How to Cook a Wolf
January can be a cold month, long in weeks and spare in spirit. And so, I enter a soup phase this time of the year, working my way through the delicious pages of “The Soup Bible” cookbook and others on the shelves of our culinary kitchen library.
Sweet red peppers are sautéed in olive oil and simmered to tenderness with shallots, carrots, pears, chicken broth, paprika and a few pepper flakes. Once puréed and returned to the pot, they are a soup that is both easy and mysterious. Piquant with the sweet hint of pear, red pepper soup is a warm-the-spirit and feed-the-soul meal—heavenly when served with a loaf of crusty Tuscan country bread, butter and the simplest of green salads.
An onion sautéed with tomatoes, garlic, paprika, chicken broth, parsley and cannellini beans become a satisfying soup in no time. Whether preparing the most basic garlic and potato peasant soup or a mulligatawny soup flavored with exotic Indian spices made popular during the time of the British Empire, the possibilities are as endless and as simple as boiling water.
It is fitting then that while perusing a used bookstore recently, I discovered M.F.K. Fisher’s early gastronomical classic, “How to Cook a Wolf.” While Mrs. Fisher spent a good part of her fascinating life as a housewife, mother and amateur, she also wrote novels, poetry, memoirs, a screenplay, owned a vineyard in Switzerland, and later settled in Sonoma Valley, CA.
Mrs. Fisher’s unique cookbook was published in 1942 during a time of war and sacrifice—a time, Fisher noted, when for the majority, the wolf was at the door and the pantry bare. What was needed, she wrote, was “a practical guide to the art of living happily and well, even though close to starvation.” Simply stated, “How to Cook a Wolf” is a how to book on keeping the wolf at bay.
Written at a time of wartime rationing when “countless humans are herded together, as in military camps or schools or prisons,” Mrs. Fisher’s practical suggestions offered a happy medium between a diet that is balanced nutritionally and living on a steady diet of plain boiled water. In her chapter, “How to Boil Water,” she writes that “a few herbs and perhaps a carrot or two and maybe a bit of meager bone added to boiling water combine to make something quite good.” That something was soup.
Distaining the dictum of the great French chef, Maitre Escoffier, who claimed that the origin of soups went back no further than the early years of the 19th century, Fisher believed soup to be “probably the oldest cooked food on the earth after roasted meat.” She then described basic recipes for Chinese consommé, Parisian Onion Soup, Chowder, Cream of Potato Soup, and Gazpacho.
In Fisher’s mind, “Probably the most satisfying soup in the world for people who are hungry… tired or worried, or cross, or in debt, or in a moderate amount of pain or in love or in robust health or in any kind of business huggermuggery, is minestrone.” A thick, unsophisticated soup, she found it “heart-warming and soul-staying” as well as economical. She quotes an Italian friend as saying, “Topped with grated Romano, served with crisp garlicked sour-dough bread, a salad and a glass of wine, and I have dined.”
After reading “How to Cook a Wolf,” I find this treasure of sage food writing and dietary advice to be surprisingly as relevant today as it was during World War II. The influx of families seeking asylum on America’s southern border, devastating military conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, the onset of winter, and political gridlock in Washington have countless populations desperate to keep the wolf from their door.
Here is a simple French garlic soup recipe to make in winter for colds or simply to feed your wintry soul.
Ingredients:
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon of butter
2 bulbs of garlic, the cloves peeled and crushed
2 leeks, sliced thin to the green tops
2 medium size potatoes, sliced thin
1 sweet onion, sliced thin
5 cups chicken broth
½ cup cream
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
In a large soup pot, heat the olive oil and butter and add the garlic, letting it brown until golden about three minutes.
Add the leeks, onion and potatoes, turning them all to coat with the warm oil and butter mixture.
Add the chicken broth (it should cover the vegetables so you may need a bit more) and simmer the soup until the vegetables are soft, about 30 minutes on low heat.
With a hand mixer, purée the soup until smooth and creamy, then add the cream, salt and pepper.
Serve with nicely toasted slices of good sturdy bread, a chunk of your favorite cheese and simple green salad on the side.
[Note: For Sopa de Ajo, an aromatic garlic soup devised by Castilian shepherds seeking warmth on cold winter nights, World Central Kitchen’s Spanish Chef José Andrés adds a tablespoon of smoked paprika and 6 oz. of country bread torn into pieces to the garlic and adds ½ cup dry white wine instead of cream. Bring to a boil until liquid is absorbed by the bread, add 4 cups of chicken stock and bring to a low boil.]