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Manifold Destiny: The One! The Only! Guide to Cooking on Your Car Engine!

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Authors: Chris Maynard, Bill Scheller
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book

List Price: ~~$14.00~~
Buy New: $7.20
You Save: $6.80 (49%)

New (33) Used (6) from $7.20

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars

14 reviews
Sales Rank: 55356

Media: Paperback
Edition: Rev Upd
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 160
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.5

ISBN: 1416596232
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.58
EAN: 9781416596233
ASIN: 1416596232

Publication Date: November 18, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Also Available In:

•	Paperback - Manifold Destiny: The One! The Only! Guide to Cooking on Your Car Engine!
•	Kindle Edition - Manifold Destiny
•	Paperback - Manifold Destiny: The One! The Only! Guide to Cooking on Your Car Engine!

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description

Giving new meaning to the term "fast food"

Rest-stop grade F meat patty? Nah. Nuggets of reconstituted poultry bits? Pass. Deep-fried fish discus? No, really, thanks all the same.

It's time to bid farewell to the roadside meal as you know it. Nearly twenty years ago, Chris Maynard and Bill Scheller opened the world's eyes to the beautym of car-engine gastronomy in the original Manifold Destiny. And now that another generation of both drivers and eaters has emerged, the cult classic is due for an overhaul. In this shiny, spanking-new edition, learn how to make s'mores in your Scion, poach fish in your Pontiac, even bust out a gourmet snack from under the hood of your Escalade.

With step-by-step diagrams, crowd-pleasing recipes, and thorough instructions, now you can turn your car into a kitchen without ever crossing any golden arches. Hilarious, bizarre, and ultimately (seriously!) useful, Manifold Destiny is and always will be an unparalleled original. So, slap a ham steak under the hood of your car, hit the gas, and drive until you reach delicious -- which is in approximately fifty miles, depending on traffic.

Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Totally entertaining read December 11, 2008
The thought that someone would come up with the idea of cooking on a car engine is pretty strange. To think that a book could be written on this topic is stranger. To write such a book that's this intelligent and this much fun is bizarre. I laughed out loud repeatedly at the preambles to each of these recipes, and salivated at the recipes themselves.
Maynard and Scheller explain how to cook everything from stuffed cabbage to venison cutlets via the magic of aluminum foil and internal combustion with great recipes, surprisingly interesting tidbits of automotive history, and a travelogue spanning the gustatory landscape from Patterson, New Jersey through the Donner pass.
A few pages in, and you'll be seriously planning to foil some corned beef and take the DeSoto out for a spin.
Have some fun--read this book.

1 out of 5 stars

Out of Date, Out of Mind September 26, 2007
9 out of 9 found this review helpful

I was given Manifold Destiny in the early 1990s for a college graduation gift because my friends knew that I was going to travel a lot (and did) by car. It was a hilarious read and I enjoyed it. However, unlike the majority of reviewers here, I actually TRIED a bunch of recipes. Folks, I'm here to tell you that your results aren't as good as the read. I even secured the efforts of a couple of truckers (who had years of experience cooking food on their engines) and found out that newer cars are better insulated, making cooking anywhere on their engines mighty difficult. Not to mention that everything is STEAMED. Got that? You know what my steak with mushrooms looked like 4 hours after being attached near the hot part of the engine block? Disgusting and undercooked. Chicken wasn't much better. Steamed vegetables weren't ever completely done no matter where they were placed. I tested this in 8 different states (including Hawaii) and 4 different vehicles. My college buddy did try fish in a Chevy truck on the way to Montana. That seemed to work well, but the flavor was not that great. Manifold Destiny was a great idea whose time has passed. I'll stick to wayside stops and my campstove, thank you.

5 out of 5 stars

If Alton Brown's not geeky enough for you... September 21, 2007
To look at the prices being charged for used copies of this book is a somewhat frightening experience, because it makes quite obvious that Manifold Destiny is something of an unrecognized culinary classic when people will pay $50 and up for a paperback. But I tell ya something, for the truly hardcore kitchen geek, the same sort of person who might try cooking with lava or a bunsen burner, this would make an incredibly thoughtful present. One can only hope there's a third edition in the pipeline for sometime in the next couple of years.

This book is about cooking in your car, and also eating in your car. That's important, because it gives some nice information on a lot of unusual regional specialties around the United States and Canada (including Michigan's now-famous pasties and Binghamton, NY's spiedies, as well as the legendary smoked meat from Schwartz's Deli in Montreal). It's a nice little hors d'oeuvre for the food tourist.

But there's also lots of good information about cooking on car engines, which is what you came to this review to find out about in the first place, right? Maynard and Scheller talk about all kinds of concerns -- finding the best place on your engine block to secure a packet of food, what kind of aluminum foil to use (and how much -- triple layers), and even a whole bunch of recipes based on American regional cuisine, from traditional Italian like uova in purgatorio to nouvelle-inspired dishes like Thruway Thighs (a stuffed chicken dish). While the info on reviewing cars for their suitability as cookstoves is rather dated, there's still a lot of good information on a rather silly subject.

So find this book for someone very special who loves doing interesting things in the kitchen. They will appreciate it very much.

5 out of 5 stars

Dangerous to cars around you November 4, 2005
3 out of 4 found this review helpful

Yes. A fine tome of lore.

Well, it's hard to be taken seriously by your travel mates till the fumes roll off of "any cajun spice you can find" simmering there under your hood next to your alternator waft through the cabin air conditioning system. After putting up with their insults the first 100 km of your trip, they are suddenly bought into the process.

Eating out of the engine bay of your car, hood open will doubtlessly attract the attension of those travelling down the highway. It's polite to tilt your wine glass to them as they pause to offer help (drivers excluded, of course).

All good fun.

4 out of 5 stars

Manifold Dstiny - A Good Read January 4, 2005
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

Manifold Destiny, how to cook on your car engine, is entertaining to read but practical in application. Imagine, if you will, dining on cajun shrimp in garlic rather than McFast Food while motoring to your destination. Recipes for Thruway Chicken Thighs, Hyundai Halibut, Merritt Parkway Veal Scalllopine or Safe-At-Any-Speed Eggplant suggest some of the haute cuisine which can be tucked under the hood of your car for an over the road treat. Presented with both culinary wisdom and a sense of humor, Manifold Destiny is fun to read but serves as a real cookbook as well. Rather than recommending specific cooking times, recipes note the number of miles you should drive before expecting you meal to be done. What a way to plan rest stops! A sure winner.

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