Recipes Included(!)

Apparently, fiction books featuring recipes is a thing. I don’t know why it’s a thing, but it’s a thing.

That set me to thinking: What kind of recipes would I include in Doleful Creatures?

Aloysisus’ Stream Trout

Go down to stream. Catch trout. Eat trout.

And so on. I don’t see much future in putting recipes in books about anthropomorphic animals.

That caused me to wonder: Who was the first to put a recipe in a fiction book? And why would you do such a thing?

Answers are elusive.

Apparently, Patricia Cornwell has a pork chop gravy recipe folks are lending her book out to get.

I can see doing so if your book – or a character – really focuses on food. But just to slap one into a book? I don’t know. I see a lot of mystery books, for some reason, shouting “With Recipes!” or "Recipes Included!" (Always with the exclamation mark; always a bad sign) on the cover. I have to wonder if the books, let alone the food, are any good.

Or it’s like any other kind of hooptedoodle – great if it’s good, but simply in the way if it’s awful. And that probably has to do a lot more with the book and story than with the recipe.

Then again, there are probably recipes out there better than my books. So I should probably just shut up.