March 24, 2015 History Of Food in America Cookbook Analysis: How To Cook A Wolf

Citation:

Fisher, Mary Frances Kennedy. How to Cook a Wolf. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1942. Print. About The Book:

1. Who wrote or complied it? What can you find out about the authors or editors? a. The cookbook “How to Cook a Wolf” was written by Mary Frances Kenney Fisher (AKA M.F.K. Fisher). The Duell, Sloan and Pearce publishing company, located in New York City, published the cookbook in 1942. M.F.K. Fisher was an iconic American food writer born in Albion, Michigan. Growing up in an Episcopalian Quaker community made her very literate at young age. After moving to California at young age and attending the University of California she met her future husband Alfred Young Fisher. The two spent their first years of marriage studying in Europe. She began publishing various cookbooks. Ironically her first book “Serve It Forth” was so unlike other women cookbook writers that critics thought a man wrote it. She wrote around 27 cookbooks and was the founder of the Napa Valley Wine library. 2. When was it Written or compiled? Does the timing effect the content?

a. “How to Cook a Wolf” was written in 1942, in the midst of World War II, just as food-­‐rationing programs were kicking into gear in the United States. Strict limits were put on basics like sugar, butter, meat, and coffee, and wartime slogans encouraged American households to "make do, or do without." "How to Cook a Wolf" is part cookbook, part essay collection. Fisher shares practical recipes that can be made cheaply: how to make be cheerful through starving; a recipe for fried calves' brains, since that cut of meat was cheaper and more readily available under rationing programs; instructions for a good, low-­‐cost sherry cocktail and many other how to’s. 3. Where was it written and published? Does the location affect the content? a. With no specific location of where it was written it can be assumed that it was written in California where she lived. With the ongoing war to the west the book was directly affected by its location. As food rations were implemented California was at the heart of military operations drastically affecting food rations. It can be seen with the multiple chapters on cooking with cheap and available ingredients and other chapters on how to get by during the war. Its publishing location, New York City, was also another heart for military operations during WWII. The publishing of the book could have been considered a necessity due to its information on how to save money in the kitchen and the use of available ingredients.

4. Why was the book written or compiled?

a. The book was written to help the women get by during the war. In addition to the cheap and easy recipes the book has a collection of essays to help aid the morals of the women living in the US while their husbands and sons fought in the war. It also calls for a change in the fallacies of what/How people should eat. In the first chapter she makes an interesting argument that the idea of three “balanced” meals a day is wrong. She discusses that not all people want/need three meals a day, some only need one or two and other need five. In addition to recipes for food she provides recipes for other daily necessities like soap, mouthwash, toothpaste and many others to help people get through wartime hardships.

About the Recipes: 1. What types of food are in the cookbook? a. Continuing with the food-­‐rationing ideal the book provides many alternatives to the common foods like chicken and roast. Fisher provides many recipes that include pigeons, hares, and pheasants. In addition to American food she provides European, and Asian influenced recipes such as Napolitana sauce for spaghetti, Basic Foo Yeung, and an English curry. 2. What are the ingredients? How are they described? Are the common or exotic?

a. The ingredients used reflect the wartime period. Fisher uses ingredients that are abundant for the everyday American. Instead of

using chicken or beef she provides recipes that use other meat sources like pigeons, hares, pheasants and other small game that are abundant and easy to obtain. She strays away from using exotic ingredients due to the lack of availability since all efforts were towards the war. 3. How carefully written are the recipes? Easy to follow? Precise? a. The recipes are carefully written with a list of ingredients and then easy to follow instructions. Fisher also provides addition substitution for ingredients that may not be available. For example in her recipe for a War Cake she calls for a ½ cup of shortening, but in a side note she mentions that bacon grease can be substituted because the spices in the recipe will hide its taste. In addition she provides alternative methods to make food last longer, for example instead of cooking the cake in muffin tins, she recommends cooking it in a loaf to make it last longer. The recipes are not necessary precise, for example she will call for 1 teaspoon of spices but provides a wide variety of spices that can be used in conjunction with other spies or alone. 4. What evidence exists of regional and/or ethnic influences in the recipes? a. There are many examples of different ethic influences on fisher’s recipes. She incorporates many European and Asian recipes but adds an American twist. Her American twist is noted by using local small game found in America, rather than chicken or beef. 5. Choose one recipe and analyze it (questions 2, 3, and 4).

War Cake • ½ cup shortening (bacon grease can be used, because of the spices which hide its taste) • • 1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1 teaspoon of other spices… cloves, mace, ginger, etc.… • 1 cup of chopped raisins or other dried fruit • 1 cup of sugar brown or white • • 1 cup water

2 cups flour, white or whole wheat • • ¼ teaspoon soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

• In addition to only using common and abundant ingredients Fisher provides multiple alternatives to ingredients that can be used. The lack of specific ingredients provides the baker with ability to experiment with different ingredients, another thing to help keep the minds off the war. Her directions are very simple and easy to following allowing children to help and learn. She also discusses the progression of taste as one gets older, how some things are “sensual delight at eight or

eighteen, that would be gastronomical auto da fe for you at twenty-­‐eight, or fifty” (Fisher 195). Additional she recommends a pairing with a glass of milk, plain coffee or frosted with a covering of cream cheese and powdered sugar. The title of the recipe itself is an example of the wartime influence on her recipes. Overall Conclusions

M.F.K. Fisher takes an interesting and practical outlook on her cookbook

“How to Cook a Wolf.” The title itself can be misleading; the “Wolf” is not a physical wolf but a metaphorical figure for the hardships during the war. “It was written to be read and designed to be used.” It provides advice to save money in the kitchen, and to mentally get through the wartime hardships. M.F.K. Fisher was one of the most influential women writers on American food, and undoubtedly played a huge role in the WWII time period.