Literally Delicious Podcast: Recent Episodes
A Cooking Podcast
Hello, food nerds! Every week, we take a deep dive into some delicious dishes (and drinks) from classic works of literature. By exploring historical documents, recipes, and cookbooks, host Nick will take you into the culinary world of great fiction, making the same food enjoyed by some of literature's most beloved characters. With a new recipe in hand, Nick then takes you into his kitchen where he tries his best to make the narrative nosh as close as he can to the original.
This week, Nick makes empanadas de pino horneados, or baked beef empanadas, from Isabel Allende's wonderful novel Daughter of Fortune. This episode has a bit of everything: fun facts about empanadas and pastry hacks that will give you flakier and crisper pastry.
If you would like to suggest a meal (or beverage) from a work of literature for a future deep dive, send an email with the dish’s name, title of the literary work, and the author’s name to literallydelishpod@gmail.com. Keep listening to hear more of your favorite foods from books featured on Literally Delicious!
Find the recipe for today’s episode on Instagram @literallydelishpod
Sources:
“Using Alcohol in Pie Dough”. Cook’s Illustrated, n.d.
https://www.cooksillustrated.com/how_tos/5680-using-alcohol-in-pie-dough
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Isabel Allende". Encyclopedia Britannica, 1 Mar. 2022
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Isabel-Allende
“La empanada, sabor único de la tradición chilena.” Chile Travel, 28 Aug. 2021
https://www.chile.travel/en/uncategorized/la-empanada-sabor-unico-de-la-tradicion-chilena/
Jaron. “Minced Meat Vs Ground Meat – What’s The Difference?” Foodsguy Blog.
https://foodsguy.com/minced-meat-vs-ground-meat/
Ian Lloyd Neubauer. “The hunt for Chile’s best empanada.” BBC Travel, 1 Dec. 2016.
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20161118-the-hunt-for-chiles-best-empanada
Naomi Tomky. “Meet the Empanadas of Latin America.” Serious Eats, 10 Aug 2018.
https://www.seriouseats.com/types-of-empanadas-saltenas-corn-flour-plantain-viento-latin-american-food
Florence Fabricant. “For Chileans, Passion Translates to Empanadas.” New York Times, 14 April 2009.
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/15/dining/15empa.html
Recipes that inspired my empanadas de pino:
Gloria Apara. “Chilean Baked Beef Empanadas.” Nomadic Chica Blog, 9 Feb. 2020.
https://www.nomadicchica.com/chilean-baked-beef-empanadas-empanadas-de-pino-horneadas/
In this week's episode, we are celebrating nearly 100 years of Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf by making a pastry from the book that's enjoyed by both the characters and podcasters alike -- chocolate eclairs! Though they're quite the demanding and time-consuming pastry, the eclair makes a perfect little sweet with tea! We hope you enjoy listening to this week's episode as much as we enjoyed eating chocolate eclairs (which was a lot).
If you would like to suggest a meal (or beverage) from a work of literature for a future deep dive, send an email with the dish’s name, title of the literary work, and the author’s name to literallydelishpod@gmail.com. Keep listening to hear more of your favorite foods from books featured on Literally Delicious!
Find the recipe for today’s episode on Instagram @literallydelishpod
Sources:
On Lady Bruton's lunch:
Hoff, Molly. “A Feast of Words in ‘Mrs. Dalloway.’” Woolf Studies Annual, vol. 1, 1995, pp. 89–105, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24906319. Accessed 17 May 2022.
The recipe that inspired our eclairs:
"Chocolate Eclairs" by Gale Gand for Food Network
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/chocolate-eclairs-recipe-1937901
Hope y'all are thirsty! We got just what you need for these warmer May days: it's the mint julep from The Great Gatsby. Chances are you've read this one before, and it's likely that you weren't of legal drinking age when you last read it. But we are here to tell you about the history of the mint julep and why Nick thinks that it's such a big deal that Fitzgerald features it in one of the novel's climactic scenes.
Let us know what you think about the mint julep in Gatsby and find the recipe on our Instagram account @literallydelishpod.
If you'd like to recommend a dish or drink for us to make in a future episode, let us know by sending an email to literallydelishpod@gmail.com. We look forward to reading your suggestions!
Sources:
Brian Freedman - Untangling the Complex History of One of America's Most Popular Cocktails—The Mint Julep, Food and Wine, April 2022.
https://www.foodandwine.com/cocktails-spirits/history-of-mint-julep
Jason Diamond - Where Daisy Buchanan Lived, The Paris Review, Dec. 2012.
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2012/12/25/where-daisy-buchanan-lived/
Kate Dingwall - What are “Bottled-in-Bond” Spirits and Why Should I Care?, Wine Enthusiast.
https://www.winemag.com/2019/10/15/what-is-bottled-in-bond/
Matt Frassica - Romantic nostalgia of 'Gatsby' inspired by Louisville, The Louisville Courier-Journal,
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2013/05/10/gatsby-fitzgerald-louisville/2151741/
Rebecca Toy - A Brief History of the Mint Julep, From Daily Medicine to an Elite Race Icon, Wine Enthusiast.
https://www.winemag.com/2021/04/27/mint-julep-history-kentucky-derby/
Hi, food nerds! We hope you enjoy this week's episode where Nick makes Omani food from Jokha Alharthi's 2010 novel (published in English in 2018) Celestial Bodies. The dishes this week include Omani halwa (jelly sweets), khubz ragtag (flatbread with honey and butter), chicken broth, and qahwa (coffee). Nick also shares a little bit from his research on Zanzibar, Oman, and the history of slavery and abolition in the Al Busaidi empire around the Indian Ocean.
If you would like to suggest a meal (or beverage) from a work of literature for a future deep dive, send an email with the dish’s name, title of the literary work, and the author’s name to literallydelishpod@gmail.com. Keep listening to hear more of your favorite foods from books featured on Literally Delicious!
To see recipes and pictures from today's episode follow us on Instagram @literallydelishpod!
Sources:
For information on slavery in East Africa:
Alpers, E. (2003). Flight to freedom: Escape from slavery among bonded africans in the Indian Ocean world, c.1750–1962. Slavery and Abolition, 24(2), 51-68, DOI: 10.1080/01440390308559155
For information about Oman post-1975:
Hirji, Z. (2007). Relating Muscat to Mombasa: Spatial tropes in the kinship narratives of an extended family network in Oman. Anthropology of the Middle East, 2(1), 55-69.
For information on global dates markets and their impact on slavery in Oman:
Hopper, M. S. (2013). Slaves of one master: Globalization and the African diaspora in Arabia in the age of empire. In R. Harms, B.K Freamon, & D.W. Blight (Eds.), Indian Ocean slavery in the age of abolition (pp. 223-240). Yale University Press.
For information about the history of slavery in Omani and Zanzibari literature:
O’Dell, E. J. (2020). Yesterday is not gone: Memories of slavery in Zanzibar and Oman in memoirs, fiction, and film. Journal of Global Slavery, 5, 357-401.
Recipes:
Halwa - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noXT3er74dU
Khubz Ragag - https://www.saveur.com/omani-egg-cheese-sandwich-recipe/
Better late than never, here is this week's episode. Nick seriously won't shut up about this award winning book (or how well his roast chicken came out). This week, Nick sleuths out a recipe and then draws inspiration from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, a classic cookbook written, in part, by Julia Childe. We hope you enjoy this episode and that you keep listening!
If you would like to suggest a meal (or beverage) from a work of literature for a future deep dive, send an email with the dish’s name, title of the literary work, and the author’s name to literallydelishpod@gmail.com. Keep listening to hear more of your favorite foods from books featured on Literally Delicious!
Find the recipe for today’s episode on Instagram @literallydelishpod
Sources:
Sean Abbot's interview with the author may be found appendix in the Harper Collins edition, 2001.
https://www.amazon.com/Canto-Harper-Perennial-Modern-Classics-ebook/dp/B000FC10S4/ref=sr11?crid=1F8UJUVFS6ZCH&keywords=bel+canto+ann+patchett&qid=1651019833&sprefix=bel+canto%2Caps%2C75&sr=8-1
Ann Patchett's blurb about eggplant was found in The Book Club Cookbook by Judy Gelman and Vicky Levy Krupp, 2012.
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Club-Cookbook-Revised-FavoriteBooks/dp/1585429244/ref=sr12?crid=1FK1AVG90IBO&keywords=book+club+cookbook&qid=1651019918&sprefix=book+club+cookbook%2Caps%2C70&sr=8-2
For information on ratatouille, see Michela Cecchi's June 2021 post called "The True Story of French Ratatouille" in Gamberorossointernational.com
https://www.gamberorossointernational.com/news/food-news/the-true-story-of-french-ratatouille/
For information on eggplants bitterness, see Jo Harrison's post called "What Makes Eggplants Bitter (and How to Fix It) in Plantfoodathome.com
https://www.plantfoodathome.com/what-makes-eggplants-bitter/
In this week's episode, Nick talks House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III and gets nerdy about some crispy rice. We also make khorest bademjan from a recipe courtesy of a friend of the author that you can find in the Book Club Cookbook by Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp. We hope you enjoy and that you keep listening to Literally Delicious!
If you would like to suggest a meal (or beverage) from a work of literature for a future deep dive, send an email with the dish’s name, title of the literary work, and the author’s name to literallydelishpod@gmail.com. Keep listening to hear more of your favorite foods from books featured on Literally Delicious!
Find the recipe for today’s episode on Instagram @literallydelishpod
Sources
Information about Social Class in Iran:
"Social Class" - Helen Chapin Metz, ed. Iran: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1987. http://countrystudies.us/iran/48.htm
Information about Red Pistachios:
"Remember Red Pistachios? Here's What Happened to Them" - Alison Spiegel Huffington Post, Jan 30 2015.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-are-red-pistachiosn6570944
Recipes
Khorest Bademjan - From The Book Club Cookbook by Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp, New York: Penguin, 2012, pp. 187-189.
Tahdig - "What is Tahdig (Persian Rice)? How to Cook Persian Tahdig at Home" Aug 16 2021.
https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-tahdig-persian-rice-how-to-cook-persian-tahdig-at-home
Happy Tuesday, everyone! Nick has been looking forward to making these recipes for awhile! This week, we present a trio of Greek diner dishes, including pastitsio, tzatziki, and rizogalo (rice pudding). We hope you enjoy these diner favorites at home and that you read the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides.
If you would like to suggest a meal (or beverage) from a work of literature for a future deep dive, send an email with the dish’s name, title of the literary work, and the author’s name to literallydelishpod@gmail.com. Keep listening to hear more of your favorite foods from books featured on Literally Delicious!
Find the recipe for today’s episode on Instagram @literallydelishpod.
Sources:
"The Kaffenion Connection: How the Greek Diner Evolved" - Edward Lewine - The New York Times, 14 April 1996
https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/14/nyregion/the-kaffenion-connection-how-the-greek-diner-evolved.html
"The Health Benefits of Garlic" - Cleveland Clinic
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/6-surprising-ways-garlic-boosts-your-health/
"The Benefits of Yogurt" - Elaine Magee - WebMD
https://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/benefits-yogurt
Recipes:
Pastitsio:
https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/pastitsio
Rizogalo:
https://www.thespruceeats.com/greek-rice-pudding-1706092
The BIG episode is here, food nerds! In this extra long episode, Nick makes SIX recipes from Nora Ephron's 1983, semi-autobiographical novel, Heartburn. There's so much cooking in this episode that you might worry that Nick won't have enough time to be nerdy. But, fear not. Nick deep dives the origins of "back-of-the-box" recipes and argues for their importance to American food culture.
If you would like to suggest a meal (or beverage) from a work of literature for a future deep dive, send an email with the dish’s name, title of the literary work, and the author’s name to literallydelishpod@gmail.com. Keep listening to hear more of your favorite foods from books featured on Literally Delicious!
Test Kitchen Recipes:
Betty Crocker Potatoes Anna Recipe:
https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/potatoes-anna/3907ec7c-3947-43ed-a0ad-f24ae1249ab8
Campbell's Ultimate Slow-Cooked Pot Roast Recipe:
https://www.campbells.com/recipes/ultimate-slow-cooked-pot-roast/
Kraft Heinz Test Kitchen's Recipe for Grey Poupon Red Wine Vinaigrette:
https://www.myfoodandfamily.com/recipe/055034/grey-poupon-red-wine-vinaigrette
Sources:
Emily Contois Blog on the Evolution of the "Back-of-the-box" recipe
https://emilycontois.com/2012/10/04/curating-the-history-of-american-convenience-cuisine/
Hannah Selinger for Eater, June 2020: "Just Cook From the Back of the Box"
https://www.eater.com/2020/6/12/21286383/back-of-the-box-recipes-history-pantry-cooking-baking
Kate Young for The Guardian, Sep. 2017: "Novel recipes: linguine alla cecca from Heartburn by Nora Ephron"
https://www.theguardian.com/books/little-library-cafe/2017/sep/29/novel-recipes-linguine-alla-cecca-from-heartburn-by-nora-ephron
Kelsey Lawrence for Vice, Oct. 2018: "How Back-of-the-Box Recipes Became Beloved Comfort Foods for So Many Americans"
https://www.vice.com/en/article/mbd5xx/how-back-of-the-box-recipes-became-beloved-comfort-foods-for-so-many-americans
Monte Matthews on the Chewing the Fat blog: "Lillian Hellman's Pot Roast"
https://chewingthefat.us.com/2011/11/lillian-hellmanns-pot-roast.html
It’s LIT Delicious this week, food nerds! Nick, Gab, and Nick’s best friend Kyle team up and shake up some lovely pink cocktails from Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. The Jack Rose cocktail is one with an astounding history, as it has been named as one of the favorite cocktails of some major literary stars and film icons. Plus, it’s delicious, and it will definitely take a place in your cocktail rotation. So why can’t you find this cocktail at any bars? Nick tries to answer this question and shares a few other interesting tidbits about the Jack Rose between sips. It’s bevvie time, food nerds!
Find the recipes and photos from today's show on Instagram @literallydelishpod.
If you would like to suggest a meal (or beverage) from a work of literature for a future deep dive, send an email with the dish’s name, title of the literary work, and the author’s name to literallydelishpod@gmail.com. Keep listening to hear more of your favorite foods from books featured on Literally Delicious!
Sources:
Books
Barflies and Cocktails (1920) by Harry MacElhone and Wynn Holcomb
https://euvs-vintage-cocktail-books.cld.bz/1927-Barflies-and-Cocktails/V/
Drinks (1914) by Jacques Straub
https://euvs-vintage-cocktail-books.cld.bz/1914-Drinks-by-Jacques-Straub
Jack's Manual on the Vintage and Production, Care and Handling of Wines, Liquors, Etc: A Handbook of Information for Home, Club, or Hotel, Recipes for Fancy Mixed Drinks and When and How to Serve (1908) by Jack A. Grohusko
https://euvs-vintage-cocktail-books.cld.bz/1908-Jack-s-Manual-by-J-A-Grohusko
Magazines and Newspapers
Dylan Garret’s “The Jack Rose Cocktail, a True American Classic” for Wine Enthusiast July 6, 2019
https://www.winemag.com/recipe/jack-rose-cocktail/
Mark A. Zaineddin and John Gagosian’s “Searching for Jack” for The Washington Post June 18, 2003
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/food/2003/06/18/searching-for-jack/7430bcd8-598f-4d48-9e52-6a14a8ed0148/
Websites
Difford’s Guide Website on The Jack Rose Cocktail
https://www.diffordsguide.com/cocktails/recipe/1039/jack-rose-cocktail
Philgreene61’s post to the “To Have and Have Another” Blog on May 11, 2012 on The Jack Rose
https://tohaveandhaveanother.wordpress.com/2012/05/11/the-jack-rose/
Literally Delicious is back for a new week with a new book and two new recipes. In today’s episode, Nick tries his hand at making jhal muri, a spicy street eat from India that features in Jumpa Lahiri’s 2003 novel The Namesake.
If you would like to suggest a meal (or beverage) from a work of literature for a future deep dive, send an email with the dish’s name, title of the literary work, and the author’s name to literallydelishpod@gmail.com. Keep listening to hear more of your favorite foods from books featured on Literally Delicious!
Find the recipe for today’s episode on Instagram @literallydelishpod
Sources:
History of West Bengal - Britannica.com
https://www.britannica.com/place/West-Bengal
Indrani Sen - “American Chefs Discover Mustard Oil” - New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/02/dining/american-chefs-discover-mustard-oil.html
Julie R. Thomson - “So THAT's What Canola Oil Is Actually Made Of” - Huffington Post, 22 Mar. 2017
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-is-canola_n_58d13dfde4b0be71dcf81b08
Nik Sharma - “The Truth About Mustard Oil: Behind the "For External Use Only" Label” - Serious Eats
https://www.seriouseats.com/mustard-oil-guide
“Pakistan Tinderbox – Bengal” Boston Globe, 11 Nov. 1964 pp. 28
https://www.newspapers.com/image/433726267
Richard Weintraub “Delhi Facing Problem of State Instability” Boston Globe, 16 Feb. 1969 pp. 50
https://www.newspapers.com/image/434613442
Recipes that inspired my jhal muri:
https://www.bongeats.com/recipe/jhal-muri
https://hebbarskitchen.com/jhal-muri-recipe-jhalmuri-jhaal-muri/
In this, the second part of our deep dive into Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Nick covers the dish that was a personal favorite of Twain (and one that Nick really enjoyed making). Oh, and get ready for some…drum roll, please…cabbage trivia, food nerds!
If you would like to suggest a meal (or beverage) from a work of literature for a future deep dive, send an email with the dish’s name, title of the literary work, and the author’s name to literallydelishpod@gmail.com. Keep listening to hear more of your favorite foods from books featured on Literally Delicious!
Find the recipe and pictures from today’s episode on Instagram @literallydelishpod!
Since the description is capped at 4000 characters, you can find all my sources (along with the recipe) in the document linked below:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zap_J9vLLXGW590ZUQ9yVorw8nago2Jo1dGh-EuGwHM/edit?usp=sharing
In this episode, the first of our two-part look at dishes from Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Nick makes two versions of cornbread from the novel after taking a close look at historical documents and recipes. He also tries two beverages with deceiving names: “pot liquor,” which contains no alcohol, and “buttermilk,” which contains no actual butter (as far as he knows). Stay tuned for more foolery and the second half of recipes from Huckleberry Finn in next week’s episode!
If you would like to suggest a meal (or beverage) from a work of literature for a future deep dive, send an email with the dish’s name, title of the literary work, and the author’s name to literallydelishpod@gmail.com. Keep listening to hear more of your favorite foods from books featured on Literally Delicious!
Sources:
American Chemical Society on the invention of baking powder
https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/bakingpowder.html#development-of-baking-powder
Ben H. McClary - “Introducing a Classic: Gunn’s Domestic Medicine” - Tennessee Historical Quarterly
https://www.jstor.org/stable/42626608
Ben Panko - “The Great Uprising: How a Powder Revolutionized Baking” - Smithsonian Magazine
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/great-uprising-how-powder-revolutionized-baking-180963772/
Bernard Herman - “Hannah Mary’s Giant Corn Pone” - Southern Cultures
https://www.southerncultures.org/article/hannah-marys-corn-pone/
Dwight Eisnach and Herbert C. Covey - “Slave Gardens in the Antebellum South”
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/773984
Kathleen Purvis’ interview with Michael Twitty for the Charlotte Observer
https://www.charlotteobserver.com/living/food-drink/article68763427.html
Knoxville News Sentinel Corn Dodger Recipe
https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/southern-specialty-greens-corn-dodgers/docview/393452774/se-2
Lisa Antonelli Bacon - “Cornpone versus Cornbread” - Virginia Living Magazine
https://www.virginialiving.com/food/cornpone-versus-cornbread/
Recipe that Inspired my Corn Pone Recipe
https://ancestorsinaprons.com/recipe/indian-bread-corn-pone/
Recipe that Inspired my Corn Dodger Recipe
https://www.lanascooking.com/corn-dodgers/
In our first episode ever, we take a deep dive into a simmering pot of chowder - clam chowder from Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, that is. With a little historical research and some surprising ingredients, host Nick makes a clam chowder like you have never had before.
Get the recipe on Instagram @literallydelishpod
If you would like to suggest a meal (or beverage) from a work of literature for a future deep dive, send an email with the dish’s name, title of the literary work, and the author’s name to literallydelishpod@gmail.com. Keep listening to hear more of your favorite foods from books featured on Literally Delicious!
Sources:
Article citing the oldest-known chowder recipe in the United States:
https://www.seriouseats.com/how-to-make-real-new-england-clam-chowder-the-food-lab-recipe
Book where I sourced the 1838 clam chowder recipe:
https://www.amazon.com/Northern-Hospitality-Cooking-Book-England/dp/1558498613
Information on crops grown in Nantucket 1856-1880:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1559727
Information on types of clams in Nantucket Bay:
https://spo.nmfs.noaa.gov/mfr.htm?tid=64
Professor Perry Miller’s Book on Melville The Raven and the Whale: Poe, Melville, and the New York Literary Scene:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0801857503/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i5
Food nerds, rejoice! Check out this new podcast where an ordinary home cook makes food from classic works of literature and then gives you the recipe.
If you would like to suggest a meal (or beverage) from a work of literature for a future deep dive, send an email with the dish’s name, title of the literary work, and the author’s name to literallydelishpod@gmail.com. Keep listening to hear more of your favorite foods from books featured on Literally Delicious!