The Hemingway Cookbook (3 page)

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.

Trout fishing in Sun Valley, Idaho, 1939.

Hemingway trout fishing at Horton Creek, July, 1904.

Camping Out

In January 1920, Ernest traveled from Oak Park to Toronto to act as companion and tutor to the son of wealthy parents he met in Michigan while speaking on his wartime adventures. While there, he began writing for the
Toronto Star
, whose editor found Ernest’s straightforward prose and good humor perfect for the paper’s new direction. Young Hemingway had his own byline and received a penny a word for his articles. Hemingway would eventually work as a European correspondent for the
Toronto Star
during his time in Paris.

In his article “Camping Out: When You Camp Out, Do It Right,” Hemingway shows that, even as a very young man, he had a knack for writing with an air of gentle, humorous authority. When he lectures on exactly how to prepare a delicious meal in the bush, it seems only wise to listen carefully.

Fried Trout

Ernest loved trout fishing and he loved eating trout. He enthusiastically shared his pleasure with his earlier readers, as he would later do after visiting the Spanish Pyrenees (see
Trucha a la Navarra,
page
84
)
and Switzerland
(
see
Trout au Bleu,
page
58
).
Interestingly, our first introduction to Hemingway’s trout is very similar to its Spanish counterpart. So we may take this campfire version as an introduction to trout, a dish that will reach great heights of gastronomic pleasure as the years pass. For now, let us follow young Ernest as he sets up camp and begins to prepare the day’s catch, and we will learn what to do and what not to do
.

4
SERVINGS

1 cup Crisco or vegetable shortening

4 whole trout, cleaned

1 cup cornmeal

8 slices bacon

Hemingway fishing in Michigan at Walloon Lake, summer 1916.

Hemingway instructs: “The proper way to cook is over coals. Have several cans of Crisco or Cotosuet or one of the vegetable shortenings along that are as good as lard and excellent for all kinds of shortening. Put the bacon in and when it is about half cooked lay the trout in the hot grease, dipping them in cornmeal first. Then put the bacon on top of the trout and it will baste them as it slowly cooks….

”The trout are crisp outside and firm and pink inside and the bacon is well done—but not too done. If there is anything better than that combination the writer has yet to taste it in a lifetime devoted largely and studiously to eating.”
⁶

Heat the Crisco in a skillet over medium heat (or over coals, not open flame, if cooking by campfire). While heating the shortening, coat each trout in cornmeal and set aside. When the shortening is hot, cook the bacon halfway. Just before it browns, remove from the pan. Place the trout in the pan (this may require two batches, depending on your luck on the river). After 5 minutes, turn the trout and place 2 strips of bacon over each fish. Cook for another 10-15 minutes, depending on the size of the fish.

While the trout are cooking to perfection, Hemingway suggests you placate the hungry mob with coffee and pancakes.

Pancakes

When camping, Hemingway carried with him a sack of prepared pancake flour so that he could simply add water, mix until most of the lumps are out, and cook on a hot, greased skillet. To this day, nothing takes the hard edge off a campsite hunger like a hot stack of pancakes. Ernest’s favorite toppings were apple butter, syrup, or sugar and cinnamon.
⁷
While today you may simply bring along any instant pancake mix, the purist would want to prepare the following pancake mix before leaving home. You can find the powdered milk and eggs at any well-stocked outdoor store
.

2
SERVINGS

1 cup all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon salt

½ tablespoon sugar

½ tablespoon baking powder

2½ tablespoons powdered milk

3 tablespoons powdered eggs

¼ cup shortening

Before leaving home, mix all the dry ingredients together. Add the shortening and stir with a fork until thoroughly incorporated. Store the mix in an airtight container.

To make the pancakes, add slightly less than 1 cup of water per cup of pancake mix. Mix well, but don’t worry about all of the lumps. Pour out mix to form round pancakes on a hot, greased griddle. When
the edges are just browned and bubbles form, flip the pancakes and cook the other side until lightly browned. Any of Ernest’s recommended toppings go wonderfully with the pancakes.

Stewed Apricots

The stew kettle was an essential implement around the Hemingway campfire. In it he would soak, overnight, dried apricots in plenty of water. By the next morning, the fruit would have returned to its “predried plumpness,”
⁸
and could be cooked until very tender and enjoyed as a sweet snack after the pancakes were gone. Ernest would also use the kettle to cook macaroni or to “…concoct a mulligan in….”
⁹
Of course, the thoughtful camper will be boiling water in the stew kettle for washing dishes while it’s not in use for cooking.

Hemingway hiking around Walloon Lake in Michigan, summer 1916.

Campfire Apple Pie

In this recipe, Ernest takes a page from his father’s book of cooking tricks, suggesting that the reader roll out the piecrust using a bottle. It also shows an attention to detail and presentation, most likely attributed to Ed’s deliberate teachings. Hemingway recommends using a reflective campfire baker. These days, such devices are hard to come by. If you have one, by all means dust it off and start baking. Otherwise I would recommend using a Dutch oven or a baking device such as the Outback Oven Ultralight, which converts your own cooking pot into a fine campfire baker
.

For the filling

1½ cups dried apple slices

½ cup sugar

For the piecrust

2½ cups plus 2 tablespoons sifted all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

¾ cup shortening, preferably chilled, plus a little more

4-5 tablespoons cold water, or more if needed

Soak the apples in 3 cups cold water overnight.

Mix 2½ cups flour with salt. Blend in the % cup lard with a fork until it reaches the consistency of coarse meal. Add just enough water to work into a “… good workmanlike dough …”
¹⁰

Flour any clean, flat surface available. Divide the dough into two pieces, with one piece slightly larger than the other, and use a bottle to roll out the dough in circles large enough to fill a pie tin, preferably the kind with holes. Spread a little more lard on the dough, sprinkle with flour, then roll one piece around the bottle and unroll it into the bottom of the pie tin.

Drain the soaked apples, mix in the sugar and 2 tablespoons flour, and place in the pie tin. Drape the top dough over the pie, crimping the edges with your fingers. Then, “cut a couple of slits in the top dough sheet and prick it a few times with a fork in an artistic manner. Put it in the baker with a good slow fire for forty-five minutes and then take it out, and if your pals are Frenchmen they will kiss you.”
¹¹

These recipes, direct from Ed’s storytelling, are as intricate as any Hemingway would ever provide for his readers. While he wrote many spectacular descriptions of exquisite dishes and extravagant meals, Hemingway was not a particularly skilled cook. In fact, when Ernest was prevailed upon to instruct on the preparation of “The Hamburger” in Venice in 1954, he took haste in delegating that responsibility to friend and biographer A. E. Hotchner.
¹²
The food that Nick Adams prepared in “Big Two-Hearted River” is a much better representation of the foods Ernest himself would prepare when out in the wild on his own.

Hemingway trout fishing in 1913.

“Big Two-Hearted River”

In the late summer of 1919, Ernest and two friends took the train to Seney, on Michigan’s upper Peninsula, to fish and camp by the Fox River. Seney was a ghost town, just as the fictional Nick Adams found it when Ernest brought him there. Hemingway wrote “Big Two-Hearted River” in Paris in 1924, telling the story of a young man on a fishing trip. He included in this story his acute focus on the most minute details, implanting “it in geography and, insofar as possible, … [knowing] what time it was on every page.”
¹³
This newly developed characteristic in his emerging style is seen clearly when Nick settles by his campfire to eat: