The Diablo Cookbook is available now — and it has much less cannibalism than the game

The world of Sanctuary is known for many things — dead that won’t stay dead, deities you can know personally and who are offended by your existence, trans-dimensional goblins who have all the best gear — but one thing that seems to be missing is cuisine. Diablo: The Official Cookbook looks to change how we thing about eating in the Diablo universe.

With food scarcity being a common theme in Diablo 4 — with the exception of in the Dry Steppes, where they have come up with a highly questionable solution — I was a little hesitant to dive into dining on Diablo delectables, but was delighted to find a wide selection of vegetarian and seafood dishes in addition to fresh meat. Each recipe has a brief bit of lore explaining how the dish came to be in each of their respective regions, giving you a taste of how the cultural factions of each zone eats. Recipes such as the Spiced Mutton Leg with Flatbread, and the Gray Wards Onion Pie (a sweet vidalia quiche) have become must-make dishes for upcoming parties, while the Wolf City Watermelon and Spinach Salad has been earmarked for this summer. The only dishes that have me a little hesitant would be the Necromancer’s Broiled Fish — Necromancers should stay out of the kitchen — and any dish with chicken, it’s a Dry Steppes recipe omitting the intended ingredient.

Diablo should have a Season of Cookies

While the world of Diablo may be a be bleak, the cookbook is not without little rays of joy — that being a wide variety of cookies and tarts to choose from. I tried out the Steppes Shortbread Cookie, a cookie that states in its lore that it wasn’t popular until spice traders began to show up. Made with a mix of cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, and anise, they certainly took every spice available to them. As an entry level recipe — all recipes are marked with a difficulty score so you can judge for yourself if it is a dish you would be able to cook — I found the book easy to follow, and had a batch of cookies in no time. I wish the book did offer some serving ideas, as these are a shortbread and typically need to go with something else, like a marmalade or a nice cup of tea.

I personally also felt they could have used a little more Diablo flair, so I took to my other hobby of 3D printing and made a necromancer-themed cookie stamp — which is available here.  Shortbread may not be the best type of cookie for a cookie cutter, but it still came out as treat that would even make a follower of Rathma smile.

The Diablo Cookbook continues the trend of video game cookbooks — such as the Overwatch and World of Warcraft cookbooks — that provide tasty and easy to follow recipes themed to your favorite games, bringing them to life in your own oven. Now when you find yourself in Ked Bardu, you can have the Udol’s “Hands” Pie, and you may find yourself not even missing the hands.