Cookbook Review: Fuel for the Boiler

With Thanksgiving coming up here in the States, I thought it would be appropriate to dedicate a fair number of this month's posts to the subject of food. The topic of steampunk food is one that I've spent many hours wandering the vast recesses of the aethernet in search of, usually with little luck. Needless to say, I was just about drooling in sheer joy when I discovered the existence of a steampunk cookbook, that is Fuel for the Boiler, compiled by Elizabeth Stockton.

To begin with, this is not going to be the most professionally organized and edited cookbook you'll ever read. Being compiled from an online forum, it contains the best and worst of the aethernet--great ideas, terrible grammar. Likewise, this is the first cookbook I've ever read which includes the phrase "stir the shit out of it."

Some of the recipes require hard-to-find ingredients (do they even sell buttermilk at the grocery store?) or imprecise measurements, which make them rather hard to prepare, while many others are both simple and delicious, and have become staple foods in my home. In fact, I ate macaroni and cheese made using a recipe from this book for breakfast this morning. Mmmmm... Nothing like a little mac and cheese with the morning tea...