Eggs in Hell

With times gettin' tougher and the penny being pinched out of your hand by the Fat Cats. What to do? Preparation is worth a lot and changing thinking are probably best. Our grandparents went through the Great Depression. While things are cheaper and you have cash stocking up the pantry with dry goods when they are on sale, and can goods of essentials. Plan a garden for the summer for maximum yield would is good planning. And then there is economizing.

M.F.K. Fisher was a writer of inspirational culinary talent. She wrote many diverse books on food and cooking (e.g. A Cordiall Water..., Here Let Us Feast..., etc), but the most interesting is "How to Cook a Wolf. The book focuses on substitutions and variations to a penny-pinching degree. Although Ms. Fisher wrote in the 40s on through the 80s, this book's knowledge was hard-learned in the Depression Era and the time of rationing during World War II. Want to make a cake without butter well render some bacon fat and with strong spices, it’ll get-her-done. The book also looks at the quality of your life and how to maximize the experiences of it in simple ways. Eat, drink, and be merry for perhaps tomorrow the wolf will get us or the larder will run bare.

People ask me: "Why do you write about food, and eating, and drinking? Why don't you write about the struggle for power and security, and about love, the way the others do?" . . . The easiest answer is to say that, like most other humans, I am hungry.” ~~M. F. K. Fisher

Culinary tastes in America have thankfully broadened, and at least for the middle-class, the ingredients that are available are amazing. Honestly if one can’t afford all that imported-organic-rip-off stuff anymore, then don’t worry flavor doesn’t need to suffer. Cook like a French romanticized country peasant or an American pioneer with a good garden and a spice-rack. Buy stuff on sale and buy things you know you will use in bulk (i.e. rice, pasta, dried beans, honey, lentils, etc). Rice is a lot cheaper in bulk and so is pasta, split the cost with your siblings' family and each of you takes 20# of that 40# bag you just bought. Simple ingredients don’t have to mean bland food.

Here is a recipe from M.F.K. Fisher that follows:

Eggs in Hell
------------------From How to Cook a Wolf, by M.F.K. Fisher
SERVES 4

4 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic
1 onion, minced
2 cups tomato sauce
1 teaspoon mixed herbs, minced (basil, thyme, etc)
1 teaspoon parsley, minced
8 eggs
Slices of French bread, thin, toasted

1. Heat olive oil in a saucepan that has a tight cover. Split garlic lengthwise, run a toothpick through each half, and brown slowly in oil. Add the onion, minced, and cook until golden. Then add the tomato sauce and the seasonings and herbs. Cook about 15 minutes, stirring often, and take out the garlic.
2. Into the sauce break the eggs. Spoon the sauce over them, cover closely, and cook very slowly until eggs are done, or about 15 minutes. (If the skillet is a heavy one, you can turn off the heat and cook in fifteen minutes with what is stored in the metal.)
3. When done, put the eggs carefully on the slices of dry toast, and cover with sauce. (Grated Parmesan cheese is good on this if you can get any)

This is a great little recipe and has a lot of historical contexts that might need to be cleared up. Firstly, most middle-class women at the time had had classes in cooking (remember home-economics), they knew how to cook, they didn’t need to be told that you start the pan on high to get the oil frying. They knew how to brown the onions over medium heat. These women also had there owned dirty little secret whose name could only be whispered, the culinary lover was “garlic”, but the evidence had to be disposed of. So they infused the oil with garlic and then removed the clove-evidence. Today we just mince the garlic and leave it in the sauce. Also, the olive oil does not need to be EVOO (extra virgin olive oil), for sauce cooking or anything outside of drizzling, dipping, or dressing use the OO (olive oil, from the second pressing) trust that no one will know the difference. Olive oil back in the 40s & 50s was harder to find, typically bought at the pharmacy or the local Italian ethnic grocery store. As for the French bread, well any dry bread will do. Remember Depression Babies wasted “nothing”, an old crust of bread will soften up in sauce so it is delicious & edible, those day-old bread crusts that the birds get fed with, just shove it under the sauce. By the way, seasonings mean salt, pepper, and the house secret ingredients to taste. And finally the heavy pan most likely Ms. Fisher means cast iron.

So a modern economizing interpretation of this recipe might be as follows:

Eggs in Heck
-------------------
2 tablespoons oil (olive oil preferred, don’t waste your EVOO, vegetable oil in a pinch)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 onion, minced
2 cups tomato sauce (any cheapo sauce from the store, or homemade, or 2 cans diced tomato)
1 teaspoon mixed herbs, dry (Use up that Italian spice jar you have) (fresh use 1 Tablespoon)
1 bay leaf
1 Tablespoon parsley, minced (dry parsley is blah (1 tsp), use fresh as a garnish, thrown the stalks in for the cooking)
8 eggs
Slices of French bread, thin, toasted (or any reasonable substitute such as steamed potatoes, toasted/dry bread, pasta, or rice)

1. Heat oil in a saucepan that has a tight cover over medium-high heat. Drop a tiny piece of onion into the oil when you think it is hot enough if it sizzles drop in the rest of minced garlic & minced onion. Once it starts to sizzle again turn down to medium - medium-low heat and cook until golden. Stir often to get an even golden texture. I would put in any seasoning spices (not herbs) now to bloom them (release the essential oils) this takes 10-15 seconds. Then add the tomato sauce/diced, bay leaf, and Italian herbs to the sauce. Also, make a little bundle of parsley stalks (tie of with cotton string). Once the sauce starts bubbling turn it down to low to a bubbling simmer, and cook about 15 minutes, stirring often. Stir in some hot sauce, ¼ tsp cayenne, or a dash or two of Worchester Sauce, to taste. This will add some dimension to the flavor once you have made the recipe a couple times. Remember to have started boiling rice or pasta water before this step too
2. Into the sauce break the eggs. Don’t drop an egg on top of the parsley stalks to avoid a mess later. Spoon the sauce over the eggs, cover closely, and cook very slowly until eggs are done over a low simmer or about 15 minutes over. (If the skillet is a heavy one, especially cast iron, you can turn off the heat and cook in fifteen minutes with what is stored in the metal.)
3. When done, pull bay leaf & parsley stalks to discard, put the eggs carefully on the slices of dry toast (or what ever starch there is that day), and cover with sauce. Garnish with minced parsley (grated Parmesan cheese is good on this too if you don’t have any, any salty and/or strong cheese will do (e.g. Romano, Provolone, etc)).

The thing is to economize, remember “substitution is the child of invention”. M.F.K. Fisher expresses a bon vivant attitude for life. We are more fortunate than her generation in the availability of ingredients and a society where culture mix more readily. I also hope that we will not need to suffer as much as the previous generations, although our excesses are catching up with us. Now is the time to look more to the past and rediscover the flavor in just a simpler life and the bounty it brings.

Books of interest by M.F.K. Fisher
----------------------------------------
How to Cook a WolfA Cordiall Water: A Garland of Odd and Old Receipts to Assuage the Ills of Man and BeastThe Gastronomical MeHere Let Us Feast: A Book of Banquets
More on M.f.K. Fisher
Bio
Website
Video
Archives of The New York Times