Many years into their marriage, Stephen and Evie Colbert suddenly became co-workers. And that is why, in a roundabout way, we have their first cookbook.

During the pandemic, Evie helped keep her husband’s “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on the air at CBS while the couple hunkered down in their South Carolina home.

“Evie was my crew and my only audience and my only guest. And it turned out we worked together well,” Stephen Colbert says. “We said, ‘We’ve always wanted to do something together. I think the thing to do would be a cookbook.’”

What emerged is “Does This Taste Funny?: Recipes Our Family Loves,” a collection of tried-and-true Colbert clan dishes like Spicy Lemon Chicken Thighs or Panfried Spot Tail Bass that also opens a window into their lives.

“It had to be a personal story because we’re not professional cooks. It’s all about our personal experience,” says Stephen Colbert.

The dishes range from a simple teriyaki-flavored pork loin — good for busy parents on a weekday — to an extravagant Beef Wellington, a fillet steak with mushrooms and prosciutto, wrapped in puff pastry, then baked.

It is a cookbook that also charts a love affair, celebrates extended family and rejoices over places visited — idiosyncratic and yet universal. There are four different recipes for fudge — each boasts it is the definitive one — submitted by the Colbert siblings.

A trip to a San Francisco restaurant in late 2007 inspired the recipe for a clam chowder that is brothy, vegetable-forward and has plenty of clam meat.

“I don’t even know if the soup was as good as I remember it. We were just young parents with a moment away and big frosty glasses of sancerre,” says Stephen with a laugh. “Everything was tasting pretty good.”

Friends and family were tapped for their favorite dishes, like deviled eggs from Evie’s dad and chicken l’orange from Stephen’s mom. There are also photos and stories of their three children.

“For Stephen’s career, we purposefully kept our children out of the limelight, and when we sat down to do this, we realized, ‘Oh, we’re involving a lot of family. How do we feel about that?’ And it felt like a wonderful way to be personal,” says Evie. “It felt very much like a collective project that way.”

Many of the dishes lean on the South, which is natural since both grew up in Charleston, S.C. There are Lowcountry recipes for pickled shrimp, pork belly sliders and red rice, a dish Stephen says he enjoys making the most.

“At my little elementary school growing up, we had it just about every day. And it was fantastic. And this recipe comes closest to that really jammy, salty, smoky red rice I grew up with.”

Going back even further is Stephen’s Kindergarten Soup, which he learned to make helping the cook at Martin Luther Kindergarten. It calls for celery, carrot, onion, tomato, okra, corn, butter beans, green beans, peas and beef. The cookbook includes a photo of 5-year-old Stephen’s drawn recipe.

“It is the first recipe I ever learned,” he says.

The Colberts have upped their sophistication levels since then, of course, including in the cookbook a recipe for duck breast with fig-orange sauce.

“People are afraid of duck, but it is really, really simple. Start in a cold pan, render it out. Save that duck fat for the potatoes you’re going to want with this later. Throw in some fig jam or any jam in with a little orange juice. It’s fantastic,” Stephen says.

Making the cookbook reconnected the couple to their roots. “It put us back in touch with all the food we grew up with and the people who taught us how to make these recipes,” says Evie, who still refers to recipes as receipts, the way her mother did.

The book ends with breakfast recipes. “If the party goes well, hopefully you’re spending the night,” he says. “The breakfast is the reward.”

While the pair clearly enjoy each other’s company, things in the kitchen weren’t always so smooth. They both point to the “spoon story.”

When they were married in 1993, someone gave them a nonstick Calphalon pan. Evie hadn’t grown up with nonstick cookware and used a metal spoon with it.

“So Stephen and I are married, and he walks into the kitchen one day and he says, ‘You’re using a metal spoon on a nonstick pan.’ I really thought he was going to say, ‘I’m sorry, we have to get divorced,’” Evie says.

“I believe I offered you a wooden spoon,” says Stephen.

“That didn’t go over well,” she replies.

“Boy, the look on her,” he says, laughing. “She’s almost over it. She’s so close to forgiving me.”

This red rice dish, explained below, has its origins in South Carolina.

“My love of red rice started at Stiles Point Elementary School on James Island, S.C.,” Stephen said. “The cafeteria served it just about every day, and that was fine with me. I’ve had a lot since then, but this comes closest to the deep savory sweetness that those lunch ladies somehow whipped up in barrel-size batches.

“I came up with this version after food writer Alison Roman and I made her caramelized shallot pasta sauce on ‘The Late Show.’ There was something about the aroma, both jammy and tangy, that told me it would make a killer rice. I love being right.”

Evie points out the dish’s history.

“Red rice is a classic Southern receipt, and another example of the enormous influence of West African culture on Lowcountry cuisine,” Evie says. “I have been making the version from the ‘Charleston Receipts Cookbook’ for decades. But that calls for bacon and bacon grease, and I don’t mess with that anymore. Thankfully, Stephen substituted smoked salt and anchovies, and ta-da! Even better than the original!”