The Route 66 Cookbook: Comfort Food from the Mother Road

by Marian Clark, Michael Wallis (Contributor)

Successful road guides exist, but only Marian Clark's The Route 66 Cookbook provides a culinary guide to what Steinbeck dubbed "The Mother Road." Featuring over 250 delicious recipes from places like the U Drop Inn, the Covered Wagon Trading Post, the Pig Hip, and the Bungalow Inn, this cookbook recreates old 66, with stories from the waitresses and cooks who poured the coffee an baked the pies.

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, History, Nonfiction

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Annette · Rating 4 out of 5]

more than a cookbook. It is also a trip down Route 66 remembering old eateries long gone and talking about those still serving up hot, delicious food for road weary travelers.

[Lynda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Diner cookbooks are in a league by themselves. This is a good one.

[Sherrill Watson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Printed in 1993, reprinted in 2000. Old(?) recipes and reminiscences of America's Route 66 from the East Coast to the West Coast. With some color photos and many B&W photos, these recipes are given, one or so from each place, with some of the menus. You may not want to try any of them, or you may not be able to! Most are pretty basic: pies, baked beans, various ribs, some Spanish or Mexican, (including a menu from El Tovar at the Grand Canyon, and Esteban Colon's recipe for his unforgettable chicken and shrimp curry), etc.; but pickled okra??? Chess Pie, White Chocolate Macadamia Cheesecake, and Honey Rose Cheesecake are more complicated, or nearly impossible, but fun to read. This is an old-timey travelogue of people & places, perhaps soon to be forgotten.

Middle Path Gumbo (in Oklahoma)

1/3 cup raw brown rice
7 cups water
1 1/2 vegetable bouillon
1/4 cup diced green pepper
[and red pepper and yellow pepper]
1/3 cup celery
1/2 cup diced onion
1 1/2 tablespoons margarine [or butter]
1 1/2 cups diced fresh tomatoes
1/2 cup diced green chilies
1/2 cup frozen corn
2 cups sliced okra, fresh or frozen
2 cups tomato sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper

[Donny Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you live near the old Route 66 or plan on trying to drive it, it is an excellent book. Otherwise, it feels a little repetitive. A lot of the restaurants have interesting but similar stories and I wasn’t planning on trying too many of the recipes.

[T. Jacobson · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's the stories and pictures of what Route 66 used to be that makes this book so enjoyable.

[Chi Dubinski]

With photos