“A man can live on packaged food from here till Judgment Day if he’s got enough rosemary!” – Shepherd Book
A Firefly Cookbook
Finally there is a cookbook for those what wander the ‘verse in search of a good meal! Fans of the television show Firefly will enjoy this one. Compiled and written by Chelsea Monroe-Cassel, Firefly: The Big Damn Cookbook has good eats aplenty! Presented as an “in-universe” cookbook, everyone’s favorite ship’s mechanic Kaylee compiled The Big Damn Cookbook. She gathered recipes from Serenity‘s crew and put them together for all to enjoy. Even Jayne and River contributed!
Sections
The cookbook is divided into five sections, each with its own complement of recipes. Starting off, you’ve got “The Basics” which covers such things as sauces, spices, and doughs. Following that comes “Shipboard Living” with Shipboard Crackers, Zoe’s “Wife Soup” or your very own Fuity Oaty Bars. Next are a few dishes from “The Border and Beyond” in which you’ll find the fixin’s for Ma Cobb’s Shoofly Pie and Jayne’s personal favorite: Mudder’s Milk. Wanna try some? Next Simon (and Inara) share a few selections from “The Core Worlds” which includes Roast Duck and Almond Cookies. Mmm! Finally, you have the “Underbelly” which rounds out the cooking with Badger’s Finger Sandwiches, Street Chicken Skewers, and everyone’s favorite, but problematic, “Ice Planets”. How do you eat one anyway? Is your food this confusing? In this cookbook there is a recipe for everyone: smuggler, companion, or preacher alike.
Interspersed between crew recipes are selections from the Blue Sun Cookbook and quotes from the crew. There are a few pictures from the show, which mainly show dishes from the episodes. As if a scrapbook, you’ll also see pictures of the crew enjoying meals. Occasionally there are “hand-written” additions or comments below the recipes to add a little Firefly flavor to the cookbook. As Firefly is set in the future, most of the cooking aboard ship is in the form of protein packs. The cookbook substitutes chickpeas for the protein in many recipes. This includes Simon’s chocolate cake taken from the episode “Out of Gas”.
Each recipe you read is presented as from a different member of the crew of the Firefly Serenity. Even a few of their “friends” helped (including Yo-Saff-Bridge and Badger!). But make no mistake, this is no cut rate settler’s cookbook. This here is prime shiny!
Quality
The cookbook is high quality, and that includes the pictures of each dish, meal, or drink. The text is easy to read and the recipes set forth in easy to follow steps. At the top is the name of each recipe, followed by a short blurb “written” by the character who added it. Below that is a scale which indicates the time to completion. Also present are the course (snack, meal, drink, etc); dietary concerns (vegan, vegetarian, or gluten free); and finally the difficulty (easy, middling, or complex).
I found The Big Damn Cookbook to be a real salute to Firefly the show and an excellent cookbook in its own right. Reading it felt like a return to watching my favorite television show while enjoying familiar characters and settings. Also, many of the recipe entries sound amazing and enticing. I also especially liked the dietary concerns listings for each recipe as my wife needs to eat gluten free. At a glance I will know which recipes will automatically work for her. In fact, I plan a follow up post in a little while when I’ve had a chance to try a few of the recipes. I will report back on how they came out and how cooking with the cookbook really goes. Searching through the cookbook already makes me hungry, and that seems a good start!
Final Thoughts
Of a practical nature, the cookbook is well organized and includes a full appendix so that you can search by type of dish. Following that is a section of charts showing at a glance the properties of each dish and then a very helpful unit conversion chart, because apparently some of the ‘verse uses metric measurements and some use Imperial. No one will be lost making their favorite shipboard meal!
Titan Books sent me a review copy of Firefly: The Big Damn Cookbook, released on September 24th in the United States. Their generosity did not guarantee a positive review. However, I do highly recommend this cookbook for fans of the Firefly show and foodies alike as it seems to really hit the spot. So deeply move yourself to blow out those candles so we can try a slice of cake, after you’ve blended the chickpeas and added cocoa of course! Get your own copy of the book and try some cooking from Firefly! I know I will soon, and once I find a few favorites, every Unification Day or time I sit down to revisit the best show in the ‘verse, I’ll cook me up something from The Big Damn Cookbook!
