Mysteries with Recipes Origin Story by Maya Corrigan #Giveaway Pot Luck Monday

Recipe Cards from Mystery Lovers Kitchen Authors

In my latest book, Bake Offed, which takes place at a mystery fan fest, a book vendor explains the popularity of culinary cozy mysteries: “Today’s readers want to know, not just whodunit, but what to eat for dinner.” The recipes appended to cozy mysteries serve that purpose. Most of the Mystery Lovers' Kitchen writers include recipes in their books. I've read mysteries since my mother brought home an armful of them every week from the library, but I don’t remember any crime novels with recipes in them until the last two decades. I did some research to find out which mystery writer was the first to include recipes in a book. 

The first detective novel with recipes that I’ve been able to find was Too Many Cooks by Rex Stout, which came out in 1938. Stout’s detective, Nero Wolfe, is a gourmand who rarely leaves his home. While solving crimes from his armchair, he obsesses about food, often discussing ingredients and cooking methods with his personal gourmet chef, Fritz. Wolfe appears in Stout’s novels and shorter works from 1934 to 1975, but Too Many Cooks is the one book that included recipes, and only in its first edition. However, those recipes had a life of their own outside of the book.

Rex Stout went on what must be the most expensive book tour ever. The Saturday Evening Post, which serialized Too Many Cooks, held a lavish luncheon in a dozen cities. The guests, influencers like book reviewers and sellers, not only enjoyed a multi-course feast, but also received a keepsake, a book-shaped box containing Nero Wolfe’s recipes. The promotional recipe box, only a thousand of which were produced, is prized by collectors and now worth more than a first edition of the book. The current price for the box in good condition with all recipes is close to $4,000.

Recipe box photos: WFinch, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The recipe box plays a role in my 8th Five-Ingredient Mystery, Bake Offed. My sleuths, café manager Val and her grandfather, the Codger Cook, are helping a friend who’s running the fest. Besides the usual panels and book signings, my fest also includes a murder and a Deadly Desserts bakeoff, in which Granddad competes. Each contestant must assume the persona of a fictional detective’s cook and bake a sweet the detective would like. Granddad, who promotes five-ingredient dishes in his recipe column, is assigned the daunting role of Nero Wolfe’s gourmet chef, who cooks with “scads of ingredients.” The Too Many Cooks recipe box Granddad finds in the attic has a dessert recipe he can handle. He’s now sure he can win the bake-off against his rival recipe columnist, who plays Mrs. Hudson, Sherlock Holmes’s landlady. On the first night of the fest, Granddad’s prized recipe box disappears and Mrs. Hudson is found dead in her hotel room next to a whistling teakettle. So how do mystery fans who love murder on the page react to a murder in their midst? You’ll have to read the book to find out. 

Readers: Do you look at the recipes included in mysteries? Do you ever try any of the recipes?

I’ll give away a set of recipe cards (shown in the first photo of this post) to one person who comments. DON'T FORGET TO INCLUDE YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS if you'd like to win the recipe cards.