Cooking the Wolf

It was difficult for Americans to eat well in the early 1940's. Wartime shortages and rationing made even basic foods like butter and eggs difficult to get. Meat was even harder to come by and steak was a rare extravagance. It was with that in mind that M.F.K Fisher wrote How to Cook a Wolf. The title comes from a verse by C.P.C. Gilman:

There's a whining at the threshold,
There's a scratching at the floor.
To work! To work! In Heaven's name!
The wolf is at the door!

Fisher's objective was to show people that even under such difficult circumstances, it was possible to not only survive but to eat well. She offers a variety of recipes that make for meals that are inexpensive, nourishing, and tasty. In 1952, she put out a revised edition. World War II was long past, but as she noted in its preface:

Of course, it is difficult, in spite of the obvious changes in our physical problems since How to Cook a Wolf was first published in 1942, to say truthfully and exactly when we are at war.

This version added numerous recipes, still with an emphasis on eating well in difficult times. Again quoting from the preface to the 1951 edition:

These "extra" recipes are culinary rules to be followed with not a thought of the budget, not even half an ear cocked toward that sniffing at the door. I know, because I know, that one good whiff from any of these dishes will send the beast cringing away, in a kind of extrasensory and ultra-moral embarrassment.

Now, it's beginning to sound like the wolf is scratching around again. That bit about not really being able to tell when we're at war never sounded more true. And of course, the economy has tanked. Some of us will lose our jobs. Many of us who keep them will end up with pay cuts in some form or another. We're likely to have to tighten up our belts a bit, but how do we plan on doing so? Yeah, we'll probably have to cut some extravagances out of the budget but I have a hard time believing that y'all are going to be eating poorly.

So what about it? What happens when the wolf comes by your place? (Or for you vegetarians, maybe it's the Giant Hogweed scratching at the door?) Either way, what kind of recipes do you look at as the best in sending the offender slinking away?

Mike,

When I read the subject line I was hoping this was about a wolf named Ron.

Mike,

When I read the subject line I was hoping this was about a wolf named Ron.

Uh, you're making me nervous.

Mike,

When I read the subject line I was hoping this was about a wolf named Ron.

Uh, you're making me nervous.

Now that's funny!

Well done and A+.

You think that's bad? In post-revolutionary France, during the period of the Directoire, life was so difficult in Paris and Lyon that the government released several publications telling citizens how to prepare rats and cats for eating.

Truth. Boy scout's honor!!!!

Best
Rogov

Mike,

When I read the subject line I was hoping this was about a wolf named Ron.

No no! We can't eat him until he comes back and makes everything better again!

Mike,

When I read the subject line I was hoping this was about a wolf named Ron.

No no! We can't eat him until he comes back and makes everything better again!

"Well, there you go again."

Well, the wolf has certainly been at our door for a while now. We eat more rice and beans - cooked creatively sometimes mexican, sometimes south asian, sometimes creole, brazilian whatever. We eat a lot less meat and when we do, it's usually chuck cooked long and slow. I'm using my pressure cooker more. It cooks beans very quickly even when I forget to pre-soak them and it makes stock/soups/stews very quickly. Chicken ends up in the rotation fairly frequently, roasted tastes very rich and can be greek, lemon, italian, asian, western, depending on what herbs we use. We hardly ever go to whole paycheck these days unless there's one specific item that we can't get anywhere else. I still like my wine with dinner but usually spend $10 or less/bottle. Occasionally $15. Trader Joe's has some very drinkable inexpensive wines. I'm drinking more belgian ales than I used to - they can be expensive but an 8 - 10 dollar 750cc bottle of belgian beer lasts as long as long as a bottle of wine in our house. Fish is expensive so we buy what's fresh but on sale from the fish monger about once a week. Pasta is cheap and filling and whole wheat pasta has a better glycemic index than plain so that's what we eat. Easy to make an inexpensive sauce with veggies, spices, herbs a little wine, etc. Almost anything can be made more interesting with a bit of chicken sausage or a slice or two of bacon. We don't eat out. Period. Yogurt is homemade, we're eating the tomatoes and fruits I canned this fall. Homemade refrigerator pickles keep forever. Homemade bread is cheap, love the dark stuff with seeds and grains. Chocolate is homemade. I'll probably start brewing beer again and next spring/summer/fall I'll can/preserve much more than I ever have. So life is still good. Just different.

Howard, we're doing something similar, partly through necessity, but mostly by choice. Today we're turning 10kg of big ripe tomatoes that were $10/box at the Friday markets into passata for the freezer. Yesterday, we froze 12 punnets of strawberries ($6 for the whole tray) and a $7 box of green apples became 15 jars of pectin for next year's jam making, and the leftover pulp became 10 jars of spiced apple butter. All our bread is homemade, haven't bought a loaf in over two years. We also make our own yoghurt, as well as jams, preserves, essences, chocolate truffles, baked goods and occasionally butter. Pasta, beans, mince dishes - good hearty fare which makes me much happier these days than fussier dishes. We still eat out, but much less than we used to, and we've become really picky - now when we do eat out, it has to be something interesting that we wouldn't make at home.

Life isn't just good, it's better.

Hi Celia,
Tell me please about the pectin. I've been reading about it recently and I'd like to try to make it. Can you tell me how you prepare and use it?
Thanks

Howard, it's really easy! We buy a box of green apples at the markets, then cut them up into quarters. We use all of the apple except the stems. The cut up apples - peel, seeds, flesh and all - go into a very large pot, and we add enough water to float the apples. Cover this and bring it to a boil, making sure it doesn't boil over. Once it's boiling, you can drop the temperature down a bit so that it simmers - you want the pot to boil gently until the apples disintegrate and the flesh comes away from the peel and looks like chunky applesauce. For my large pot, that usually takes over an hour from when it starts to boil.

The next step is to strain it. We use a clean piece of calico (which I pour boiling water through to sterilise) to line a sieve or colander. Place the colander over a large pot/mixing bowl and pour everything through it. The most important thing is not to press the mixture at all (or you'll get bitter and cloudy pectin). Just let it drip through at its own pace (usually at least four hours or overnight). When everything has drained through and the colander is no longer dripping, place the liquid in a large pot and bring it to a boil. You want to reduce the liquid by about 50% to make the final pectin.

There is a good test for pectin - you cool a tbsp or so in the fridge until it's cold (won't work if it's hot), then stir it into a little bit of rubbing alcohol (apparently methylated spirits will work as well). If the pectin is ready, it will coagulate and clump up when you try and pick it up with a fork. You are supposed to boil it until you get thick clumping, but we always get more of a soft gel, which drips a bit between the tines of the fork. It works fine for us, as it allows us a bit more flexibility with cooking times on the jams, and Pete likes his jams to be softly set.

Once the pectin is ready, you can either freeze it (though freezing slightly reduces the strength of the pectin), or you can pour it into sterile jam jars, and then boil the finished jars in a water bath for 10 minutes. This will ensure the pectin is ok for 6 - 12 months on the shelf.

Pete's basic jam method is add the pectin when boiling the cut up fruit, and then to add the sugar after the skins are softened. If you add the sugar too early, apparently the fruit skins can go quite hard. The amount of pectin he uses varies depending on the type of fruit (some have more pectin that others and therefore you need to add less). On average, I think he uses about 1 cup of pectin to each kilo (2.2 lb) of fruit. The nice thing about this is you don't have to be really careful with how long you boil the pectin in the jam, unlike commercial pectin that you're only supposed to boil for 5 minutes or so.

We put the leftover apple pulp through a food mill to get out the seeds, peels etc., then add brown and white sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon and allspice to it to make spiced apple butter. The mix is then baked in a roasting pan in the oven at 150C (300F), stirring every half an hour or so, until it becomes thick and brown (about 1.5 hours - any longer and you tend to get apple paste, which is also good). We spoon this into sterile jam jars and hot water process the sealed jars for 10 minutes. It makes a gorgeous apple butter to go into cakes, or as an accompaniment to roast pork or ham.

Below are the two articles which got us started. It's really a very rewarding process. We were able to make lots of pectin in July when apples were $5/10kilo box, and store it until December, when stonefruit was $1/kilo, at which time we used the pectin to make all the jams we made for Christmas gifts. Each 300ml jar of jam ended up costing us on average just over $1/jar, and that was only because the jar and lid cost $0.60! I posted about jam making here a little while ago.

http://www.wildflowers-and-weeds.com/Th ... pectin.htm

http://www.portlandpreserve.com/HomemadePectinStock.pdf

Cheers, Celia

Wow - thank you so much. I've seen a couple of websites that have described the process but none so clearly. Thanks again. One question - roughly how much does a box of apples weigh?

Thanks again.

Howard, when they're in season, we're able to get apples in boxes ranging from about 6kg to 16kg, but it doesn't really matter, because the amount you make will be determined by how big your pot is and how much you can fit into it. I think the last box we got was about 5-6kg (I'm guessing) and it filled my big pot twice and made 13 x 300ml jars of pectin and 13 x 300ml jars of apple butter (I just counted!).

If you're buying apples from the fruit store to make this, I'd suggest getting maybe 2kg (@4.5lb) at least to make it worth the effort. Two more things - the best pectin comes from slightly under-ripe apples - ripe ones are ok, but overripe ones don't seem to work (though they can still be made into applesauce or apple butter). Secondly, we have, at various times, used Grannies, Fujis and Pink Lady apples, all of which have worked well, although the Grannies are definitely the best. Crabapples are supposed to be the very best, but our tree won't fruit!

The apples don't need to be in perfect condition, and sometimes we buy a box of apples for school lunches, and use the bruised or slightly damaged ones to make pectin and apple butter. You probably want to cut out any really bad bits, but small bruises and pock marks are ok. Apparently you can also use windfall apples for this, but you need to cut away the damaged bits (we don't have access to windfall apples, which is a shame after I watched Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall make apple cider from them).

Lastly (sorry, I get very longwinded sometimes ), instead of bottling all the pectin for future jam making, you can use some of the drained liquid and make it into the most gorgeous apple jelly. If you use red apples, the jelly turns a beautiful crimson colour, almost jewel-like. There is a recipe here and this YouTube clip is very helpful as well.

sorry, I get very longwinded sometimes

Oh my gosh, don't apologize, I really appreciate the comments. And that jelly is beautiful. Gonna have to try it this summer I think. Thanks again for all your advice.

Howard, you're most welcome!

I'd be inclined to check out apple prices now, though, as they're usually cheapest mid-winter here (I'm in Australia, so our seasons are the reverse of yours). In summer, the stonefruits and berries are the bargain buy at our local markets. With the apples, sometimes they're really cheap, because they need to empty out the cold stores in time for the new season crops. At that time, they're almost giving apples away - $5 for a 10kg box, that sort of thing.

Would love to know how you go, if you ever get around to making anything..

Cheers, Celia

Mike, I've started reading this book - thank you for the suggestion.

I really enjoyed reading "How to Cook a Wolf", Celia. It's a bit dated in some ways, but in other ways it's still timely.

Mike, I've started reading this book - thank you for the suggestion.

Just to put in my 2¢, MFK Fisher is one of my favorite authors on the subject of food and travel. Kingsley Amis, I believe it was, proclaimed her "one of the finest writers in the English language," no qualifications. "Consider the Oyster" is a particular favorite, though you can't go wrong with any of her writings.

Mark Lipton