The Hemingway Cookbook [Hardcover]

Craig Boreth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1998

Ernest Hemingway’s insatiable appetite for life was evident in his writing and equaled by little else than his voracious appetite for good food and drink. The Hemingway Cookbook collects, for the first time, more than 125 recipes from Hemingway’s life and art featuring such unique dishes as Dorado Fillet in Damn Good Sauce, Woodcock Flambé in Armagnac, Campfire Apple Pie, and Fillet of Lion washed down with Campari and Gordon’s Gin or a cool Cuba Libre. These pages are enriched by family photos, dining passages from stories such as A Moveable Feast, The Old Man and the Sea, and A Farewell to Arms, his short stories, personal correspondence, and even a contribution from his last wife Mary. Collecting recipes from former Hemingway haunts, period cookbooks, and other sources, this book is an authentic re-creation of the meals that enriched Hemingway’s literature

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

On the 100th anniversary of Ernest Hemingway's birth, Craig Boreth gives the reader a tour of the author's taste buds in The Hemingway Cookbook. With chapters titled "The Early Years," "Italy," "France," "Spain," "Key West and Cuba," "East Africa," and "Idaho," as well as the Hemingway Wine Cellar and the Hemingway Bar, the reader is assured of finding taste treats ranging from fried trout to fried gudgeon, from pork and beans and spaghetti to eland piccata. And everywhere in between are countless photos of Hemingway with and without beard, as well as with and without clothes.

Boreth's contribution to Hemingwayiana is in providing the connective tissue among all the various stations of the author's life, collecting all possible references to food and drink, and then ferreting out suitable recipes to evoke a similar pleasure. For example, in the 1920s Hemingway writes about a lunch with John dos Passos ("whom I consider a very forceful writer, and an exceedingly pleasant fellow besides"). The meal included Rollmops (a herring dish), Sole Meunière, Civet de Lièvre á la Cocotte (jugged hare), and Marmelade des Pommes. Boreth provides the recipes. The reader is left to wonder what the Montrachet 1919, the Hospice de Beaune 1919, and the bottle of Chambertin might have been like.

The Hemingway Cookbook reads like an anthology of postcards sent back from the author's life. The collected recipes are eccentric, as any collection connected to any individual could not help but be. It's like being handed a metal box stuffed with 3-by-5 recipe cards, all of them written in Hemingway's hand and gathered from one end of his life to the other. A curiosity, really. --Schuyler Ingle

From School Library Journal

YA-Hemingway's stories are rich in the description of foods and wines. In what can only be described as a labor of love, Boreth has written a book that brings to life the memorable meals that Hemingway so vividly delineated or was famous for. The cookbook is divided by the major periods of Hemingway's life, and readers will be able to sample the foods he ate in Italy during World War I, in Paris and Spain in the 1920s, in the Caribbean in the 1930s and 1940s, and, of course, on safari in East Africa in the 1950s. The examples range from the mundane (pancakes and coffee) and the exotic (Empanadilla de Pescado) to the absurd (Fillet of Lion and Eland Piccata). Boreth concludes with a discussion of Hemingway's favorite wines and recipes for re-creating his favorite mixed drinks. Snippets from many of Hemingway's stories place the recipes in their proper context. The instructions are easy to follow and are not beyond the capability of average cooks. A moveable feast.
Robert Burnham, R. E. Lee High School, Springfield, VA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Chicago Review Press; First Edition edition (November 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556522975
• ISBN-13: 978-1556522970
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 9.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #485,191 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A true culinary and literary accomplishment., December 4, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hemingway Cookbook (Hardcover)

Mr. Boreth's vast knowledge and obvious love of the language of food shines through in this fantastic work. Nowhere else have I seen such a marriage of food and literature that makes all of one's senses tingle! This is an adventure for Hemingway fans-- it's not often one sits down and reads a cookbook cover to cover, and feels the combination of satisfaction and inspiration-- it sheds a new light on Hemingway and makes his fiction enjoyable on an entirely new level. Bravo!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Culinary tour de force by an up-and-coming Hemingway scholar, October 15, 1998

By 

Eric Reed ([e-mail]) (Paris, France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hemingway Cookbook (Hardcover)

Who would have thought to peer into Papa Hemingway's soul through his food and drink! Craig Boreth's detailed research and original analysis of how Hem's lust for culinary indulgence moulded the author's world view make The Hemingway Cookbook an important contribution to scholarship on the 20th-century literary giant. Even more, Boreth's witty writing style and accessible presentation of Papa's recipes make for a lively read and tasty fun in the kitchen. Make the mussels!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eat like Papa - the Recipes Work!, January 12, 2001

By 

Hannah Kohl "music teacher" (Monterrey, Mexico) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Hemingway Cookbook (Hardcover)

If you enjoy eating and drinking well, this book will show you how to go about it. The bar recipes are fantastic and the accompanying stories and anecdotes provide crackling fodder for dinner discussions. What fun to be able to recreate meals that you've read about - your own moveable feast! The gluhwein recipe alone will keep you warm and fuzzy all winter. I happily recommend this book to all, Hemingway enthusiasts and critics alike!