How to Cook a Wolf

I've wanted to read this for years, unfortunately it is not available on kindle so I had to buy a hard copy. Interesting, but a little disappointing. Maybe the humor is dated (although I've read a lot of books from this period, which are still bitingly funny). Not sure how many of the wartime recipes I will try. Not sure if I am disappointed or pleased to find the wolf was kept from the door, rather than cooked and eaten.

Ms. Fisher was writing in Europe during WW2; due to wartime rationing and shortages, the wolf seemed literally to hover near the door. Fine, she says, a wolf! Let's eat him!Ms. Fisher shows the best of the chin-up attitude one hopes we would all be disposed to display in hard times. She was in Europe during the war, and suffered the hardships thereof; she writes from a love of the food she had been exposed to before shortages, but her writing is ABOUT the food she can obtain rather than what she can't. She writes wittily, even charmingly about how to live on practically nothing and how to do it with an eye to health and nutrition, and flavor and enjoyment! Even in the 40's Ms. Fisher was aware that everybody needs to eat plenty of vegetables; even then she was aware that even sparse rations would be "better for you" if the food could look and taste appealing.The book was later edited and annotated by the author, and this edition includes those notes.One comes to see that in writing during wartime Ms. Fisher wrote from the "furnace of affliction" indeed and and that this book is as much a statement of philosophy as a guide to cooking and eating when food is sparse. One's attitude toward food, family, friends can be shaped to something resembling common sense and love of beauty whether a war is raging around one or no. The notes she added years later indicate that she still agreed with her earlier thoughts, in the main -- something had solidified, something had crystallised, in her thinking.A must for the shelf if one likes to think about food in more than a visceral and immediate way.

I barely had ordered the book before it was on my doorstep. It's in wonderful condition and am looking forward to reading it. Excellent transaction. Would buy again from this seller.

This arrived before expected and was in much better shape than advertised. Very happy with my purchase.

came in when expected and came in better condition than I expected.

This book is relevant :Much of what she says about food and eating that contradicted the common knowledge of the time have been proven in the interim.This book gives a great slice of life look at the time it was written:Discussing food shortages, rationing and other challenges unique to the WWII period was enlightening. I wasn't born until a full generation after the war, so although I knew that rationing existed, I didn't think about what this actually meant for families until reading this book.This book is very, very funny :The author has a dry wit that I very much appreciate. While the intention of the book is not to entertain, she definitely does so while discussing things of great importance during the time it was written. This was the first book of hers I've read. I've been missing out! I'll be reading more, and I can recommend this book without reservation.

This little book is a bit of history of cooking during WWII, some of which we can still enjoy today. Having been very young in the early 40s, I can still remember my Mother having to be very careful with her cooking ingredients. I remember the coupon books for some precious foods. It is very enjoyable reading and the recipes look good too. Most people today don't even know what you're talking about when you speak of "the wolf at the door".

I picked this up for some pandemic reading and kitchen economizing. It was both entertaining and educational. I learned a lot about recipes and wartime food culture in the 1940s. I also got some good ideas I can use now!

I so wanted to love this book, having admired everything I've read about her and her impact. But man, this is HARD work. Beyond the I'm-so-witty tone [she's not, even for the era], it was so darn hard to read. They've included the edits she made in the 50s, which essentially gave not-so-witty commentary on her own writing, as these long integrated brackets in the text. So a little B-format like this means you're often reading two paragraphs within a single paragraph: her original text, plus her post-war commentary text. It's maddening. I literally had a headache within three essays/chapters.

This is a thrilling rediscovery, as if Elizabeth David had been overlooked. Except that MFK Fisher delivers more laughs and literary punch. MFK Fisher not only flashes her humorous light on the the development of modern food tastes but gives us a sharp view of how to manage during Lockdown, as her book concerns the deprivation and lack of ingredients during the 2nd world war. And, impossibly, she makes you laugh!

no proper recipes but excellent little essays on all sorts of things from this esteemed 50s/60s American writer

...even when you can't find another little squidge of space, keep this book. I'm feeling rich in that my former copies were always "discovered" in a used book store, but I just had to replace them right now, so I have a new copy. A treasure. Speedy shipping too.

Á Book on how to cook in very restricted times when food is hard to come by - and yet still to live in style. Good read.