms (Tomates farcies aux champignons frais) • Young America Sherbet (Sorbet jeune Amérique) Albert Payson Terhune delete164 • Sunnybank Guava Salad Octave Thanet delete165 • Christmas Plum Pudding • Rich Dark Pudding • Salmi of Prairie Chicken (Grouse) Celia Thaxter delete166 • Graham Mark Twain delete167 • Ash Cake • German Coffee • New English Pie • Whiskey and Bitters Mark Twain—Dinner at Delmonico’s delete168 • Baltimore Terrapin (Terrapin à la Baltimore) • Coffee • Consommé à la Souveraine • Cucumbers • Fried Hominy and Currant Jelly • Green Turtle Soup • Mushrooms on Toast with Cream •  Mushrooms Sautés à la Crême • Oysters • Périgordine Timbales • Potatoes English Style, Persillade Balls (Pommes à l’Anglaise, en boules persillade) • Quail Roasted, Plain • Red Head Duck, Roasted (Canards sauvages à tête rouge rôtis) • Saddle of Lamb, Sauce Colbert • Salad: Celery Mayonnaise • Stuffed Tomatoes Carl Van Vechten delete177 • Garlic Ice Cream (a dressing for salad) • Viennese Cheese Pancakes Metta Victor delete178 • Green Tomato Pickles • Head Cheese • Oyster Catsup • Tomato Chowder Gerald Vizenor delete179 • Banquet Français Sam Ward delete180 • Grouse, Roasted à la Sam Ward • Ham • Sam Ward Hashed Filet of Beef • Verses for the Kitchen Robert Penn Warren delete182 • Insidious Punch Booker T. Washington delete182 • Pommes de Terre Sautees (Sautéed Potato) • Roast Turkey with Sauce Diable George Washington delete184 • Small Beer Otono Watanna delete186 • Fried Bamboo Shoots • Gai Grun Yung Waa ­(Bird’s-­nest Soup) • Mushi Kujira (Boiled Whale or Bass) • Roast Squab • Usagi ­Amai-­Sui (Sweet and Sour Hare) Daniel Webster delete189 • Punch Eudora Welty delete189 • Barbeque Sauce • Beaten Biscuit • Catfish • Fish Court Bouillon • Jellied Apples • Lye Hominy • Mint Julep • Okra Gumbo • Seafood Gumbo • Spanish Rice • Stuffed Eggs Walt Whitman delete192 • Coffee Cake • Doughnuts A. D. T. Whitney delete194 • Brown Bread • One-­Two-­Three-­Four Cookies Kate Douglas Wiggin delete195 • Large Family Bread • Novelty Cake • Substitute Washington Tennessee Williams delete196 • Grits Owen Wister delete197 • Lady Baltimore Cake E. L. Youmans delete197 • Chetney of Chicken • Curry of Chicken Notes Further Reading Index of Recipes