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89th out of 100 books
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190 voters
How to Cook a Wolf
Written to inspire courage in those daunted by wartimes shortages, How to Cook a Wolf continues to rally cooks during times of plenty, reminding them that providing sustenance requires more than putting food on the table. M. F. K. Fisher knew that the last thing hungry people needed were hints on cutting back and making do. Instead, she gives her readers license to dream,...more
Paperback, 216 pages
Published
October 1st 1988
by North Point Press
(first published 1942)
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I wish I could have been friends with MFK Fisher. This book is full of her strong opinions, down-to-earth suggestions, and fantastic dry wit. Good stuff.
The book was originally written as a practical how-to for people who had to cook during the shortages and food-rationing of World War II. This edition was updated after the war, in 1951. Now, you may think that sounds like the set-up for a particularly grim book, but you'd be wrong. She is generally undaunted by the limitations that war-time coo...more
The book was originally written as a practical how-to for people who had to cook during the shortages and food-rationing of World War II. This edition was updated after the war, in 1951. Now, you may think that sounds like the set-up for a particularly grim book, but you'd be wrong. She is generally undaunted by the limitations that war-time coo...more
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I found this at my favorite used book store and it has a permanent spot on my kitchen shelf up at the cabin. This is a reprint of the 1951 edition, which was created by the author adding marginal annotations to the 1942 original. That only makes it better to my mind. Many of these notes are along the lines of "What the heck was I thinking?" and I can almost imagine a wry grin inserted here or there. She's also added in tips what to do once the war rationing is over...I can't find the exact passa...more
Have you ever seen the movie The Philadelphia Story? If Katherine Hepburn's character were to dictate a war-time cookbook it would be How to Cook a Wolf. I enjoyed the observations on cooking, and the recipes from another time (though "Aunt Gwen's Cold Shape" sounds quite unappetizing) but most of all I LOVED this book for the author's wit. Fisher is the epitome of a classy dame, who writes things like "one of the stupidest things in an earnest but stupid school of culinary thought is that each...more
MFK Fisher's book seems uncannily appropriate to my days of unemployed living in America. She was writing about the scarcity of war-time America, but we've become so accustomed to our country's overextended reach into military engagements abroad that war is not what comes to mind first as the cause for the wolf's snuffing at the door. Rather, we bat the word "recession" around freely, and though it lacks the humility of the word "poverty," it lacks also the pride of Fisher's war effort. We've be...more
M.F.K Fisher is widely acknowledged as the grand-dame of food writing, and this is perhaps her most famous "essay". Published in 1942 and further edited again by the author 10 years later (later comments are noted in brackets), the book uses a wolf as a representation of hunger, something many Americans experienced during this time due to war shortages.
In each chapter, Fisher counsels readers how to escape hunger through economizing one's kitchen, using everything from inexpensive cuts of meats...more
In each chapter, Fisher counsels readers how to escape hunger through economizing one's kitchen, using everything from inexpensive cuts of meats...more
I never thought I would read a cookbook for recreational purposes, but... Wow--this book blew my mind to pieces. Then why only 3 stars? Well, because it is still--in its essence--a cookbook, though we read it for very different reasons nowadays (although I was tempted to try one recipe just so I could say I'd made "Eggs in Hell"--our grandparents certainly did). However, if you skim through the actual "cooking" sections as I did, it's no less than a 5-star portrait of life during WWII rationing....more
MFK Fisher is my hero(ine). This collection of essays, written to bolster cooks' spirits during World War II, is inspiring for anyone living under less-than-ideal culinary conditions. It also contains a number of lovely recipes, many of which begin with the formula: "Melt good fat in a heavy skillet and add chopped onion and a bit of flour"--a formula that I happen to approve of highly. My copy of this book thanks to Laura.
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This wonderful piece of writing was Miss Fisher's homage to the crisis, of World War 2. The wolf is her metaphor for the tragedy in Europe she saw unfolding, and the proverbial 'wolf at the door' of hunger that rationing created. She is both vigorous in her defense of the need to challenge Hitler and in support of the women at home who were dealing with severe shortages of sugar, meat, oil, eggs and fruit while, at the same time finding the humor in the situation. Written during the war, she ral...more
Feb 09, 2009
B
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This book was highly enjoyable. It is, in essence, a cookbook written in the forties during WWII - except, it has not very many recipes in it. Mostly the author talks, very charmingly and entertainingly, about the kitchen and economy and cooking well and her own experiences. She is no pampered Martha Stewart; here is a woman who is practical and down-to-earth and who also happens to enjoy a tastily-prepared meal, and doesn't believe that you must always sacrifice a lot of time, ingredients, or m...more
How to Cook a Wolf is interesting because I know that my mother was a bad cook. Thus, when I learned to cook, I also learned to be a bad cook. Fisher's book is full of tips and tricks for saving money by budgeting, having a simple grocery list, and cooking in quantities that conserve on heat expenses, as well. From this frugality comes a kind of happiness. We rediscovered this in the slow food movement. Currently, all the hip young people are trying to get away from the processed, the ready-to-e...more
I'd loved to have dined with M.F.K. Fisher; I can't (nor would want to) argue with her point that "since we must eat to live, we might as well do it with both grace and gusto." I'd regard her as a reader's food writer considering her writing is peppered with references to Cervantes, Omar Khayyam, etc. Completely charmed.
Favorite passage:
(On dessert) "Probably one of the best ends to a supper is nothing at all. If the food has been simple, plentiful, and well prepared; if there has been time to...more
Favorite passage:
(On dessert) "Probably one of the best ends to a supper is nothing at all. If the food has been simple, plentiful, and well prepared; if there has been time to...more
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So much fun so far. Must thank Jan Brown for the suggestion.
Wouldn't want to eat most of the recipes - too many calls for tomato juice
but really enjoyed reading about how to be more thoughtful in your choices for buying, cooking and eating
she's very into actually enjoying your food over worrying all the time about complete balance of nutrients all the time
My favorite part was when she suggested saving your steaming juices and canned vegetable juices in an empty gin bottle in the ice box next to...more
Wouldn't want to eat most of the recipes - too many calls for tomato juice
but really enjoyed reading about how to be more thoughtful in your choices for buying, cooking and eating
she's very into actually enjoying your food over worrying all the time about complete balance of nutrients all the time
My favorite part was when she suggested saving your steaming juices and canned vegetable juices in an empty gin bottle in the ice box next to...more
This book is wondeful & breezy. Fisher really does inspire one towards improvisation and creativity. I have made several excellent sauces since finishing this book. The voice and persona in this book is a strange & adventurous character, a cross between Katherine Hepburn and Pantagruel. One of the amusing things about the book is that some of what she recommends in a pinch (the whole idea is how to cook in times of privation) sounds rather disgusting. She does things with cans of soup &...more
Wow, looks cool. I was just talking to my Mom about how we've lost the wisdom of the generation before her, who lived through the other depression. Like, I was saying, how her Mom would boil spaghetti by bringing the water to a boil, put in the spaghetti, then turn the heat off. I thought she did that to save energy. (it cooks still, just takes longer). But my Mom said no, it wasn't for that reason - was just thought to be a better way for a while. So who knows. But her mother saved everything,...more
How to make a blackout fabulous with sherry and shrimp pate.
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I categorize this as odd. It's a series written during the Second World War supposedly about cooking, but I found it a little hard to believe she really had food in mind. For one thing, she keeps cooking things in butter. Now I wasn't buying groceries in 1944 but I do seem to remember that butter was measured in tablespoons per month and she's dumping them into the skillet. I kept hoping I would get some first-hand feeling for what it was like to be a foodie in the midst of mayhem and rationing....more
I do not know how I remained ignorant of M.F.K Fisher's work until now. Her prose is gorgeous, her wit is biting, and her ideas about food are beautiful and true. I think everyone should read this book, not in the least because so much of what she talks about in 1942 still holds true today. This book offers essential insight into the relationship all people should cultivate with food. About the only thing not to recommend about the book are some of the recipes, which at the worst are entertainin...more
Part cookbook, part Hints from Heloise, How to Cook a Wolf is M.F.K. Fisher's chatty, scatterbrained wartime guide for citizens hampered by food shortages or just lack of discretionary income generally. There's no actual wolf-cooking, which disappointed me: the wolf is just a metaphor for hunger. Some of her tips are a little bizarre:
Hayboxes are very simple...bring whatever food you want to a sturdy boil, put it tightly covered on a layer of hay in the inside box, pack hay all around it, and co...more
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My cousin loaned me this book with an off-hand, "I think that you would enjoy this." Boy did I ever! Written in 1942 with war-time rationing limits in place, this book is a reminder that cooks can both mazimize their cooking dollars and take just about anything and make a memorable meal out of it. Part cookbook, part a reflection on food writing, and part a philosophy of life, this is one powerful little book. And, everyone relax, no actual wolves were harmed in the creation of this book.
Loved it. Still processing much of it. Nice to read this after reading Michael Pollan, as she protests against much of the same "scientific" mind-set when it comes to food, and has the same disdain for nutritionists and those who set out menus for square meals in magazines. Coping with food during wartime is interesting of itself as well. I am not tempted by many of her recipes; she would have a deep disdain for my pickiness about food ... but there it is.
Initially I was thrilled to read this book because of the Seattle restaurant that bears the name. Apparently, it is the favorite book of the owner's wife. A great restauranteur recommends a foodie book sounds good. My book club picked it last year as our December selection, and met at the restaurant to discuss it. While the evening was divine, I wasn't engaged enough to finish the book before our meeting, and try as I might, I couldn't bring myself to finish. It still sits on my bookshelf waitin...more
The more I cook, the more I find myself giving recipe instructions like "Put it in the oven, stir once in awhile, and take it out when it smells done" -- and the more I look for cookbooks like this one. I've grown confident enough in my skills and tastes that unless I'm baking (which is more of a chemistry experiment than cooking), I can't handle fussy, meticulous recipes. I want ideas, not someone else's OCD, to-the-letter instructions.
The book assumes a pretty solid level of skill and experien...more
The book assumes a pretty solid level of skill and experien...more
The eponymous wolf is the proverbial "wolf at the door" when times are lean. MFKF wrote this book basically about cooking during the rationing and shortages of World War II. It is strange to read this book today and think about the huge impact that War had on Americans' lives in the 1940s, even though almost none of the conflict took place on American soil, and contrast that with the near-zero impact of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars on my own life. Nonetheless, the book is surprisingly accessibl...more
enjoyable to read if you're into food and it's cultural history. Interesting to see how concerns about the industrialization of food, its reduction from nutrition and expansion into mass production, was a concern to some even 70 years ago. The voice of the author in this book is distinctively heard in the era it was written. Amusing at times and educational.
I love these kinds of glimpses into how people lived during difficult times and tried to live, as Fisher put it, with as much grace and spirit as possible. I probably won't make any of these recipes but they were still pretty cool and her framing of each of the chapters was very fun. I have a deep appreciation now, of what women must have gone through to provide decent meals, or even just to survive during the war.
Fisher is a delightful prose stylist, and her advice for surviving in the midst of a wartime crunch on supplies resonates in a contemporary ecologically-minded, waste-averse context. Plus, the recipes are a blast, and she's very witty. I love her bracketed asides, commenting in the 1950s on the original text of the 1942 edition. Fisher is not just telling readers how to skimp and save--also how to mix cocktails, fantasize about luxurious cooking no longer within their means, and to feed pets che...more
Look at my collection! It's all about having parties and how to make do with less than you might be accustomed to! The "wolf" is hunger. This book was written as a practical "how-to" make ends meet during WWII. I wish I could have know MFK Fisher. I wish I could be MFK Fisher (maybe not). But it's both entertaining and inspirational.
MFK writes perhaps the best prose I've ever read. It doesn't hurt that she writes almost exclusively about food, one of my -- and anyone else who has the faintest conception of true human dignity and joy -- favorite subjects.
Nor does it hurt that she used the term "rich-bitches" perfectly in print in 1963 to describe the menacing and mundane upperclass: "One of the saving graces of the less-monied people of the world has always been, theoretically, that they were forced to eat more unadulterated...more
Nor does it hurt that she used the term "rich-bitches" perfectly in print in 1963 to describe the menacing and mundane upperclass: "One of the saving graces of the less-monied people of the world has always been, theoretically, that they were forced to eat more unadulterated...more
Sep 17, 2011
Sherry schwabacher
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommended to Sherry by:
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2088856_2089141_2089284,00.html
I found this book - already an antique - in a thrift store in El Paso forty years ago. I was the 18-year-old bride of a drafted soldier and didn't know how to cook , much less deal with scarcity. It taught me "when the wolf is at the door, cook it!" It has been one of my favorites since that time.
MFK Fisher is delightful and I must have more of her. This isn't really a cookbook, though it is full of recipes and instructions for cooking. The wolf in the title, in case you're curious, doesn't actually appear in any one recipe, but rather all of them - he's "the wolf at the door", and this was written during wartime rationing.
It was also republished about ten years later, which makes it even better because the author comments on and argues with herself in brackets throughout the text. Wonde...more
It was also republished about ten years later, which makes it even better because the author comments on and argues with herself in brackets throughout the text. Wonde...more
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Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher was a prolific and well-respected writer, writing more than 20 books during her lifetime and also publishing two volumes of journals and correspondence shortly before her death in 1992. Her first book, Serve it Forth, was published in 1937. Her books deal primarily with food, considering it from many aspects: preparation, natural history, culture, and philosophy. Fisher...more
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“All men are hungry. They always have been. They must eat, and when they deny themselves the pleasures of carrying out that need, they are cutting off part of their possible fullness, their natural realization of life, whether they are rich or poor.”
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“It is easy to think of potatoes, and fortunately for men who have not much money it is easy to think of them with a certain safety. Potatoes are one of the last things to disappear, in times of war, which is probably why they should not be forgotten in times of peace.”
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