M.F.K. Fisher How to Cook a Wolf: Chapters 11, 12, 13

Chapter 11 How to Make a Pigeon Cry

The more I read of this book, the more I learn.  I've heard of squab often enough, also known as pigeon.  For the first time ever, I understand the purpose of a dovecote on the estates and plantations of old.  The dovecotes were there to house the pigeons that the estate owners raised as food.  And here I thought they were just a quaint thing that had gone out of favor in ages past.  As it happens, they have fallen out of favor.  When was the last time you heard of anyone ordering Squab?  But somehow my naive self never realized that the dovecotes were like coops for chickens and sties for pigs.  It was a necessary part of housing a necessary future food item.  Apparently, the best way to kill a pigeon is to suffocate it.  Another bit of learning for me.  

The chapter is dedicated to the other meats...  Pheasant, Pigeon, Rabbit, Duck, Chicken and Geese.  

There is no mention of the Quail which I recall from my childhood days.  We had them only once that I know of, at my great Aunt Johnnie's.  She fried them and they were tiny and delicious and hardly worth the time it took to peel the meat from the delicate little bones.  I recall the day fondly because it was a glorious autumn day and we were gathered with family that we seldom saw but who we dearly loved.  I remember the day ending with that supper of fried Quail and Butternut Squash pies and a load of laughter.  It was a stand-out day in my childhood.

One summer when I was fifteen, we stayed with Granny for a week while Mama and Daddy went off somewhere.  I can't recall much about the visit because it was the occasion of my first ever migraine which was horrible.  I spent the week lying in bed, moaning, with a cool cloth and trying not to retch every time food was mentioned.  Granny entertained the boys (my brothers) by letting them take the rifle and hunt rabbit which she taught them to skin and fry them.  I managed to choke some down the first day, but I was so wretchedly ill that I can't tell you how it tasted.   I don't believe I've ever eaten rabbit since.  

But chicken, I have eaten and known all my life.  Baked, boiled, grilled, fried, stewed, etc.  I am curious to try chicken prepared as Fisher shares: scrubbed with lemon (never washed with water), salt and peppered, and dusted with a little cinnamon and allspice and browned in butter, oil or fat.  When it is nice and brown add a handful of herbs, a minced clove of garlic and a cup of tomato and some white wine.  Cover and simmer until tender.  The sauce is always served in a separate dish from the chicken, with pasta or polenta on the side.  Sounds a little like Cacciatore, doesn't it?

Fisher reminds us that we intuitively know how to cook a succulent bird when it comes to duck, pheasant, chicken or any other fowl.  Roasting she says is the natural instinct of most of us.  She feels it takes two hours and lots of basting.  I confess, I know how to roast, but I have seldom basted or found it necessary but then again, I like a crisp skinned roasted chicken.   

She also mentions Stewing.  Not Granny's boiled chicken, which always came out pale and tender and the broth faintly yellow and certainly not any of those badly over boiled birds that turn grey and the broth just as grey and doesn't look in anywise edible.  Stewing is a much slower process and when you want to know how to cook a wolf, then you'll likely choose that method because as the author rightly points out "seems to make a much bigger meal, because other things are usually cooked with it and have  and have absorbed some of its flavor, and at the same time it is making a generous amount of fine odorous sauce that can be eaten with the meat and also with rice or potatoes or the humble and almighty crust of bread."  Obviously the well stretched meal is the top choice.

Most people are so afraid of eating raw chicken that they most often err on the side of over cooking until it is dry, tasteless and chewy.  Buy a thermometer (you can buy digital but why bother?  Get a good old fashioned meat thermometer) and when the reading is at 165, turn off the oven.  When I roast a whole chicken in this manner, the bird is always juicy and sticky tender and luscious. 

Truth is, aside from Chicken, none of these meats are that familiar to me.  I made a Duck one Christmas, and it was fat and rich and expensive.  If I'd known then what I know now, I'd have strained and saved that duck fat that filled the pan and we'd eaten well for a few weeks at least as duck fat is highly recommended by the top chefs as the best for roasting potatoes, among other things.  Pheasant I've seen only once or twice and that in their natural state, not as food.  

Chapter 12:  How to Pray for Peace

Pray for peace and grace and spiritual food, 

For wisdom and guidance, for all these are good,

But don't forget the potatoes.

from Prayer and Potatoes, by J.T. Pettee

"Potatoes are one of the last things to disappear, in times of war, which is why they should not be forgotten in times of peace."  That's one of Fisher's opening sentences for this chapter, directly under the opening quote from the poem.

Fisher shares the types of potatoes she knows.  I wrote my own post here .

I am curious about one thing.  Fisher opines that it is best to boil potatoes in their skins.  What say you?  Aside from the rough and tough skin of the Russets, the other potatoes are quite lovely boiled in their skins, but in my family, it wasn't something we were accustomed to do unless they were 'new' potatoes fresh from the garden.  However, I used to babysit a mentally handicapped adult in my teen years and the woman of the house required me to do some light cooking, including boiling potatoes in their jackets and then peel them for her potato salad.  Do you do that?

I confess my mouth watered as I read the description of tender boiled potatoes which were drained when tender, then tossed back into the pan to dry over the heat until the peels split, doused with fresh chives or herbs, and a chunk of butter.  Fisher suggests fresh green peas to go with these.  We never had peas cooked with potatoes, but often cooked new potatoes with green beans and frankly it's one of my favorite ways to eat fresh green beans.  Or potatoes.  She goes on to say that the Swiss potatoes and peas in a hot bowl, with more butter, salt and pepper, a nubbin of cheese on the side and a glass of fresh Lucerne milk or white wine.  Somehow, I think that would be a soul satisfying sort of meal.

She highly recommends baked potatoes, and her method highlights the fact that if you are using the oven already, then wash, pierce and bake potatoes while the main object is cooking, making full use of the fuel required.  It is a commendable recommendation.  These may be eaten with a pat of butter or split and stuff them with a sausage and bake again.  Twice baked before it was a popular thing.  I've found many such recipes in that old favorite cookbook of mine.

Fisher feels that Potato Soup is excellent for guests at a winter's lunch or for Sunday supper.  Her recipe includes GRATED potatoes, GRATED onions, and the vegetables cooked together in melted butter until tender.  Then add more butter or even chicken fat. And finally add HOT milk, salt, pepper, and parsley are added to the pot and the whole served immediately.  A much easier method than any I've read.  I'm anxious to attempt potato soup in this manner.  She goes on to add that one might include drained clams, or GRATED mushrooms  

Rice, she says, is best cooked one of two ways.  First, she suggests, one cup of well washed rice dumped into 3 quarts of boiling water and allow it to cook until you can smash a grain of the rice between your fingers.  When the rice is done, dump in a colander, drain and rinse with cold water. Then heat again by a quick immersion in boiling water.

The second she refers to as Chinese or Indian method of cooking rice.  Take 1 cup of well washed rice, add to 1 1/2 cups water, bring to a boil and allow to boil for 5 minutes without the lid.  Turn the flame low, cover tightly and let the water boil away (from experience most white rice varieties will cook in about 20 minutes and brown will take 45.  I suggest a quick check to make sure all the water has been absorbed, clamp the lid right back on and let rice sit for at least 5 minutes).

And lastly, she mentions pasta.  She suggests cooking pasta in a great quantity of water for 20 minutes (!).  What pasta was this woman eating?  10 minutes tops for the modern-day spaghetti and if it's fresh it will cook in merely 3 minutes.  

Finally, she mentions Polenta or Southern spoonbread as the last starch.  I have never yet made polenta, but I mean to make it a point to try this at least once.  Her suggestion is that the Polenta be served with 'a dark rich sauce'...  I'll keep that in mind when I make my polenta.

Chapter 13:  How to Be Content with a Vegetable Love

The opening is dedicated to tender green peas...which Fisher admits are often from the frozen food department of her local grocery because of their overall uniformity of size and the short season for fresh peas.  She cooks them as Jacques Pepin once described them in one of his cooking segments: Start a pot with boiling water.  Then add thinly sliced green onions, chunks of lettuce, the peas placed on the bed of lettuce and adding in a chunk of butter.  Cover the pot, allow it to come to a boil, lower heat and cook for 5 minutes, then serve at once with a good dollop of butter, salt and pepper.

"All vegetables are good...All of them whether tender or hard, thick-skinned or thin, die when they are peeled.... Therefore, it is better to cook always cook them in their skins, at least until they are partly done, and then prepare them as you planned.    She does give a disclaimer here for turnips, cabbage and I will suggest rutabagas which we can find only heavily waxed in my part of the world.

She cautions against over cooking, recommends highly all canned and frozen varieties if fresh is not available and suggests that you always undercook vegetables (crisp tender) rather than overcook them.  If a vegetable is particularly hard (think of rutabagas or turnips) then steam them.

She highly recommends saving the steaming/cooking liquid.  If using drained canned vegetables save that, too.  I've read this tip for years and utterly ignored it.  In the past year, in my quest to 'waste nothing' I've found more and more often that I do drain and save the cooking liquid if not prior to heating most certainly after we've eaten all we wanted.  It adds an unbelievable amount of flavor to a pot of homemade soup, especially vegetable soup.

While she does highly recommend frozen or commercially canned vegetables, she suggests that one shops for produce once or twice a week, undercook them all at once, store them in the fridge and then use them through the week in a variety of ways, not just as side dishes but in frittatas, or salads or as in a mixed lot as a vegetable hash.   That she says is the way to love vegetables, by treating them very well.

Amazon Associate Affiliate Link:  

My idea of a good chicken roaster, oven stew pot and stove top vessel