M.F.K. Fisher "How to Cook a Wolf": Chapter Ten

I had so many observations about this chapter that I had to make this one a separate post.  

Chapter 10: How to Carve the Wolf

Part 1

I guessed that this chapter would be about meat...or rather, the lack of meat during WWII.   Fisher believes that only a few really need meat for nourishment as a necessity but that most eat it 'out of habit'.  I am not going to argue for nor against.  I have over the years cut way down on the portions of meat served in our household.  It began in those days of deep economy, and it has stayed with me because as costs rose, the budget, though ample, never quite caught up to whatever the current economy might be.  That's just facts.  As I get older, I find I need a little meat at two meals simply to keep blood sugar and energy levels where they ought to be.  

One thing the days of our deep economy did for us all, was decrease our dependence upon meat as a filler.  It's enabled me to critically view many recipes today and determine which of those is simply filling the hunger gap with an excess of meat and which is there for the integrity of the dish. 

That all said, the first mention in this chapter is of broth, good nourishing broth.  Which at the time of the book's first writing was being touted as 'devoid of nutritional value'.  As always, the trend has swung in the opposite direction and now you can barely read two paragraphs into any blog (or view any vlogger's video) without hearing of the lovely nutritional value of bone broth.  So as with all things, it's cyclical.

The chapter leads out with a recipe for Boeuf Tartare.  I believe I have seen a slight resurgence of this and even a suggestion of using tuna as a substitute in our modern day.  But it was believed that eating beef raw, finely minced and mixed with raw egg yolk, herbs, lemon juice and olive oil was the best way to get those all-important nutrients.  

The chapter goes on to mention the Anglo-Saxon need for a great joint of beef, a roast if you will.  Here Fisher points out that while scarce (remember WWII standards here) and priceless (we're getting close on that part), a good roast is an extravagance worth purchasing.  As she points out it lends itself to several meals.

I chuckled as I read the two schools of thought on the cookery of a roast.  Slow cooked, started at 300F and cooked 20 minutes per pound which erased shrinkage, or the method of searing hot heat for the first 25 minutes and then lowering the temperature to 300 and proceeding.   She recommended simple seasonings of salt, pepper, herbs and basting with melted beef fat or butter while cooking with the fatty part up. 

 Fisher was a great proponent of buying rib roasts.  She felt that meat cooked with the bones upon which it grew imparted the best flavor. I wonder what she'd make of our society with its loss of bones in meat?!   I'll digress briefly and say that back in my early days of being a homemaker, I often buy a 7bone roast, which was the cheapest of all the roast but always cooked up tender and full of luscious flavor and I sorely miss them!

Back to Fisher, she does mention lesser cuts of meat, such as the Rump Roast, which she says, "are seldom treated with due respect...They should be seasoned and watched with even greater care than a roast, since they have perhaps less dignity to begin with."

Next, she mentions steak, which was admittedly out of any budget range in her day...and mentions the cheaper cuts like 'round steak', which she suggested would benefit from marinating to tenderize it.

Gracious!  If any part of the book is going to make me nostalgic it's this chapter on meat.  I haven't been able to find a round steak in years upon years.  Again, they were inexpensive cuts, a firm chewy steak but they benefitted from cooking over low heat, simmered well and made tender and so delicious.  Honestly, what do they do with the bones and round steaks today?

One of my only remembered lessons in the grocery store with Mama, was to buy round steak on sale, and then have the butcher cube it.  It was less costly than the cubed steak which was made from top or bottom round but more often from sirloin.   A couple of years later, a butcher, admiring my skill at choosing and asking for my round steak to be cubed told his secret for further tenderizing of cubed steak and that was to 'cube it twice' and he instructed me to always ask the butcher of whatever store I patronized to cube my steak twice, which I did until it totally disappeared from the meat counters.

Perhaps it shows up now as 'ground round' which I just purchased.  It is the next thing that Fisher mentions. It is her opinion that round steak is wasted as ground meat when it's such a good cut in and of itself.  She mentions Flank steak as a better choice and that it should be ground just once.  Her head would fairly spin with our meat counters today.   

She goes on to mention getting the bones to put into a soup kettle...Today bones are being sold once more but the price would astound.  The most recent price I've seen on bones (and these were practically clean!) was $3.95 a pound.  Frankly, if I'm going to spend that much, I'm going to go for the ground meat on sale at the same price...Just saying!

Her method for burgers appeals to me.  She begins with the freshest ground meat.  Again, nostalgia kicks in.  I remember Grandmother purchasing ground meat on her grocery day.  It was the first meat she cooked each week, too because it was so freshly ground.  The aroma of freshly ground beef being cooked is OUT OF THIS WORLD.  Often enough now, the ground meat in stores is fairly sterile tasting and now and then it is 'sour'.  Not spoiled, but not strictly fresh, edible but...

Her method: Heat a cast iron pan until searing hot and a drop of water dances and vanishes on its surface, which seems to look more stretched than you thought iron could look."  Put in pats of beef which will smoke and smell, so windows should be open if possible.  In about two minutes turn the cakes over with a spatula...There will be more smell.  Keep the heat high for two more minutes or until the meat is thoroughly brown, and then slap on a tight-fitting lid and turn off whatever fuel you use."

The timing from here isn't given but it is based on your preference for rare, medium or well.  She recommends putting herbs, wine and a generous pat of butter in a bowl on the counter about an hour before you begin to cook.  Once you take up the meat, pour in these ingredients and let the residual heat melt the butter and heat the wine.  This is then poured over the patties.

Two further things for this section that I want to mention:  Fisher often mentions her favorite marinade. She did so in a previous chapter and again in this one.  She learned the recipe from a Japanese cook.  She uses it on both fish and meats: Equal parts of soy sauce and oil.  It's that simple and she considered that sufficient for all cuts.

The other thing is the mention of compound butters as a finishing for beef especially.  She mentions she'd purchase a higher quality roast, cook it, slice it and place pats of compound butter between the slices.

She recommends keeping a supply of compound butters on hand in the ice box made with lemon juice, various herbs.  One that sounds delicious to me is a basil butter that she puts into the cavity of a tomato she is baking.  Sounds yummy!

Part II

This next section moves away from frying and roasting into the stewing of meats.

Fisher points out that once upon a time stew was simple: meat and water cooked together until they blended into one edible thing.

I think the French without a doubt did more to revolutionize stewing and I mean that sincerely.  I've never made cassoulet or coq au vin or Beef Bourguignon but heavens just reading the recipes is enough to give a clear idea of how rich, satisfying and decadent a thing a stew can become.  

She recommends pot roasting but not just using beef.  Her first recipe is for a ham cooked with sweet potatoes in a slow oven...then a rump roast with prunes.  In my favorite old cookbook, a whole chicken is stewed gently with potatoes, onions and carrots.  Meatloaf is another thing I've seen pot roasted, covered in the oven but not baked.  And of course, we cannot forget the Corned Beef and cabbage which is also to be considered a stew...

All that said, Granny often boiled whole chicken.  She generally bought a bigger chicken, not the broiler fryer size, and I do believe they were called 'boiling hens' at the time.  I've mentioned that in reading the older books I find boiled chicken was considered a delicacy. No mention of that in this book, at least not yet.   And I must mention that Granny routinely boiled her ham, both fresh and cured, rather than roasting it in the oven as Mama did.  She preferred boiled ham over any other.

Fisher's sole issue with stewing is that it uses more fuel which was a necessary economy for her.  She does recommend that one proceed cautiously on that account.  I wonder what she'd make of our modern day electric slow cookers...and instant pots which replace the pressure cookers of the 1950's.

Part III

This chapter deals with Offal.  I always felt this was misnamed and people would be far more open to eating these parts of cows (and pigs and fowl) if they simply normalized it by saying they were what they were.

I don't recall eating anything but liver when I was growing up, though Mama did occasionally cook beef brains for Daddy.  I believe she scrambled them with eggs.  I don't know because I never ate them.  I was influenced more by Mama's opinion of them as she cooked them than I was by Daddy's obvious enjoyment of it.

Fisher mentions her first introduction to offal was a French dish called Tete de Veau which was half a veal calf's head, complete with lolling tongue and winking eye.  She overcame her initial squeamishness and subsequently enjoyed the meal.  

In my childhood, my grandparents all butchered cows and my father took pigs to the arbortoir.  I don't know what Grandmother and Granddaddy did, but Granny and Granddaddy always gave away the organ meats, the head, tail, shanks and such.  Mama and Daddy got pig heads back and Mama cooked those to make Brunswick Stew.  I don't recall ever seeing those items at any other time.  They had very much fallen out of favor by the time my childhood came around, but they are now coming back into fashion amongst the epicureans.  People as old as or older than my grandparents report that they ate 'everything but the oink' on a pig...So people did utilize all they had.  It was all food, and as Three Rivers Homestead is wont to point out often, 'It will fill bellies.'

Head cheese, or souse meat was a popular item my dad's parents enjoyed, as was Liver Mush.  Fisher reports in this chapter that Souse Meat/Head Cheese was called 'Cold Shape' during the time she lived in England.

My daughter, Amie, found tripe in the grocery stores near her many years ago and made Menudo, a hominy soup, for her children to eat.  I was never privileged to try this soup, because she never made it when we were visiting, but she made it at least once a month.  Tripe is also known as 'Beef Honeycomb' due to its appearance, but it is the stomach lining of a cow or pig, sheep, though beef is the most common.

Fisher goes on to mention, the tongue which is steamed and then the outer skin is peeled off.  Tongue was considered a delicacy at the turn of the 19th century.  She also mentions beef heart which I believe Three Rivers Homestead also has cooked for her family.  Per her statement it tastes like beef roast.  Sweetmeats also were a 19th century delicacy.  That is the Thymus gland.  Kidney's (steak and kidney pie always sounded delicious to me) and liver, brains and jowls or cheeks.  Fisher mentions mutton cheek.

Liver is best, in my opinion. sliced then, dusted with flour, salt and pepper and gently fried for just minutes on each side in a bland oil or even in butter.   Mama used to cook her liver in bacon grease, always with a load of sliced onions simmered alongside.  The trouble with Mama's liver was that she cooked it to death, which is guaranteed to make the liver hard and tough and the texture more similar to jerky.  Trust me, if you've ever had liver that was still faintly pink inside then you'll enjoy it far better.

Speaking of liver and hearts, chickens used to be packed with giblets...and as one cook mentioned on Instagram the other day, who even finds giblets packed in the cavity of a whole bird anymore?  In my childhood, on Third Sundays we had dinner at church following morning service.  Granny got up on those mornings and fried chicken.  For breakfast, we were often divvied out the liver (my favorite), gizzard (my youngest brother's favorite) and the wing.  My middle brother didn't care for fried chicken at all, but he enjoyed the crusts cut from the pimento cheese sandwiches that always accompanied Granny's fried chicken dinner.

I have been surprised in the last few years to find short ribs (now considered something akin to steak in price but they were quite cheap at one point) which while not an organ meat is a boney, fatty bit of meat.  These are delicious to cook in soups.  Oxtail soup was once highly favored, but as a woman told me at the grocery store but a few short months ago, "Those tails are just all fat now.  In my youth, they were meaty and perfect for soup."  She dropped the package she held in her hand back into the case, sniffed and said, "And now they charge the earth for them, but they were cheap."   I personally enjoy a good beef shank for simmering.  It's as good as any roast and makes a lovely velvety broth that's a little richer than roast can make it.

Of course, in the South, one still might find pigs' tails, jowls, fat back, and pigs' feet (which some favor pickled.  That was another item that Daddy loved to eat and which he indulged in alone.  I did sample a bite of that but at the time, I wasn't prone to liking sour things (that has come with my later years) and so I didn't care for them simply because they were so vinegary.  

Fisher might well have included the last bit of this chapter as a Part IV as she mentions sausage (a repository for all sorts of parts as ground seasoned meat) and meat leftovers as a whole.  She mentions cannelloni and enchiladas, hash and curry as good dishes to use up leftover meat.  I'll mention soup and pot pie and our ubiquitous 'casseroles

Overall, she finishes the chapter with the statement that she herself prefers to eat more vegetables and save her meat rations for a week and make a lovely stew.

And that concludes this chapter on meat.

Amazon Associate Affiliate Link  

I didn't realize Adler had published a cookbook to companion her book!