Literally Delicious Podcast

by 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 By exploring historical documents, recipes, and cookbooks, host Nick will take you into the culinary world of great fiction, making the same food enjoyed by some of literature's most beloved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 nar ...   ...  Read more

Podcast episodes

  • Season 1

  • Episode 13 - Beef Empanadas from Isabel Allende's Daughter of Fortune

    Episode 13 - Beef Empanadas from Isabel Allende's Daughter of Fortune

    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/

  • Episode 12 - Chocolate Eclairs from Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway

    Episode 12 - Chocolate Eclairs from Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway

    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

  • Episode 11 - The Mint Julep from F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby

    Explicit

    Episode 11 - The Mint Julep from F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby

    Explicit

    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/

  • Episode 10 - Omani Food from Jokha Alharthi's Celestial Bodies

    Episode 10 - Omani Food from Jokha Alharthi's Celestial Bodies

    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/

  • Episode 9 - Roast Chicken and Ratatouille from Ann Patchett's Bel Canto

    Episode 9 - Roast Chicken and Ratatouille from Ann Patchett's Bel Canto

    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/