M.F.K. Fisher: How to Cook a Wolf Chapters 14, 15, 16

 

I'm not sure the arrangement of these next few chapters make sense, but it is the order in which they appear in the book and the order in which I shall comment upon them.

In our last post, we were talking about eating food and now we are not.  Just so you know.  But we will be again...

Chapter 14 How to Make a Great Show

By economy and good management, by a sparing use of ready money, and by paying scarcely anybody, people can manage, for a time at least, to make a great show with very little means.

from Vanity Fair by Thackeray

This chapter details the many interesting and sometimes frightening 'recipes' for various things given in antique cookbooks.  Fisher apparently collected and read cookbooks the way most people choose novels and she read them from cover to cover.  Most of the recipes were found at the back of old cookbooks in the final chapter.  "How to Fade Freckles", "How to Stop Hair from Thinning" etc.

Admittedly these are quaint, but I do recall in a recent pandemic I knew many people who made their own hand sanitizer when it became hard to find upon the store shelves.  A few brave souls concluded that it was a fine time to remind people that a 'family cloth' might be substituted for quantity limits or frighteningly high-priced toilet paper, which apparently frightened people into hoarding the stuff.

Soap recipes for both bathing and laundry abound.  And some make their own soaps today, which I greatly admire.  Not enough to copy them, but I will purchase it if I find a booth at a country fair.

I'm reminded of the chapter in Cranford in which Mary recounts the strange and often funny economies of the neighbors.  Miss Deborah's method of pridefully boasting that they burned two candles of an evening, but which Mary found meant that they burned one until it was slightly shorter than the other and then they put out the flame and burned the second until the candles appeared to be equal in length.

I have made my own share of 'strange' economies over the years but mostly I keep them to myself and only share those that are commonly openly admitted to among frugal folks.

Chapter 15 How To Have a Sleek Pelt

Not your sleek pelt of either skin or hair or wardrobe.  Your pets' sleek pelts.  The feeding of pets when money is tight and items scarce is something that concerns us all.  It was Granny's habit when the month was longer and the money shorter to feed her own dog what she referred to as 'Dog Bread'.  As near as I can tell it was made of pantry staples like oatmeal, cornmeal and flour, mixed with fat and soured milk and baked in the oven.  When it was done, the dog received half a fourth of the pan of bread, topped with a gravy made of flour and water and whatever drippings from the pan of meat she'd most recently fried in the same pan the gravy was being made in.   Her dog always looked healthy.

Compare that to my mother's rather scruffy looking, much pampered dog who consumes over $100 in dog food each month.  Just as comparison.  Mama has the money to spare.  I'm not sure but the dog would be far happier though with less variety of pates and stews and such and a good deal happier with a bit of kibble and some of Granny's gravy and dog bread!

And not just pets but all those poor meat cattle who are suffering due to the drought...While not pets (and I never equate them as such) I do feel rather sorry for any creature that is suffering from lack of food.

Another bit of history that is new to me.  Apparently, per Fisher, at the start of WWII it was suggested that pets should not be allotted precious food and indeed many animals were killed.  One woman in Cornwall was stoned to death in 1940 when she refused to kill her cat and small terrier dog.  

But as Fisher points out the error the ways of man were soon shown as early as 1942 when rats and mice, now free of natural predators began to overtake the country and make inroads into precious food supplies.  Funny enough, the phrase that came to mind upon reading this was "Haste makes waste."   No forethought of what these 'pets' did naturally was considered and people openly applauded when they saw a once loved and petted, emaciated cat feasting upon a rat feast.

As Fisher points out animals, most especially dogs, can survive and thrive even on a vegetarian diet.  She goes on to recommend the 'sludge' recipe from Chapter 7 How to Keep Alive.  An occasional nibble of yeast (would anyone follow that recommendation in the past four years when yeast was scarce?), raw eggs (I know some who, when flesh with eggs from producing chickens feed their dogs a daily boiled egg), canned milk diluted with water or vegetable juices.

Or do as Granny did and make a lovely pan of dog bread and serve it warm (not hot) from the oven with warm gravy.  Honestly, it looked and smelled good enough I envied the dog...

Chapter 16  How to Comfort Sorrow

And now we are back to our foodstuffs once again.

"I'll make her a pudding, and a pudding she'll like too...Many a one has been comforted in their sorrow by seeing a good dish come upon the table." ~ from Cranford by Mrs. Gaskell 

It grieves me to say so, but our author is no fan of desserts, not even in non-war years.  She feels they are not good as a whole and that those who, during war time insisted they should still have and enjoy desserts while working hard and fighting for democracy were spoiled.  And most especially because she was in Britian at the time, where custards are much loved and made of eggs (and by now we are well aware that the only time Fisher has not complained about eggs was when she was feeding them raw to her cat) and milk (also not a favored food unless she was making Potato soup).

She is especially scathing over the war's answer with 'instant' puddings (not the sort we know today which when you really think about it are probably worse than what she experienced those many years ago) and of boxed gelatins as desserts.

She suggests instead that you serve nothing at all, or if something must be had an herbal tea.  Or a fine cup of coffee.  And here she admits that coffee is never better than when served with a good rich dessert, obviously due to economy neither were to be skimped upon nor served often.

No offense to anyone here but I like a bite of something sweet at the end of at least one meal each day.  I once overindulged and foolishly, but I am free of that compulsive habit.  I do, however, believe that Granny, though no gourmet, who believed in good honest food only, also believed that everything should be had in moderation, including sugar and in her opinion a small amount of sugar was a daily necessity.

It is after the mention of coffee that Fisher shares her first recipe, one for War Cake.  I'm going to share the recipe ingredients and the instructions:

War Cake

1/2 cup shortening or bacon grease (and I daresay some used lard, or chicken fat or duck fat.  The spices called for in the recipe should cover the flavor if you're using any of these including the bacon grease).

1 cup sugar, brown or white

1 cup water

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp other spices: cloves, mace, ginger, etc.

1 cup chopped raisins (or prunes, figs or other dried fruits)

2 cups flour, white or whole wheat

1/4 tsp soda

2 tsps baking powder

Sift the dry ingredients and set aside.  Put all the other ingredients (include the spices and dried fruit wet items) in a saucepan and bring to a boil.  Cook 5 minutes.  Cool thoroughly.  Add the dry ingredients and mix well.  Bake 45 minutes or until done in a greased loaf pan at 325F oven for about 45 minutes.

I've known this recipe for years.  Grandmother made it at least once a year, usually around the holidays and no doubt precisely because it did call for dried fruit.  She called it Indian War Path cake and for all I know it was as old a recipe as the days when Indians did go on the war path, way back in the 1700's or beyond.  For sure I've seen the recipe often enough in books that relate such antique recipes as those from the 1800s.  I can't speak for whether it's found in European cookbooks, but I can speak for the few American ones I've perused.

Grandmother baked hers in a 10-inch tube pan and it's my opinion if you should do so, it will take around 60 minutes to bake, possibly 65 at 325F.   I believe Grandmother must have overbaked hers as she did all her cakes.  Not sure if that was just her following directions precisely or what.  Doesn't matter.

She made the cake, and when it had cooled, she poured over the top a homemade caramel frosting that was always a little grainy.  If you're getting the idea Grandmother wasn't an excellent cook, she was not a refined cook.  Cooking was something she had done for years, and since no one else cooked, it was made as she liked it and done in her way.

I last had a bit of this cake when I was about 25.  We were living in Andersonville, and because I had mentioned it during their last visit in my home, she brought one on the next visit months later.  She'd wrapped it in aluminum foil, and it was as solid and heavy as could be.  

I didn't even get a chance to taste it.  My first husband, coming home from work, accidentally knocked it off the counter and it struck his foot.   Thinking I'd wrapped a rock in foil, because you know I did that every day, he took it outdoors and threw it hard over a fence into an overgrown area where pine trees had been logged a few years before.  I was out running an errand at the time and was shocked to discover my precious cake was gone and I shed tears over the loss.  When I asked him why on earth he'd think I'd wrap a rock in aluminum foil he said, "I thought you'd made a doorstop."  

I begged Grandmother for the recipe which I still have in her own handwriting, and I have never made it.  I had thought perhaps I might this year as it is spicy and fruity and I do love a spiced cake this time of year.

Our author goes on to give a recipe for Tomato Soup cake, which I won't share as you can find it online or in any woman's club cookbook.  But I will share her review of this cake: This is a pleasant cake, which keeps well and puzzles people who ask what kind it is.  It can be made in a moderate oven while you are cooking other things, which is always sensible and makes you feel rather noble, in itself a small but valuable pleasure.

She goes on to recommend Baked apples stuffed with raisins, or brown sugar, or mincemeat, or leftover jam.  She says they make a whole supper with plenty of buttered toast.  

I've often made baked apples for my own family, when they were in season.  They have the happy ability to baked alongside supper dishes and the family always felt they'd had an excellent dessert.  It's comforting on a cold wet fall day.

She suggests fruit crisps made with gingersnap crumbs or vanilla wafers or old sponge cake crumbled atop and served with sour cream.  Gingerbread is another suggestion and interestingly a Sweet Potato Pudding which reads a lot like our holiday sweet potato casserole.  In fact, using the Sunday Sweet Potato Casserole as a dessert has occurred to me more than once, as its rich and sweet and heavy.  Rice Pudding is also suggested.

I will say that while I disagree with her view of dessert, I like the offerings she makes in this chapter as suitable.  I know too well from past years that all of these are good desserts for those on tight budgets and because they are rich and spicy, a little goes a long way towards satisfying.  

I'll conclude with this:  my own children were just as happy if dessert at the end of a meal was announced to be 'Applesauce and Grahams' something John and I had tonight as our dessert.  And it's imminently satisfying after a hot bowl of soup, with just enough substance to fill you to the top and sweet enough, even if the applesauce is unsweetened, to satisfy any sweet tooth.

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The sort of doorstop I would have if I didn't have a lot of old glass insulators that I use for that purpose.