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Even French Toast Is Creepy in a New Stephen King-Inspired Cookbook

Carrie IT and other horrifying tales are inspiration for the homestyle recipes in Castle Rock Kitchen

By Liz ProvencherPublished on 10/14/2022 at 10:00 AM Photo by Jenny Bravo‌When you think of Stephen King, the chilling author known for titles like IT and The Shining, the darkest, creepiest thoughts you can summon come to mind: Prom queens doused in pig’s blood, killer clowns, and psychic looks into a hotel’s horrific past. But since releasing Castle Rock Kitchen: Wicked Good Recipes from the World of Stephen King, recipe developer and lifelong King fan Theresa Carle-Sanders now connects the horror writer’s work to comforting pots of baked beans, hearty batches of French toast, and other homey recipes. While she finds that many struggle to find the connection between horror or fantasy and food, Carle-Sanders says once you start looking for it, novels of all genres generally feature food in some way. (She’s penned two other cookbooks based on the Outlander series.) The cookbook takes inspiration from all the food mentioned in King’s novels and short stories, resulting in a collection of ’70s-era comfort foods and classic coastal Maine dishes. To dream up the list of King-inspired recipes, Carle-Sanders immersed herself in the world of the fictional Maine town of Castle Rock, reading nearly 60 works from the author’s oeuvre and picking out all of the thoughtful food descriptions.Thrillist TVHistory ofThe History of Tailgating “Authors tend to craft big scenes around food,” she says. “If you think about sitting around the table during the holidays with your family, things come up and that is generally where any conflict will happen.” The recipes that make up Castle Rock Kitchen vary. There are straightforward mentions, such as Carrie’s drink of choice (root beer) and French toast that the mother and son in Cujo daydream about as they hide from a killer St. Bernard. While others allowed Carle-Sanders to get more creative. In The Body, 12-year-old Gordie LaChance and his three friends set out to find the body of a boy who went missing in Castle Rock and stop along the way to roast ground beef on a stick over a fire. The group, too hungry to wait for it to cook, feasted on raw hamburger. Carle-Sanders doesn’t have a raw beef recipe, don’t fret. Instead, that scene inspired a spiced seekh kebab recipe called Pioneer Drumsticks. While the towns that house King’s horror are fictional, they are inspired by his own upbringing in Maine so many of the foods mentioned in his pages are classic fare in the state. In Castle Rock Kitchen’s foreword, King says he grew up eating dishes like lobster stew, which can be found in the cookbook as the Poor Man’s Soup, because his mother could get one- or two-day old lobster on sale at the local supermarket. These days, King says he still likes nothing more than pancakes doused in Maine maple syrup (found as Pancakes with the Toziers from IT in the cookbook) and fried haddock for lunch. “As the twig is bent the bough is shaped, so they say, and my tastes have remained simple and unrefined,” he says, suggesting the author may turn to the homestyle, Maine-inspired recipes found in Castle Rock Kitchen for fuel as he continues to churn out blood-curdling pages.

Dog Days French Toast Casserole

Makes 6 servings Ingredients: 1 large loaf bread (about 1 ½ pounds) preferably egg bread or brioche, cut into ½-inch slices 2 ½ cups fresh or frozen cranberries 2 cups milk 8 eggs ½ cup maple syrup, plus more for serving Finely grated zest of 2 large oranges 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1 teaspoon vanilla extract ½ cup all-purpose flour ½ cup chopped walnuts ¼ cup rolled oats 3 tablespoons light brown sugar 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon ¼ cup cold butter, plus more for serving
Directions:
1. Butter a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Using half of the loaf, arrange half the bread slices in an even layer in the bottom of the prepared dish, cutting the slices to fit. Scatter half the cranberries evenly over the bread, then top with the remaining bread slices and remaining cranberries. Press down gently to settle the cranberries.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, maple syrup, orange zest, salt, and vanilla. Pour evenly over the bread, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or up to overnight.
3. Remove the dish from the refrigerator 20 minutes before baking. Position an oven rack on the middle rung and heat the oven to 350 degrees F.
4. In a small bowl, stir together the flour, walnuts, oats, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Grate in the butter and, using your fingertips, gently work it into the flour mixture. Sprinkle this streusel across the top of the soaked bread.
5. Bake the casserole until golden, 45 to 55 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes.
6. Cut the French toast into squares and serve, passing additional butter and maple syrup at the table. Want more Thrillist? Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, TikTok, and Snapchat!Liz Provencher is an editor at Thrillist. You can follow her on Twitter or see what she eats on Instagram.By signing up, I agree to the Terms and Privacy Policy.