Death Warmed Over: Funeral Food, Rituals, and Customs from Around the World

by Lisa Rogak

You'll think you've died and gone to heaven when you sample the delicious fare laid out in DEATH WARMED OVER, a unique collection of 75 recipes typically served at funeral ceremonies, alongside descriptions of rituals and traditions from cultures around the world. One part sociological study and one part cookbook, DEATH WARMED OVER explains the background and proper timing for such culinary rituals as passing a hen and a loaf of bread over a grave as dirt is shoveled onto the coffin, serving chocolate caskets and skull-shaped cakes at a funeral, and baking up a Funeral Pie to acknowledge the passing of a loved one. Whether you've been asked to provide food for a funeral feast or wish to bring an appropriate culinary contribution for the extended mourning period, look no further than DEATH WARMED OVER. A unique cookbook that shows you how to incorporate long-standing ethnic and cultural traditions-from the Amish and Eskimo to Greek and Polish-into the planning of a well-rounded celebration of life. With detailed mail-order resources for specialty and ethnic foods. Features suggestions for ways to incorporate recipes and traditions into nonfuneral parties or gatherings. Cover image title, "Post-Mortem Club with Past Member" (August 3, 1934). The Post-Mortem Club, an organization of naprapaths, held its annual breakfast with all chapter members present although the president, J. M. McAdou, founder, had died during the past year. One of the rules of the club is that each member will his skeleton to it, for atttendence to club meetings despite death."Lisa Rogak's recipe-enriched approach to funeral customs around the world reminds us that these rites are for the living. Digging into her slow-cooked jambalaya dish meant to be served after a New Orleans jazz funeral would make anyone feel happy to be alive."-Barbara Haber, author of From Hardtack to Home Fries: An Uncommon History of American cooks and Meals

Genres: Nonfiction, Cookbooks, Food, Death, History, Religion, Cultural

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

My new book Propaganda Girls: The Secret War of the Women in the OSS will be published on March 4, 2025.

Lisa Rogak is the New York Times bestselling author of more than 40 books, which have been published in more than two dozen languages. Her books Barack Obama: In His Own Words, and Angry Optimist: The Life & Times of Jon Stewart, hit the New York Times bestseller lists. Haunted Heart: The Life & Times of Stephen King was nominated for both the Edgar and Anthony Awards.

Her books have been reviewed and otherwise mentioned in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, and hundreds of other publications. She appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show as the featured guest in a show about small towns to promote her book, Moving to the Country Once and For All.

She lives in New Hampshire and is currently at work on a memoir.

Reviews

[MKF · Rating 2 out of 5]

The worse part of this book was the recipes the author included. Many had nothing to do with the country or the death customs of that country. Learning about the different customs and rituals was okay though the author could have done better research into each entry and add more details.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I get what the author was trying to do here, but the execution (ha) was poor, almost insulting at times. The recipes were weak, though I didn't check this out from the library as a cookbook - the bland recipes were very meat/dairy/egg heavy. I wanted a breezy breakdown on death rituals and food customs from around the globe. Instead I got a recipe for a bologna sandwich (that's all Protestants can muster up to serve at a funeral doncha know), a handful of informative passages, but mostly a bunch of verging on mocking "insights" into customs and traditions. I felt the author was disrespectful at times and did not do her research. The recipes were entirely lame - a Sri Lankan omelet - pretty much a curry and onion omelet - this was included, I am guessing, because of the tradition of Sri Lankan families placing an egg in the dearly departed's casket to help cleanse the house of evil spirits. Really, Lisa Rogak? There was NO other dish you could dig up that represented the rich, Buddhist and Portuguese-influenced death culture of the Sri Lankan people? This times ten is why the book was disappointing. The little inserts placed throughout the book were distracting and annoying. If they were related to the page they were on I could understand, but why add a bit about Orthodox Jews using boards from tables to make their coffins on a page about KOREA?

I'll give the book this much - the cover is fantastic! What a great photo, I am fascinated by The Post-Mortem Club pictured. I wish there would have been more info on those nutters.

[Debs · Rating 5 out of 5]

I totally disagree that the recipes don't work. Sometimes you just have to improvise. I made the Ghanaian
Lamb Stew just because I was curious about putting nutmeg in a meat dish. It turned out delicious, but I used boned shoulder, shallots instead of garlic (did not have). It's a matter of also be inventive when you don't have the prescription.
This is a book I just happened to see at the library and before it is due back will try some of the other recipes.
The book is witty and found searching I see it is the only one of its kind.

[Chloe A-L · Rating 2 out of 5]

Phenomenal idea, really really poor execution. The recipes are selected nearly randomly, clearly edited for the authors taste and not to actually present them as they exist in their cultures (in the "Holland" section she mentions that funeral cake recipes includes caraway seeds, and then on the facing page the "funeral cakes" recipe doesnt include them, and has chocolate sprinkles instead?), the research is spotty, the jokes are weak at best and usually annoying or callous (not to keep picking on the Holland section but the long inset joke about the Pillsbury doughboys funeral is a real low), the athour appears to have straight up made up some of the stories and recipes,  and wow are a lot of slurs used carelessly in this book! I really wish this was written better.

[Daniel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wasn’t impressed with her research skills, to be honest. I’m a Latter-Day Saint, and it was obvious from what the author wrote that she didn’t even try bothering to interview a current member of the church (or, if she did, she was being really antagonistic and so no one responded). As for our funeral customs, we’re a worldwide church and our funeral customs tend to be similar to our surrounding culture, but modified for our unique doctrine. In the US, Latter-Day Saint funerals tend to be pretty similar to the Protestant funerals I’ve attended, with a potluck reception afterwards. As for the recipe, I hadn’t even heard of the one she included. The most stereotypical funeral dish for us is funeral potatoes, which are generally a potato and cheese casserole (and, being a casserole, there are so many variations, so there’s no one canonical recipe). Considering that death is a sacred topic for many, and many groups probably would not share their full funeral rites and customs with outsiders, the quality of her research, or lack thereof, on my own faith doesn’t leave me with much confidence that she handles other faiths well, either. (I’ll admit I turned right to that chapter to see what she had to say, and I quit reading right there. If you can’t trust her research on the rites or even the recipes, really what point is there in reading this?)

[Syd · Rating 1 out of 5]

Many Inconsistencies, No Sources Cited

This book includes many strange details I cannot corroborate with other sources, especially in the section on “Eskimo” (Inuit), “Gypsy” (Romani), and “Mormon” funerals. It seems the author would have been better served by asking members of these communities for anecdotes and asking for their preferred communal names rather than using known slurs e.g “Gypsy”.

[Niki Gratton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting

It has a few good recipes (some are just as easily found in any recipe book) and a decent amount of information on funeral traditions. I feel like it was good over all, but overly tongue in cheek for some parts describing the rituals of death.

P.S. I was happy to see that the Tlinget people were included in the book!

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I haven't tried any of the recipes and read this for the descriptions of food and death rituals. While interesting at times, the tone was too precious for me. The author also had a habit of musing about the origin of practices rather than researching them. Strong colonial, gawking at the savages vibe in the description of many cultures, such as the section on "Eskimos" (her term).

[shana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good idea, bad execution. Descriptions of funeral/death rituals were thin and weirdly jokey, most of the recipes were only barely related to the subject, and the little box blurbs were insufferable and had nothing to do with what was on the page. I wanted to love this one but eh.

[Phrayda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Something missing

The print edition include little gray square inserts on customs throughout the world which are missing in this e-edition. So disappointed.

[Kerry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two stars for the idea. Otherwise, this book is dreadful. Poorly researched, attempts at humor juvenile, and the recipes ranged from embarrassing to curious.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative and includes recipes.

[Janice · Rating 2 out of 5]

High school quality narrative with basic recipes.

[Loyalhistorian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had a lot of promise. I was disappointed overall because I was expecting so much more than what was given to me. The book is set up to give examples of how different people and cultures use food in funerary practices. The book is alphabetically listed, it gives the story, and then presents one recipe dealing with its funeral customs. There were interesting tidbits, and I did learn new things. However, it left much to be desired. I was wanting more elaboration on the rituals and customs rather than just a thin glossing over. I think the thing that irritated me the most though was the fact that she made up some of the recipes when she couldn't find an actual funeral food recipe for that religion/region. That was quite an overstep on her part, in my opinion. I'd much rather that she put an actual recipe from that culture that didn't pertain to funerals than to try to make something up that is a want-to-be cutesy mimicking of what that group of people practices. I don't regret reading the book, and I'd still suggest it for anyone interested in the subjects, but it really had the potential to be more.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

As soon as I can get my hands on a copy...

I enjoyed this book. It was a quick, interesting read with entertaining little sidebars on some of the ritual/custom descriptions. One I particularly enjoyed was this epitaph: Here lies our Anna Done to Death by a Banana It Wasn't the Fruit that Laid Her Low But the Skin of the Thing That Made Her Go. Some of the recipes, such as Ancient Egyptian Chocolate Cake (okay, she just calls it that) along with some other sweet recipes, I could easily make. Some, such as Etruscan Grape-Filled Bread, sound a bit more complex. On the savory side, the Gypsy Potatoes, Iranian Barley Soup, Sri Lankan Omlet or Polish Funeral Rice all sound good and not too difficult. I think I'll pass on the Eskimo Bearded Seal Flippers, served raw after marinating in blubber for two weeks. They do what they have to do.

[Amie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this book had a lot of promise in its premise but not sure it delivered. I understand that some cultures may have been more difficult than others to research such a topic BUT that is why we have the power of the Internet and social networking to help with research. If you can't find information or much more than a few sentences, then I think you should skip that information altogether. Our include it combined with the others at the end for a mish-mash of interesting tidbits. The recipe many times did not seem to gibe with the story or the culture. That was rather disappointing as well. I cannot speak to the validity or flavours of the recipes as I have not attempted any.

[Bacon Stopar · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poorly researched, and almost insulting at points. How can a book talking about 75 cultures have only SEVEN books in its bibliography?! I've seen more references in high school papers.

Her Eskimo page is particularly painful. Two of the four paragraphs on this page are imaginary conversations with old people she knew in New Hampshire. The next two paragraphs go so far as claiming that Eskimos (which she fails to define adequately) have two food groups: "Blubber and everything else."

She seems to take advantage of the fact that recipes cannot be copyrighted, almost copying them verbatim.

[Elizabeth Scheller Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED this book! I lived in Tennessee for quite a few years and the Southern US custom is to bring food for the bereaved. What to bring is always an issue until I was given a bowl of Tennessee Funeral Salad (a corn salad variation) for my father-in-law's wake.

I've made a few of these recipes for American Revolutionary War re-enactments because the leftovers keep so well with little or no refrigeration.

Thanks Lisa for gathering and publishing this information!

[Victor · Rating 2 out of 5]

if only the recipes had worked. sigh.

[Devon G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Totally feeds my jones for two of my favorite topics, death culture and food anthropology. Adorable and macabre!

[Laurie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun and funny little book with funeral anecdotes from many cultures and a recipe relating to each culture and/or funeral tradition.

[Zoë · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read my review here: http://blog.sevenponds.com/lending-in...