Castle Rock Kitchen by Theresa Carle-Sanders

Castle Rock Kitchen

by Theresa Carle-Sanders

Explore 80 classic and modern recipes inspired by Stephen King’s Maine, featuring dishes from the books set in Castle Rock, Derry, and other fictional towns—with a foreword from the legendary author himself.

Castle Rock Kitchen is an immersive culinary experience from the mouthwatering to the macabre, with gorgeous, moody photographs to transport Stephen King fans to kitchen tables, diners, and picnic blankets across Maine. Recipes ranging from drinks to dessert (and every course in-between) are inspired by meals and gatherings from the more than forty novels and stories set in King’s Castle Rock multiverse—a darker, more gothic version of the Maine most are familiar with. 

The eighty professionally developed dishes use plenty of local, down-home ingredients such as fresh seafood, potatoes, wild blueberries, and maple syrup, plus some delicacies from away—here are just a few:

• Breakfast: Pancakes with the Toziers (It), Dog Days French Toast (Cujo)
• Dinner: One-Handed Frittata (Under the Dome), Killer Mac and Cheese (“Gramma”)
• Supper: Blue Plate Special (11/22/63), Whopper Spareribs (The Tommyknockers)
• Fish and Seafood: Crab Canapés (Pet Sematary), Moose-Lickit Fish & Chips (The Colorado Kid)
• Vegetarian: Wild Mushroom Hand Pies (Bag of Bones), Holy Frijole Enchiladas (Elevation)
• Baking and Sweets: Hermits for the Road (The Long Walk), Blueberry Cheesecake Pie (“The Body”)
• Drinks and Cocktails: Homemade Root Beer (Carrie), Deadly Moonquake (“Drunken Fireworks”)

With a foreword written by Stephen King and story excerpts that connect the recipes to the books that inspired them, Castle Rock Kitchen delivers frightfully good food and drink.

Reviewed by annieb123 on

Share
Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

Castle Rock Kitchen is a collection of Stephen King themed and named recipes developed and curated by Theresa Carle-Sanders. Released 4th Oct 2022 by Penguin Random House on their Ten Speed Press imprint, it's 256 pages and is available in hardcover, spiral bound, and ebook format.

The recipes here are for unfettered, basic, down-to-earth food (don'cha know). The book's introduction is capably handled by the King of Horror himself. I am a pretty big King fan and I learned a number of things about him of which I was previously completely unaware. I won't say the intro alone is worth the price of admission, but it was unquestionably cool and recommended.

Prior to the recipe chapters, the author has provided a generous and well written introduction to the particular local ingredients which will be difficult (or impossible) to source outside of New England; but which thankfully can be obtained via online retailers or the generosity of a local friend and the USPS. The dishes are arranged thematically into chapters: breakfast, dinner, supper, fish & shellfish, vegetarian, side dishes, baking & sweets, drinks & cocktails, and basics.

Recipe ingredients are provided in a bullet list. Measurements are given in imperial (American) units only, no metric measures, followed by step-by-step instructions. One of the things I really liked was the snippets of King books in the headings for each recipe (they're annotated, so readers can find the relevant novels). The dishes are photographed well and clearly. Additionally there's a home-y "manual typewriter" retro vibe about the chapter heading photos, typesetting, and layout.

Four and a half stars. Some readers will likely think the whole vibe is a bit over the top (with the manual typewriter typeface (only in some places) and retro photography) but it's thematically cool and adds substantively to the overall vibe of the book.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Last modified on

Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • Finished reading
  • 6 November, 2022: Reviewed