How to Cook a Wolf

M. F. K. Fisher

Macmillan, 1988 - Cooking - 202 pages

“I do not know of any one in the United States who writes better prose.” —W.H. Auden

Written to inspire courage in those daunted by wartimes shortages, How to Cook a Wolf continues to rally cooks during times of plenty, reminding them that providing sustenance requires more than putting food on the table.

M. F. K. Fisher knew that the last thing hungry people needed were hints on cutting back and making do. Instead, she gives her readers license to dream, to experiment, to construct adventurous and delicious meals as a bulwark against a dreary, meager present. Her fine prose provides reason in itself to draw our chairs close to the hearth; we can still enjoy her company and her exhortations to celebrate life by eating well.

Contents

• How to Be Sage Without Hemlock: 3
• How to Catch the Wolf: 10
• How to Distribute Your Virtue: 14
• How to Boil Water: 26
• How to Greet the Spring: 46
• How Not to Boil an: 53
• How to Keep Alive: 66
• How to Rise Up Like New Bread: 72
• How to Be Cheerful Though Starving: 80
• How to Carve the Wolf: 86
• How to Make a Pigeon: 111
• How to Pray for Peace: 121
• How to Be Content with a Vegetable Love: 133
• How to Make a Great Show: 138
• How to Have a Sleek Pelt: 145
• How to Comfort Sorrow: 151
• How to Be a Wise: 163
• How to Lure the Wolf: 167

About the author

Born July 3, 1908, in Albion, Michigan, M.F.K Fisher was raised primarily in Whittier, California, where she enjoyed cooking meals for her family. Encouraged in literary pursuits by her parents, she combined her favorite pastimes-cooking and writing-and began writing about cooking as early as 1929 when she moved to Dijon, France, with her first husband, Alfred Fisher. Fisher was educated at Illinois College, Occidental College, the University of California at Los Angeles, and the University of Dijon. She has written under the names Mary Frances Parrish, Victoria Bern, and Victoria Berne. A prolific author, her work is primarily autobiography and memoir. Her long list of publications includes Dubious Honors (1988) and Stay Me, Oh Comfort Me: Journals and Stories, 1933-1945, (1993). She also contributed articles to widely known magazines, including the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and Gourmet. Fisher died of Parkinson's disease on June 22, 1992, in Glen Ellen, California.

Bibliographic information

• Title: How to Cook a Wolf
• Author: M. F. K. Fisher
• Edition: revised
• Publisher: Macmillan, 1988
• ISBN: 0865473366, 9780865473362
• Length: 202 pages
• Subjects: Cooking / Essays & Narratives; Cooking / General; Cooking / Specific Ingredients / General