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HOW TO COOK A WOLF

M.F.K. Fisher

Written in 1942 to inspire courage in those daunted by wartimes shortages, How to Cook a Wolf has continued to rally readers and cooks during times of both scarcity and plenty.
With her trademark wit and warm wisdom, Fisher shares her timeless tips for keeping up spirits and appetites when ingredients are in short supply. Instead of regretting what we don't have, she teaches us how to savour what we do. Fisher also offers dozens of recipe ideas, from soups and simple omelettes, to baking bread and sprucing up tinned food. Knowing that the last thing hungry people need are hints on cutting back and making do, Fisher gives us licence to dream, experiment and invent adventurous and delicious meals from whatever we can salvage from the back of the cupboard. How to Cook a Wolf shows us how to feed our hungers and nourish our souls, even when fear is in our hearts and the wolf is at the door. Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher (1908-1992) was one of the greatest American writers of the twentieth century. At the age of 21 she moved from America to France, where she tasted real French cooking for the first time, and it inspired a prolific writing career centred on a new way of thinking about food and travel. She was a regular contributor to the New Yorker, Gourmet and Vogue, and is the author of 27 books of food, memoir and travel, many of which have become classics. These include Serve it Forth, How to Cook a Wolf, With Bold Knife and Fork, and a recently rediscovered novel, The Theoretical Foot.
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Published 2020-06-04 by Daunt Books

Comments

Essential reading . . . Fisher's advice on attitude, thrift, and how to nourish yourself and others in a crisis is newly relevant.

UK: Daunt Books ; China: Shanghai Insight Media ; French: Editions Dalva ; Italy: Neri Pozza Editore ; Korea: Different Voice

Her writing makes your mouth water.

Even when the wolf was at the door, she was always a fierce advocate of a libertarian approach to cooking and eating.

Poet of the appetites.

Thought that boiling an egg was foolproof? M.F.K. Fisher's How to Cook a Wolf will convince you otherwise. First published in 1942 and then again, with additional notes in square brackets, after the armistice the legendary food writer's advice on making the most of what's available to you is just as pertinent today as it was at the height of the Second World War. Ahead of a reprint by Daunt Books, revisit her brilliant (and frequently hilarious) take on the best ways to prepare eggs, below. Read more...

Witty, irreverent and amazingly relevant. Fisher will make you giggle, I promise, but also give you sound advice how to cook with limited ingredients.

Makes working out what to do with the last egg feel like a higher pursuit, rather than an act of desperation.

Her fans include Yotam Ottolenghi, Ruth Reichl and Bee Wilson. Her voice finds an echo in the writings of Nigella Lawson, Samin Nosrat and more.

A timely reissue of the late, great, never out of date food writer.