by Craig Boreth
In Praise of The Hemingway Cookbook
“A wonderful culinary biography of one of America’s premiere writers.… Cooks, cookbook collectors, and of course, fans of Hemingway will find much to savor in this wonderful volume.”
—JENNIFER A. WHEELER
Executive Director, The Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park
“For someone who reads cookbooks like novels, what a delight to find both in one publication. What a pleasure to romp with Hemingway as he eats and drinks his way through life. Liberally sprinkled with appropriate quotations, citations, and biographical data along with detailed recipes and menus, this book will certainly find a place in the kitchen and on the bookshelf of gourmets, gourmands, and the literati.”
—HOWARD B. CARRON, PH.D.
editor-in-chief, Cigar Lovers Magazine
“Papa had some pungent comments about wine then that still ring true today.”
—HARVEY STEIMAN
editor at large, Wine Spectator
“Authentic recipes from Hemingway’s favorite places bring to life an aspect of his life and writings long overlooked. Food was obviously very dear to Hemingway’s heart and an integral part of his expansive love of life. ¡Olés! for The Hemingway Cookbook”
—PENELOPE CASAS
author, Tapas: The Little Dishes of Spain
The Hemingway Cookbook
An early-morning writing session while on safari.
Contents
Introduction
Dining with Hemingway
WILD GASTRONOMIC ADVENTURES
1
The Early Years
A TASTE FOR LIFE
2
Italy
REMEMBRANCE AND WAR
3
France
AN IMMOVABLE FEAST
4
Spain
THE FIESTA CONCEPT OF LIFE
5
Key West and Cuba
SAILING THE STREAM
6
East Africa and Idaho
A HUNTER’S CULINARY SKETCHES
7
The Hemingway Wine Cellar
8
The Hemingway Bar
Epilogue
An After-Dinner Treat
THE FABLE OF THE GOOD LION
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
General Index
Recipe Index
“I have discovered that there is romance in food
when romance has disappeared from everywhere else.
And as long as my digestion holds out I will follow romance.”
—ERNEST HEMINGWAY
Introduction
DINING WITH HEMINGWAY
Wild Gastronomic Adventures
“Ernest had a talent for making people feel that any pretension toward an appetite of life must be backed up with a healthy appetite for food.”
—Peter Griffin, Less than a Treason
Hemingway writing as a young boy.
Have you ever encountered a storyteller who could engage your imagi-nation as if it were his or her own, someone who can describe a person or place and you feel that you hold in your imagination a nearly complete and genuine experience of that person or place? Then, if you are fortunate enough to encounter that person or visit that place, they are exactly as you expected them to be? For me, Ernest Hemingway is one of those storytellers. I find myself drawn in, participating wholly in the creation of the intricate, near-reality he creates. That is the primary reason why I enjoy reading his writing, and that is why I am privileged enough to have you read mine.
Ernest Hemingway was in many ways an explorer. He lived in several different countries and traveled far from home for months at a time. He also traveled deep inside his own imagination and the minds of his characters, uncovering dark vestiges of torn and hardened individuals. He had an insatiable appetite for new and novel geographies, experiences, and people, attending to each detail with the dexterity and acumen of a natural historian. It is no surprise, then, that so many have followed him in search of that same newness, that same disconcerting, energizing imbalance that must be overcome in a new place. When I follow Hemingway, I am continually amazed at his great talent for taking me away to the landscape that he paints on the page. When I visit the settings, it feels exactly as I imagined when reading his work. It is a wonderful experience, and it makes reading Hemingway that much more of a personal adventure.
Ernest Hemingway was also a tremendous eater and drinker. For better and worse, he indulged his appetites to the fullest. His books are filled with episodes about food and drink, sometimes spectacular, other times intriguing in their mundane presentation. Regardless, The Hemingway Cookbook is a product of my belief that the same gut-warming, mind-racing sensation enjoyed by the follower of Hemingway’s journeys may be evoked by the preparation and enjoyment of his food and drinks.
The sounds of the words themselves—Aguacates, Purée de Marron, Chambéry Cassis, or Amontillado—linger beyond the turn of the pages. The textures, tastes, and smells remain on the palate long after the dust jacket earns its keep. This was the foundation of Hemingway’s art: to not only provide for his readers a description of the emotion evoked but to communicate the source of that emotion, creating for the reader that very same sensation. He crafted a fiction that stalked us and struck more quickly and fiercely than reality ever could. And there, sustaining, defining, and redefining the characters that we sense so profoundly, are the details of their eating and drinking endeavors.
Hemingway uses native foods and drinks to convey his characters’ insider status. Participating in the local cuisine with the knowledge of the native, Hemingway’s characters feel at home, and so do we, the readers. Amid their epic struggles with death and love they find treasure and foundation in the cuisine of the lands in which they are adrift. Participation in the life of the fiction and, thus, in the life of the writer himself may explain why Ernest Hemingway has inspired every generation since his own to embark in pursuit of that elusive sense of what has been called “more-being”: to attain a sort of world-citizenry from the Plaza de Toros to the Parisian café to the Gulf Stream.
In our own enduring quest to gain some membership in his fiction and his legend, the preparation and consumption of the food and drink included here in The Hemingway Cookbook evoke the solitude of fishing his trout streams, the drama of watching his bullfights, and the camaraderie of hunting his game. It is as individual an adventure as the fiction itself.
There is no easy way to arrange a book about a man as prolific and well traveled as Ernest Hemingway. This book is laid out roughly chronologically, focusing on the central country or region of each time period. Within each chapter, focus is placed on the novels and short stories that take place in that region or were written in that time period. I have tried to include some pertinent biographical information, particularly if the anecdotes pertain directly to the recipes included. For the complete picture of Hemingway’s life, read Carlos Baker’s seminal work, Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story, or any volume of Michael Reynolds’s brilliant series of Hemingway biographies.
I have tried to provide a taste of the food and drink that were most important in Hemingway’s life and the life of his fiction. It would be virtually impossible to include every recipe. (For a fascinating analysis of the role of food and drink in Hemingway’s fiction, as well as a complete index to the references to food and drink therein, read Samuel J. Rogal’s For Whom the Dinner Bell Tolls, 1997.) Therefore, I have chosen recipes that accompany important moments in Hemingway’s life and art.
I have tried to stay true to the original recipes of the time. Thus, many of you may find yourself buying lard for the first time
in many years, or frying in a lot of butter, or mixing some serious drinks. If you know the old adage “whatever doesn’t kill me makes me stronger,” you may want to keep it in mind as you prepare some of these Hemingway feasts.
The sources for the recipes themselves are varied. Several, such as the Roast Suckling Pig and the Paella de Langosta, come from the original restaurants where Hemingway enjoyed them. Other recipes, primarily those from the Cuba and Idaho years, are based on written records or interviews with Hemingway’s closest friends from those days, such as Forrest “Duke” Mac-Mullen, Tillie Arnold, Gregorio Fuentes, and his fourth wife, Mary. Of the remaining recipes, the very traditional ones are based on cookbooks from that time.
It is my hope that by preparing the recipes in this book you may revisit the first time Hemingway’s, or any author’s, prose truly touched you. One of the wonders of Hemingway’s work is that it may be enjoyed on so many levels, from the starkly empirical to the analytically profound. Through preparing these dishes, a new dimension of enjoyment may be added, strengthening the personal ties that each reader once had with the fiction alone.
I have written a book that I believe will satisfy the full spectrum of Hemingway readers and will help everyone enjoy the world he created for us. Maybe you will read a book of his you never read before. Maybe you will see something new in your favorite short story that reminds you why it’s your favorite. Regardless, I wish every reader the wonderful experience of cooking these meals and spending some more time in the thralls of your own imagination, sated and rapt, at the feet of a master storyteller.
1
THE EARLY YEARS
A Taste for Life
“Don’t be afraid to taste all the other things in life that aren’t here in Oak Park. This life is all right, but there’s a whole big world out there full of people who really feel things. They live and love and die with all their feelings. Taste everything, Sis.”
—Ernest to his sister Marcelline, 1919
A family portrait of the Hemingways in 1909.
(Top row, left to right) Ernest, Ed, Grace, (bottom row) Ursula, Sunny, and Marcelline.
Ernest Miller Hemingway was born July 21,1899, and ate meat, vegetables, eggs, and fish shortly thereafter. His father, Dr. Clarence Edmonds Hemingway (known commonly as Ed), believed such foods were essential for nursing babies to grow up strong and healthy. His mother, Grace Hall Hemingway, lamented the decision. She noted in her daughter Marcelline’s baby book her annoyance at receiving the babies for nursing with onions on their breath.1
Ernest Hemingway and his sister Marcelline, 1916.
The Hemingways lived in the affluent and proper Chicago suburb of Oak Park. Grace Hemingway, once an aspiring opera singer, remained ambitious in her endeavors as a music teacher, suffragist, and painter. Mothering six children did not lessen her distaste for housework, and she continued her pursuit of the fine arts over the culinary arts. In fact, she was such a stranger to the kitchen that when she finally mastered a recipe from her mother’s cookbook, she decided to quit while she was ahead. When Marcelline suggested that she learn to make a layer cake, Grace replied, no doubt with chin up and eyes beaming, “I proved I could cook with my tea cake, and I’m not going to take a chance of spoiling my reputation by trying anything else.”2
This recipe is based on Grandmother Hall’s English tea cake recipe, which Grace contributed to the 1921 edition of the Oak Park Third Congregational Church Cookbook. The author would like to thank Jennifer Wheeler and the Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park for their generous assistance in obtaining this recipe.
Grace Hall Hemingway’s English Tea Cakes
The original recipe for these tea cakes is rather vague in its instructions. Grace shared the recipe with Liz Dilworth, the mother of Ernest’s best friend from upper Michigan, where the Hemingways had a summer cottage on Walloon Lake. The Dilworths lived in Horton Bay on Lake Charlevoix. Mrs. Dilworth, known as Aunty Beth to the Hemingway children, ran a small restaurant called Pinehurst Cottage, famous for its fried chicken dinners. Mrs. Dilworth worked out the exact proportions of the recipe and taught Grace how to prepare it. After secretly mastering the recipe at the Dilworths’, Grace finally prepared the hot bread in the Hemingway kitchen and served it with great pride and joy. Ed could hardly contain his praise: “Delicious! Grade, delicious!”3
12 SERVINGS (4 TO 6 9-INCH CAKES)
1½ teaspoons active dry yeast
½ teaspoon salt
1½ cups warm water (110° F)
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon butter, melted
2 teaspoons lard or shortening
2 large eggs, beaten
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
¼ cup warm milk
1 cup dried currants or raisins
Plenty of extra melted butter for swathing
To set the sponge, whisk together the yeast, salt, and water in a mixing bowl for several minutes until the yeast is completely dissolved. Stir in l½ cups of the flour and mix until smooth. Cover with a towel and let stand in a draftfree space for 2 hours.
When the sponge has risen, stir in the butter and lard, along with the remaining flour, beaten eggs, sugar, milk, and currants or raisins. Mix thoroughly to form a stiff batter. Cover and let stand up to 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Divide the batter evenly into four buttered pie tins and let rise for at least 2 hours. Bake in the center of the oven for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove the cakes to a cooling rack, brush with a lot of melted butter, cut into wedges, and serve while still warm.
Grace’s tea cake recipe was also published in The Nineteenth Century Women’s Club Historical Centennial Cookbook, along with a recipe for “Ernest Hemingway’s Cold Cucumber Soup.” Ernest’s connection with this sweet cucumber and leek broth is unclear, but here it is:
Ernest Hemingway’s Cold Cucumber Soup
4 TO 6 SERVINGS
3 cucumbers
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill or mint
1 leek, white part only, sliced, or ¼ cup chopped onion
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 cups fresh chicken stock or canned broth
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
White pepper (optional)
1 cup half & half
Juice of ½ lemon
1 tablespoon honey (optional)
Peel and slice two of the cucumbers. Peel, seed, and grate the remaining cucumber. Heat the butter in a large, heavy saucepan. Add the sliced cucumbers and cook over low heat for a few minutes. Add the dill or mint, leek, and bay leaf and cook over low heat until tender, about 20 minutes. Stir in the flour and cook for a few more minutes, stirring constantly. Add the stock and salt and simmer gently for 30 minutes. Remove the bay leaf and let the mixture cool slightly. Purée the mixture, half at a time, in a blender or food processor. Return to the pan and add the white pepper to taste. Add the half & half, lemon juice, and honey; then taste and adjust the seasoning. Stir in the grated cucumber. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Serve in a chilled bowl.
Ed Hemingway extended the same moral sense of discipline and responsibility that ruled all aspects of his life to food and eating. He was a passionate outdoorsman, hunting a vast array of game for the Hemingway table. This was particularly useful when the family would retreat from Oak Park each summer to their cottage on Walloon Lake in upper Michigan. Dr. Hemingway would often stay behind to work at his family practice, but when he was out in the country he was truly in his element. He quickly began to share his passion with his young son.
Ernest at age 5 with his first gun.
Ed Hemingway believed in hunting for food and eating everything that he killed. So, in Ernest’s fourteenth summer, when Ernest and summertime chum Harold Sampson returned triumphant after hunting and killing a porcupine that had injured a neighbor’s dog, Dr. Hemingway did not shower them with praise as e
xpected. Instead, in his typical firm and unforgiving tone, Dr. Hemingway made them eat the animal, which turned out to be “about as tender and tasty as a piece of shoe leather.”4
Ed Hemingway in the Great Smoky Mountains in North Carolina, 1891.
Ernest’s older sister Marcelline, in her memoir of those early years, At the Hemingways, shares one of her father’s anecdotes that displayed his skills and experience as a chef and outdoorsman. It is a story that Ernest no doubt heard repeatedly and loved, for details of Ed’s youthful adventure show up years later in his son’s early writings. It was not the last time that Ernest would take the stories of others and make them his own.
In the summer between his graduation from Oberlin College and his medical training at Rush Medical College in Chicago, Ed was asked to participate in a geological expedition in the Smoky Mountains. The expedition lasted longer than expected, and the supplies began to run low. Determined to provide a good meal (he was, after all, asked on the trip because he could cook), Ed shot some partridge and a few squirrels, coaxed honey from a bee’s nest, and whipped up a meal of fried game, biscuits, and blackberry pie. To his fellow campers’ amazement, Ed explained how he rolled out the piecrust using a beer bottle as a rolling pin.5
His father awakened Ernest’s love of the outdoors, of fishing and hunting, in those first summers on the lake. Ernest would eventually take that same, all-consuming passion for sport and adventure and apply it to the bullfights, deep-sea fishing, big game hunting, and virtually any endeavor upon which he embarked. As a young boy, though, the cottage door opened into deep woods, trout streams, campfires, and endless adventures. He saved the sights, sounds, and smells, as he would throughout his life. Eventually he would return through that same door, this time into his imagination, when his gift beckoned and he could not resist.
The summers in Michigan served Ernest in both his fiction and his journalism. In an early article for the Toronto Star, Ernest offered a howto guide to cooking in the bush. Later, in one of his finest short stories, he follows Nick Adams on a fishing trip to the “Big Two-Hearted River.” In both cases, he takes particular care to share the sensation of the foods.