Five Gastronomical Works By M. F. K. FISHER Serve It Forth Consider The Oyster How To Cook A Wolf The Gastronomical Me An Alphabet For Gourmets Copyright © 1937, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1948, 1949, 1954, 1990, 2004 by M. F. K. Fisher. All rights reserved. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company A compilation of the works of M. F. K. Fisher first published in book form separately under the titles: Serve It Forth; Consider the Oyster; How to Cook a Wolf; The Gastronomical Me; and An Alphabet for Gourmets. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003. www.hmhco.com Trademarks: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing logo are trademarks of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company and/or its affiliates. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows: Fisher, M. F. K. (Mary Frances Kennedy), 1908– The art of eating / by M. F. K. Fisher ; with an introduction by Clifton Fadiman, an appreciation by James Beard, and a biographical essay by Joan Reardon.—50th anniversary ed. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN-10: 0-7645-4261-3 (paperback : acid-free paper) ISBN-13: 978-0-7645-4261-9 (paperback : acid-free paper) 1. Gastronomy. I. Title. TX633.F515 2004 641’.01’3—dc22 2003026124 eISBN 978-0-544-17743-7 v1.0514 Contents THE ART OF EATING: IN CELEBRATION THOUGHTS ABOUT M. F. K. FISHER AND HER WORK ONE MORE TIME APPRECIATION INTRODUCTION Serve It Forth To Begin When a Man Is Small Greek Honey and the Hon-Zo 3000 B.C.–100 A.D. Egypt, the Orient, and Greece The Curious Nose Let the Sky Rain Potatoes Borderland Garum 100 A.D.–400 A.D. Rome Fifty Million Snails Meals for Me Dark Ages and the Men of God 1000 A.D.–1400 A.D. Europe I Arise Resigned In Sinistra Parte, Johannus Baptista 1100 A.D.–1450 A.D. England Pity the Blind in Palate A Pigges Pettie Toes Elizabethan England The Standing and the Waiting Catherines Lonesome Cooks 1533 A.D.–1810 A.D. France Two Birds Without a Branch The Pale Yellow Glove The Brothers Set-piece for a Fishing Party 1810 A.D.–1900 A.D. France On Dining Alone Sing of Dinner in a Dish Shell-shock and Richard the Third 1900 A.D.–– Europe and America The Social Status of a Vegetable César To End Consider The Oyster Love and Death Among the Molluscs A Supper to Sleep On R is for Oyster The Well-dressed Oyster Take 300 Clean Oysters A Lusty Bit of Nourishment Pearls Are Not Good to Eat Those Were Happy Days Soup of the Evening, Beautiful Soup Love Was the Pearl My Country, ’Tis of Thee As Luscious as Locusts