I've been reading MFK Fisher's How to Cook a Wolf, a book written in 1942 at the height of rationing and wartime this past month and thought maybe you'd all like to hear my thoughts on each chapter as a sort of book study. You're more than welcome to join me over the course of my reading. I believe the book can be found on Kindle as a free book. I'm sure one of the free library apps would also have it online. I think it's well worth adding to your bookshelf, not because it's loaded with recipes but more because it's full of some doggone good ideas!
Chapter 1 is titled "How to Be Sage Without Hemlock"
One of the first standout sentences for me was this one:
One of the stupidest things in an earnest but stupid school of culinary thought is that each of the three daily meals should be 'balanced'.
Fisher points out that not everyone is the same. Some people just cannot handle the thought of food in the morning. I know this to be true, because I used to be one of them. Even to this day, I'd much prefer a light meal of toast and fruit or yogurt. John on the other hand is hungry when he wakes up and he wants a meal, consisting of protein, carb, and vegetable or fruit. We compromise as best we can. I serve our morning meal around 9am and no earlier. We swap off mornings of a full meal with mornings of lighter fare.
It is in this chapter that Fisher explains her theory that our food should be balanced in a different way: Balance the day, not each meal in the day.
I believe one of you also pointed this out to me at some point and it radically changed my idea of how we eat. Frankly, it was freeing. I was suddenly less bound to thinking I had to get in every vitamin, nutrient and mineral in a single day's time and more inclined to prepare meals with an overall outlook of balancing out dietary needs over a period of seven days.
Fisher's book was written for those who were living on a budget, facing rationing and had a whole lot of balancing to do with very little. She says earlier in this chapter:
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, less dishonest food than the rich...
A bit later she suggests: This bugbear of meal-balancing is hard not only on the wills and wishes of the great American family, but it is pure hell on the pocketbook.
She decries the 1940's magazines urging mothers to economize while pushing them to continue making pretty much five course meals the same as always.
Now, of all times in our history, we should be using our minds as well as our hearts in order to survive...to live gracefully if we live at all.
Fisher promotes the idea that you have one meal of carbs, one of fruit or vegetables and one of meat. She suggests a lavish morning meal of buttered toast with nothing more than jam or honey served with milk or coffee. Or all you want of hot cereal, but preferably a hearty grain with maple syrup, raisins or dates rather than milk and sugar all of the time. She suggests if you want a child to have juice to serve it mid-morning as part of a snack.
Lunch she felt should be an enormous salad, or in winter, to serve a vegetable casserole or soup with plenty of good, buttered toast.
For dinner, a cheese souffle and light salad, or a broiled steak and a platter of ripe sliced tomatoes, a loaf of bread, wine and coffee, followed by a good cheese.
She didn't think dessert a necessity and suggested if one still wanted more to eat, then finish the dinner wine, have some crackers and cheese and call it a day.
I can see some good wisdom in her meal plan if it seems a bit overly simplified.
Along similar lines I found an interesting video on YouTube. $20 Extreme Grocery Budget Challenge. This video was filmed by an RDA who unfortunately has done few uploads, because he did a great job in my opinion. This particular video was filmed in 2021, so obviously prices might well be different. The meals seemed to be fairly good ones, substantial and hearty. He relied heavily on fruit and oatmeal for breakfasts but not in the form you might expect it. He bought several vegetables. He had eggs, and a little bit of meat. His lunches were largely made up of vegetables. Towards the end of the video, he does a complete nutritional breakdown of how the budget meals came out for the week, his goal being to balance over a full week. He failed in getting enough Calcium and Vitamin D because he had no fish nor dairy/dark greens, but he did very well overall. I thought the video very interesting and loved finding something to tie into what I'd been reading.
A lot of this book is written a bit tongue in cheek, but it's full of good solid advice if you get past the lighthearted tone of it. I hope you all enjoy the review as I work my way slowly through each chapter.
Chapter 2
How to Catch the Wolf
Fisher relates a story of her grandmother sitting with a group of young women during the first World War who were discussing various ways to make a cake without sugar. As the matron listened to the young women's talk, she said nothing. She lay down her knitting and simply sat until they all fell into silent expectation. She told the young women that their talk was all 'very entertaining' and added "It interests me especially, my dears, because after listening to it this afternoon I see that ever since I was married, well over fifty years ago, I have been living on a war budget without realizing it! I never knew before that using common sense in the kitchen was stylish only in emergencies."
This is a short chapter and for good reason. It's merely a lead-in to the next chapter.
As Fisher is so quick to point out, magazine articles tout 'thrift' and 'budget' and 'economy' meals galore. They'll throw nutrition facts at you, too. Fisher felt in 1942 that not all women were as sensible as her grandmother until they have to be. However, she firmly believes that once they get over their bewilderment, any woman can be practical and sensible with food. You see the wolf is fear itself.
And while we might be giddy with eagerness to know all the things that might save you money or fill bellies, you begin to truly learn to save it.
Fisher goes on to say:
Women who never thought one way or another about such things before, are going to find that fuel and light, even if they have enough money to pay for them, may be scarce and impossible to hoard, and after the first sense of irritation will learn to cook well and intelligently and economically with very little...
She suggests that we trust our own good sense as we navigate a tough economy. As she explains it,
"It is all a matter of weeding out what you yourself like best to do, so that you can live most agreeably in a world full of an increasing number disagreeable surprises.
4 comments:
This book sounds very interesting, and I look forward to your posts as you study it. Thank you for sharing!
Jill E.
Wow! Very interesting. Can't wait to read more.
I just read chapter 1 and watched the video. In addition to your quotes, I liked "to have such good food, and to have such generous casseroles and bowls and platters of it, that there cannot be an appetite for more." I found this to be so true. With two boys, I don't think they felt deprived with only one pork chop because there was always rice or potatoes and vegetables in abundance. There is nothing my husband hates more than those fancy restaurants that make such pretty plates for a bundle but he goes home hungry!
Jill, I'm really enjoying the book. And getting quite a few ideas as well as seeing how those things have already come to play in my home.
Karla, It's not a big book, but its packed.
Angela, I have always thought that I'd rather have a good solid plate of food than a fancy five star restaurant meal that looked as though you'd require a stop off at McDonald's immediately after! lol
Fisher knew something I too learned in our leanest days. The appearance of an abundance of food often offset the fact that there was more vegetable, bread and fruit than there was of meat.
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