THE EARLY YEARS

A Taste for Life

"Don't be afraid to taste all the other things in life that aren't here in Oak Park. This life is all right, but there's a whole big world out there full of people who really feel things. They live and love and die with all their feelings. Taste everything, Sis."

— Ernest to his sister Marcelline, 1919

Ernest Miller Hemingway was born July 21,1899, and ate meat, vegetables, eggs, and fish shortly thereafter. His father, Dr. Clarence Edmonds Hemingway (known commonly as Ed), believed such foods were essential for nursing babies to grow up strong and healthy. His mother, Grace Hall Hemingway, lamented the decision. She noted in her daughter Marcelline's baby book her annoyance at receiving the babies for nursing with onions on their breath.

The Hemingways lived in the affluent and proper Chicago suburb of Oak Park. Grace Hemingway, once an aspiring opera singer, remained ambitious in her endeavors as a music teacher, suffragist, and painter. Mothering six children did not lessen her distaste for housework, and she continued her pursuit of the fine arts over the culinary arts. In fact, she was such a stranger to the kitchen that when she finally mastered a recipe from her mother's cookbook, she decided to quit while she was ahead. When Marcelline suggested that she learn to make a layer cake, Grace replied, no doubt with chin up and eyes beaming, "I proved I could cook with my tea cake, and I'm not going to take a chance of spoiling my reputation by trying anything else."

This recipe is based on Grandmother Hall's English tea cake recipe, which Grace contributed to the 1921 edition of the Oak Park Third Congregational Church Cookbook. The author would like to thank Jennifer Wheeler and the Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park for their generous assistance in obtaining this recipe.

Grace Hall Hemingway's English Tea Cakes

The original recipe for these tea cakes is rather vague in its instructions. Grace shared the recipe with Liz Dilworth, the mother of Ernest's best friend from upper Michigan, where the Hemingways had a summer cottage on Walloon Lake. The Dilworths lived in Horton Bay on Lake Charlevoix. Mrs. Dilworth, known as Aunty Beth to the Hemingway children, ran a small restaurant called Pinehurst Cottage, famous for its fried chicken dinners. Mrs. Dilworth worked out the exact proportions of the recipe and taught Grace how to prepare it. After secretly mastering the recipe at the Dilworths', Grace finally prepared the hot bread in the Hemingway kitchen and served it with great pride and joy. Ed could hardly contain his praise: "Delicious! Grade, delicious!"

12 SERVINGS (4 TO 6 9-INCH CAKES)

1½ teaspoons active dry yeast
½teaspoon salt
1½ cups warm water (110° F)
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon butter, melted
2 teaspoons lard or shortening
2 large eggs, beaten
½cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
¼cup warm milk
1 cup dried currants or raisins
Plenty of extra melted butter for swathing

To set the sponge, whisk together the yeast, salt, and water in a mixing bowl for several minutes until the yeast is completely dissolved. Stir in l½ cups of the flour and mix until smooth. Cover with a towel and let stand in a draftfree space for 2 hours.

When the sponge has risen, stir in the butter and lard, along with the remaining flour, beaten eggs, sugar, milk, and currants or raisins. Mix thoroughly to form a stiff batter. Cover and let stand up to 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Divide the batter evenly into four buttered pie tins and let rise for at least 2 hours. Bake in the center of the oven for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove the cakes to a cooling rack, brush with a lot of melted butter, cut into wedges, and serve while still warm.

Grace's tea cake recipe was also published in The Nineteenth Century Women's Club Historical Centennial Cookbook, along with a recipe for "Ernest Hemingway's Cold Cucumber Soup." Ernest's connection with this sweet cucumber and leek broth is unclear, but here it is:

Ernest Hemingway's Cold Cucumber Soup

4 TO 6 SERVINGS

3 cucumbers
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill or mint
1 leek, white part only, sliced, or ¼ cup chopped onion
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 cups fresh chicken stock or canned broth
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
White pepper (optional)
1 cup half & half
Juice of ½ lemon
1 tablespoon honey (optional)

Peel and slice two of the cucumbers. Peel, seed, and grate the remaining cucumber. Heat the butter in a large, heavy saucepan. Add the sliced cucumbers and cook over low heat for a few minutes. Add the dill or mint, leek, and bay leaf and cook over low heat until tender, about 20 minutes. Stir in the flour and cook for a few more minutes, stirring constantly. Add the stock and salt and simmer gently for 30 minutes. Remove the bay leaf and let the mixture cool slightly. Purée the mixture, half at a time, in a blender or food processor. Return to the pan and add the white pepper to taste. Add the half & half, lemon juice, and honey; then taste and adjust the seasoning. Stir in the grated cucumber. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Serve in a chilled bowl.

Ed Hemingway extended the same moral sense of discipline and responsibility that ruled all aspects of his life to food and eating. He was a passionate outdoorsman, hunting a vast array of game for the Hemingway table. This was particularly useful when the family would retreat from Oak Park each summer to their cottage on Walloon Lake in upper Michigan. Dr. Hemingway would often stay behind to work at his family practice, but when he was out in the country he was truly in his element. He quickly began to share his passion with his young son.

Ed Hemingway believed in hunting for food and eating everything that he killed. So, in Ernest's fourteenth summer, when Ernest and summertime chum Harold Sampson returned triumphant after hunting and killing a porcupine that had injured a neighbor's dog, Dr. Hemingway did not shower them with praise as expected. Instead, in his typical firm and unforgiving tone, Dr. Hemingway made them eat the animal, which turned out to be "about as tender and tasty as a piece of shoe leather."

Ernest's older sister Marcelline, in her memoir of those early years, At the Hemingways, shares one of her father's anecdotes that displayed his skills and experience as a chef and outdoorsman. It is a story that Ernest no doubt heard repeatedly and loved, for details of Ed's youthful adventure show up years later in his son's early writings. It was not the last time that Ernest would take the stories of others and make them...