The Strangest Cookbooks of All Time

Madison
Sep 15
3 min read

Think cookbooks are all avocado toast and Instagrammable pasta? Ha. Some culinary guides push boundaries, challenge your taste buds, and make you question reality—and sometimes humanity itself. From whimsical children’s feasts to prison-made masterpieces, we’ve dug up the strangest cookbooks ever written. Strap in. This is going to get weird.

1. Roald Dahl’s Revolting Recipes

If Willy Wonka had a kitchen, it’d look like this. Roald Dahl’s Revolting Recipes (1994) is equal parts hilarious, grotesque, and pure genius. Fizzwinkles, Whoopsey-Splunkers, Nishnobblers… the names alone are worth opening the book. And yes, the recipes are real.

Dahl’s granddaughter Sophie writes a charming foreword about his talent for spinning stories around meals, while his wife, film producer Felicity Crosland, reveals that his fascination with cooking began as a way to dodge horrific school lunches—and even raw eggs sent by his mother. Weird? Absolutely. Fun? Even more so.

2. Commissary Kitchen: My Infamous Prison Cookbook

Prison food horror stories are one thing. Making gourmet dishes out of graham crackers, canned yams, butter packets, and elbow macaroni? That’s another level. In 2016, Prodigy of Mobb Deep and journalist Kathy Iandoli captured the story of how cooking became a lifeline during his 3.5-year stint in federal prison.

Baked seafood, curry gravy, barbecue salmon, sweet potato pie—Prodigy made it happen with next-to-nothing. “This book won’t make you a better cook, but it might make you a better person,” he told NPR. And really, isn’t that what food is all about?

3. The Original Road Kill Cookbook

Only in the Midwest could a highway accident double as dinner. Buck Peterson’s 1985 classic is serious, sustainable, and darkly hilarious. Elk, cows, ducks, geese—nothing is left behind.

Illustrations by J. Angus McLean add a touch of morbid humor, while Peterson’s dedication to Mark “Boom Boom” Michalewicz, “roadside chef extraordinaire, scourge of northwestern Alaska,” shows this isn’t a joke.

The concept was so popular that Peterson expanded into The International Roadkill Cookbook (1994) and beyond. Warning: eat at your own risk… of weird looks.

4. The Breakfast Cereal Gourmet

Cereal isn’t just for breakfast anymore—and David Hoffman is here to prove it. This early-2000s gem transforms sugary and crunchy boxes into sweet and savory creations, from Cinnamon Toast Crunch ice cream to roasted artichokes with a Cheerios crunch and “Lucky Charmer Utah Lamb.”

Plus, vintage cereal ads sprinkled throughout tell the story of how brands like Kellogg’s, Post, and Nabisco shaped American culture. Sweet, savory, surprising, and historically delicious—this book makes you look at your cereal bowl in a whole new way.

5. Soyer’s Paper-Bag Cookery

Imagine steaming fish, poultry, or meat inside a buttered paper bag—sounds too simple to work, right? Nicolas Soyer made it revolutionary. In 1911, The New York Times hailed him as the master of flavor innovation.

He toured the country showing off his method, proving that even humble materials could produce extraordinary results. This cookbook is all technique, ingenuity, and culinary wizardry—proof that sometimes the simplest tools create the most magic.

6. Special Effects Cookbook

Want your meal to smoke, glow, or sing? Michael E. Samonek’s 1992 Special Effects Cookbook is less about flavor and more about spectacle. Erupting cake volcanoes, glow-in-the-dark gelatin, color-changing drinks, edible paper, singing cakes, dancing raisins… it’s all here.

The cover screams ’90s chaos: a family gazing at a fire-breathing dragon cake. Science-fair meets dinner party, with a side of “did they really just do that?”

7. Food to Die For: Recipes and Stories from America’s Most Legendary Haunted Places

Amy Bruni’s 2024 cookbook mixes culinary skill with spine-tingling tales. Southern fried chicken from a Missouri prison, sweets from the Old Absinthe House, and more—all tied to haunted locales.

From ghost towns to historic hotels, Bruni gathered recipes and stories from those connected to the haunts. Some dishes are centuries old; others are inspired by legends. It’s proof that food doesn’t just feed the body—it transports you through history… and maybe into a ghost story or two.

8. The Astronaut’s Cookbook

Eating in zero gravity isn’t as simple as floating a sandwich. Charles T. Bourland, former NASA food scientist, and aerospace specialist Gregory L. Vogt break down the science in The Astronaut’s Cookbook (2009). Crumbs are dangerous, liquids float, and every ounce counts.

From freeze-dried meals to tortillas and sandwiches engineered for space, this book explains how to eat safely while orbiting Earth—and yes, it includes recipes that are surprisingly doable for those of us firmly landlocked.

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From Dahl’s revolting desserts to roadkill and zero-gravity meals, these cookbooks prove the kitchen is a playground for creativity—and sometimes a little madness. If you want weird, wonderful, or downright spooky culinary inspiration, look no further.