The Hemingway Cookbook

by Craig Boreth

  Hemingway consumed his newfound lifestyle voraciously, participating in illegal poker games with the chief of police and climbing the steep trail at the head of the valley to Madlener Haus or Wiesbadener-Hut, the Alpine Club stations from which they could ski back down across virgin slopes of freshly fallen powder. His hunger for the local food and drink matched his appetite for this new life.

  In the warmth of the wood-planked bar of the Taube, Ernest enjoyed their selection of 36 kinds of beer, good and cheap wine, schnapps distilled from mountain gentian, and a locally made kirsch, which quickly became his favorite. Frau Nels ran the kitchen and prepared excellent, hearty meals:

  We were always hungry and every meal time was a great event. We drank light or dark beer and new wines and wines that were a year old sometimes. The white wines were the best. For other drinks there was kirsch made in the valley and Enzian Schnapps distilled from mountain gentian. Sometimes for dinner there would be jugged hare with a rich red wine sauce, and sometimes venison with chestnut sauce. We would drink red wine with these even though it was more expensive than white wine, and the very best cost twenty cents a liter. Ordinary red wine was much cheaper and we packed it up in kegs to the Madlener-Haus.33

  The Hotel Taube remains much as Hemingway found it in the 1920s, with big rooms and large beds with good blankets. While Ernest may have enjoyed his venison served with a chestnut sauce, the local specialty is Hirschfilet in Wacholderrahmsauce, venison fillet or cutlets in a juniper cream sauce. At the Taube, you may accompany your venison with the traditional red cabbage and potato croquettes. The author would like to thank Walter Nels, son of Paul Nels and the current proprietor of the Hotel Taube, for his assistance in developing these recipes for this book.

  THE MENU

  Dinner at the Hotel Taube

  Venison in Juniper Cream Sauce

  Red Cabbage

  Potato Croquettes

  Hotel Taube in Schruns, Austria.

  Venison in Juniper Cream Sauce (Hirschfilet in Wacholderrahmsauce)

  4 SERVINGS

  1 pound venison, pork, or beef bones, cut up

  2 slices of bacon, or lard for frying

  1 onion, coarsely chopped

  1 carrot, chopped

  1 rib celery, chopped

  1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

  1 tablespoon tomato paste

  ½ cup red wine

  3½ cups beef broth

  24 juniper berries, crushed

  1 piece orange rind

  1 piece lemon rind

  1 teaspoon dried thyme

  1 bay leaf

  4 peppercorns

  4 1½-inch slices of venison fillet, or venison cutlets

  4 thin rashers of bacon or strips of fatty bacon

  Salt

  Pepper

  Oil and butter for frying

  ½ cup heavy cream

  Preheat the oven to 400° F.

  In a large, heatproof casserole, roast the bones until brown, about 30 minutes. Remove the casserole from the oven and place over medium heat. Add the bacon and vegetables and saute for a few minutes. Stir in the flour and tomato paste and cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes, until the mixture takes on a nice brown color. Add the wine, broth, half the crushed berries, lemon and orange rind, thyme, and bay leaf. Reduce heat to a simmer and cover. Cook for 1 hour, stirring frequently. After 45 minutes, add the peppercorns to the sauce and begin cooking the venison.

  Wrap each cutlet in a rasher of bacon and secure with a skewer. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Heat oil and butter in a skillet over high heat. Sear the cutlets for 1 minute on each side. Place the cutlets on a warm serving platter and remove skewers. Deglaze the skillet with a little red wine, scraping up any bits stuck to the skillet. Reduce the heat to medium. When the sauce is finished, strain through a fine sieve and season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour the sauce into the skillet. Add the remaining crushed berries and cream. When hot, but not yet boiling, pour the sauce over the cutlets and serve.

  Red Cabbage (Rotweinkraut)

  4 TO 6 SERVINGS

  1 head red cabbage

  ½ cup red wine

  Juice of ½ lemon

  2 tablespoons butter

  1 onion, finely chopped

  2 tablespoons sugar

  ½ cup beef broth

  1 teaspoon caraway seeds, crushed

  1 apple, cored, peeled, and chopped

  1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

  Salt

  Pepper

  Begin preparation the night before. Clean the cabbage. Remove the stem and any imperfect leaves. Cut into fine strips. Marinate the cabbage overnight in the red wine and lemon juice.

  The following day, melt the butter in a large casserole. When hot, add the onion and saute briefly. Add the sugar and cook, stirring often, until caramelized. Add the cabbage, broth, and caraway. Lower the heat, cover, and cook for 45 minutes. After 30 minutes, add the chopped apple. Just before serving, stir together the flour with 2 tablespoons water in a cup and add to the cabbage to thicken. When thickened, season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.

  Potato Croquettes (Kartoffelkroketten)

  18 TO 24 CROQUETTES

  5-6 medium potatoes

  1 egg yolk

  2 tablespoons butter

  1 tablespoon salt

  ½ teaspoon nutmeg

  1½-2 cups all-purpose flour, or more as needed

  2 large eggs, beaten with 1 tablespoon water

  1 cup breadcrumbs

  Vegetable oil, for deep-frying, to 1-inch depth

  Boil the potatoes, unpeeled, in salted water for about 20 minutes, or until tender. Drain, peel, and purée in a food mill, or pass through a ricer. Add egg yolk and butter to potatoes and mix thoroughly. Add salt and nutmeg, using more or less to taste. Add flour to the potato mixture, a few tablespoons at a time, until you can form the potatoes into small, firm sausage-shaped or round croquettes. Dip each croquette into the egg-water mixture, then coat with breadcrumbs.

  Heat the oil until hot (about 375° F). Add the croquettes, a few at a time, and fry until golden brown. Remove from the oil and drain on brown paper or paper towels.

  The Hemingways returned to Schruns the following winter. Ernest worked as hard as he ever had to edit the manuscript about bullfighting and Paris that he had written in six weeks earlier that year. In August 1926, he sent the proofs of his first novel to Max Perkins at Scribner’s. The dedication to his wife and son read: This book is for Hadley and for John Hadley Nicanor.

  These were bittersweet words for Hemingway, for his marriage to Hadley was all but finished in the fall of 1926. Ernest had fallen in love with Pauline Pfeiffer, who came from Piggott, Arkansas to work for the Paris edition of Vogue and, as some would suggest, to find the right husband. In October, 1926, Scribner’s published The Sun Also Rises, its author poised at the brink of a new marriage and yet another new life.

  The Sun Also Bises

  In the summer of 1925 Ernest began writing what started as a tribute to matador Cayetano Ordonez and the bullfights of which he was quickly becoming an aficionado. As his writing flourished, the focus of the story expanded well beyond the bullring to include the equally compelling spectacle of Parisian cafe life and its destitute band of roving drunkards. “I’m writing a novel full of plot and drama,” he told Kitty Cannell, who would appear as Frances Clyne in the novel. “He gestured ahead towards Harold [Loeb] and Bill [Smith]. ‘I’m tearing those bastards apart,’ he said. ‘I’m putting everyone in it.’”34

  He would, indeed, put everyone in it, capturing the decadent, barren soul of Montparnasse and expatriate Paris. The Sun Also Rises became one of the most famous (and infamous) romans a clef of all time. As intriguing as his readers found his fiction, the real people upon whom it was based were not quite as pleased. Jimmie Charters, wellknown barman of the Dingo Bar, recalled in his memoirs the displeasure of the unwitting protagonists, who were described as “six characters in search of an
author—with a gun!”35

  The people are all gone now. What remains is Paris, Hemingway’s Paris, complete with cafes, book stalls, dusk-tipped horse-chestnut trees, and smoke-filled bars. Hemingway also included a meal at the Rendezvous-des-Mariniers on the He St. Louis, a meal that Suzanne Rodriguez-Hunter, in her book Found Meals of the Lost Generation, claims “may well be the most famous meal of the decade.”36 Jake Barnes and Bill Gorton—based in part on Hemingway and his childhood friend Bill Smith—dine at the Rendezvous, which had already lost its dingy charm as a hangout for the literary set and had been invaded by “too many compatriots.”37 In Where Paris Dines, Julian Street notes that Americans found this “shabby little eating place … invaluable for purposes of entertaining. ‘Tonight,’ you would remark casually to your visitors, ‘I’ll take you to a queer little place, very French.’”38

  We ate dinner at Madame Lecomte’s restaurant on the far side of the island. It was crowded with Americans and we had to stand up and wait for a place. Some one had put it in the American Women’s Club list as a quaint restaurant on the Paris quais as yet untouched by Americans, so we had to wait forty-five minutes for a table. Bill had eaten at the restaurant in 1918, right after the armistice, and Madame Lecomte made a great fuss over seeing him.

  “Doesn’t get us a table, though,” Bill said….

  We had a good meal, a roast chicken, new green beans, mashed potatoes, a salad, and some applepie and cheese…. After the coffee and a fine we got the bill, chalked up the same as ever on a slate, that was doubtless one of the “quaint” features, paid it, shook hands, and went out….

  The river was dark and a bateau mouche went by, all bright with lights, going fast and quiet up and out of sight under the bridge. Down the river was Notre Dame squatting against the night sky. We crossed to the left bank of the Seine by the wooden foot-bridge from the Quai de Bethune, and stopped on the bridge and looked down the river at Notre Dame. Standing on the bridge the island looked dark, the houses were high against the sky, and the trees were shadows.

  “It’s pretty grand,” Bill said. “God, I love to get back.”39

  THE MENU

  Dinner at Madame Lecomte’s Au

  Rendezvous des Mariniers

  Roast Chicken

  New Green Beans

  Mashed Potatoes

  Salad

  Apple Pie and Cheese

  Coffee

  Fine (Cognac)

  Roast Chicken

  Roasting chickens found in the United States tend to be much larger and fattier than those in France. For this recipe, a 3- to 4-pound fryer works perfectly.

  2 SERVINGS, WITH LEFTOVERS

  1 3- to 4-pound frying chicken

  Salt

  Freshly ground white pepper

  4 tablespoons butter

  1–2 tablespoons flour

  ¼–½ cup chicken stock

  Preheat the oven to 400° F.

  Season the cavity of the chicken with salt and white pepper to taste, and place 2 tablespoons butter inside. Truss the legs and wings of the chicken. Rub the breast of the chicken with 1 tablespoon butter, then salt and pepper to taste. Pour ½ cup water into a roasting pan. Place the bird on a rack, breastside down, place the rack in the pan, and roast for 1–¼ hours. Frequently baste the chicken with the pan juices, turning the bird breastside up after 30 minutes. To test for doneness, pierce the skin at the thigh; if the juices run clear, it is done.

  Remove the bird to a warm serving platter and let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

  To make the gravy, pour off the pan juices and separate the fat, reserving both. Pour the fat back into the roasting pan and place on the stove over medium heat. Add the flour and stir to form a thick roux, scraping up any bits stuck to the pan. Pour the remaining pan juices into the roasting pan, adding enough chicken stock to make 1 cup, and cook for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring constantly, until thickened and smooth. Season with salt and white pepper to taste. Blend in the remaining tablespoon butter and serve with the chicken.

  New Green Beans

  Haricots verts, which are much slimmer than common string beans, may be difficult to find in the United States. If you are unable to find them, substitute the smallest string beans you can find.

  4 SERVINGS

  1 pound haricots verts or fresh green beans

  4 tablespoons butter

  ½ teaspoon fresh lemon juice

  Trim and wash the beans. Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil. Add the beans and cook for 5–10 minutes. Beans should be crisp yet tender (or, of course, to your own personal taste). Drain the beans and rinse under cold water to halt cooking. In a saucepan, melt the butter; add the beans and lemon juice. Stir to coat the beans with butter. Serve immediately.

  Mashed Potatoes

  For Parisian-style mashed potatoes, use the recipe on page 42.

  Apple Pie and Cheese

  Unless Madame Lecomtes kitchen as well as her dining room had been corrupted by “too many compatriots,” it is not likely that Jake and Bill had all-American apple pie and cheese, an unheard-of combination in France. Most likely they enjoyed a cheese course followed by a classic French apple tart.40 For the tart recipe, follow the one on page 43.

  Fine

  Une fine (pronounced feen), short for Grand Fine Champagne, is the common way to order Cognac in France. A fine is a blend of Cognac brandies from the Grand Champagne and Petite Champagne districts.

  The Garden of Eden

  Later in life, Hemingway returned to France in his fiction, this time to the Riviera. In 1946, he began work on what he felt was a major novel. He worked on The Garden of Eden over the next 15 years, amassing a manuscript of 48 chapters and 200,000 words. The book was not published until 25 years after his death, severely diminished in size yet retaining its essential elements of love, obsession, loss, and hunger. This book alone, once called “the eggiest novel ever written,”41 may very well wrest from Paris the title of gastronomic capital of Hemingway’s France and relocate it on the Mediterranean coast.

  Hemingway uses food in general, and eggs specifically, as symbols of the volatile relationship between the honeymooning David and Catherine Bourne and the dark and beautiful Marita, with whom they have both fallen in love. They eat eggs soft-boiled, egg whites cold and cut up, fried eggs, and omelets. There is even a Humpty Dumpty reference in David’s African story-within-the-story. Between all of the eggs, and the other foods and drinks, we cannot ignore the central emphasis on appetites and hunger that rule The Garden of Eden. While it may often result in “wacky” humor42 The Garden of Eden sets an abundant culinary table that is irresistible:

  They were always hungry but they ate very well. They were hungry for breakfast which they ate at the cafe, ordering brioche and cafe au lait and eggs, and the type of preserve that they chose and the manner in which the eggs were to be cooked was an excitement…. On this morning there was brioche and red raspberry preserves and the eggs were boiled and there was a pat of butter that melted as they stirred them and salted them lightly and ground pepper over them in the cups [Hemingway believed that pepper cleansed the morning stomach].43

  They were big eggs and fresh and the girl’s were not cooked quite as long as the young man’s. He remembered that easily and he was happy with his which he diced up with the spoon and ate with only the flow of the butter to moisten them and the fresh early morning texture and the bite of the coarsely ground pepper grains and the hot coffee and the chickory-fragrant bowl of cafe au lait.44

  THE MENU

  Breakfast in the Garden

  Soft-Boiled Eggs

  Brioche and Red Raspberry

  Preserves

  Café au Lait

  Brioche

  2 4-INCH BY 8-INCH LOAVES

  To create brioche loaves, or Nanterres, simply follow the brioche recipe on page 23. After the dough has been refrigerated overnight, let it stand at room temperature for 1 hour. Divide the dough into four pieces. Quickly form four balls slight
ly less than 4 inches across. Place two of the balls in each of two buttered loaf pans (4 inches by 8 inches), one ball on each end of the pans. Cover the loaf pans and let stand until the dough has risen to the edge of the pans, about 2 hours. At that time, lightly brush the top of each loaf with the beaten egg. Bake in a 350° F oven for 40 to 45 minutes, or until loaves are golden brown. Turn onto cooling racks, brush with melted butter, and let stand for 1 hour. Slice brioche and serve with red raspberry preserves.

  Café au Lait

  To create the perfect cafe au lait to accompany the brioche, use a dark-roasted coffee blended with French chicory (the roasted and ground root of endive). Blends available in the United States include Cafe du Monde and Community New Orleans.

  In addition to the innumerable eggs in The Garden of Eden, Hemingway also introduces several dishes of mackerel as “crucial signs and thematic symbols.”45 In the original manuscript for the book, after David valiantly fights and catches a sea bass too large to cook at the hotel, he and Catherine lunch on mackerel fresh from the fleet’s morning catch. Afterwards they make love, reenforcing the role of the maquerel, the pimp or panderer who administers to their sexual exploits. In the novel that survives, though, they have fresh sea bass for lunch, forestalling the more lurid symbolism in favor of a celebration of David’s skills as a fisherman:

  “I’m excited about the fish,” she said. “Don’t we have wonderful simple fun?”

  They were hungry for lunch and the bottle of white wine was cold and they drank it as they ate the celery remoulade and the small radishes and the home pickled mushrooms from the big glass jar. The bass was grilled and the grill marks showed on the silver skin and the butter melted on the hot plate. There was sliced lemon to press on the bass and fresh bread from the bakery and wine cooled their tongues of the heat of the fried potatoes. It was a good light, dry cheerful unknown white wine and the restaurant was proud of it.46