India, May 30 -- This is not a typical cookbook.

It doesn't contain marked sections for appetizers, entrees, main courses and desserts. Offer notes on a cuisine, or handy hacks.

What it does hold out are simple, no-frills recipes left by the dead for the living.

To Die For is a collection of 40 recipes gathered by archivist Rosie Grant, from etchings on gravestones spread across the US, from Washington DC through Iowa to Utah towards the east and Nome, Alaska, way in the north. A digital archive of the 60 collated for far, over five years, is available online at ghostlyarchive.com.

Most of the instructions are for desserts: cookies, cakes, cobbler, pie, ice-cream, fudge. There is the occasional savoury note too, for the perfect roast,...