Emotions and identity: The significance of food in "All Fur" and "Donkey Skin"

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Of all the Grimm brothers' fairy tales, you wouldn't think "All Fur" would be the story I would want to look at. Goldilocks, Hansel and Gretel, Snow White, all have clear connections with and messages about food. But I think the approach to food in "All Fur" makes it unique in its own standing. The story of a princess fleeing her home after her father reveals his intention to marry her, All Fur (as she becomes known) takes on the mantle of a downtrodden servant, her beauty hidden behind an unsightly cloak except for at balls. 

All Fur's desire for the king and her past life manifests itself in the food she makes for him. The soup she makes is better than the cook's, and each time the king eats it, it tastes even better. Her deliberate inclusion of her royal tokens (the ring, spindle and reel) are expressions of not only her past, but her desire to change her present. Goldberg refers to this sort of food as "recognition food" (40), food that is superior due to more than just merit. It is a symbol of the princess's status desires, as well as a reinforcement of her identity. 

Perrault's "Donkeyskin", which is an iteration of the same story, also displays a similar relationship with food. Perrault's depiction displays the prince and princess's mutual yearning as twin hunger and satisfaction. The prince, upon seeing Donkey Skin's true form, wishes to eat nothing but food made by her, and Donkey Skin sees her task of making the prince a cake as his salvation and her catharsis. The cake she makes contains the thoughts, feelings and identity she is unable to express otherwise. She transforms temporarily into her former royal self to honour the cake she makes and, like All Fur, drops a symbol of her status into the batter.  One adaptation of the story even has the recipe specifically called a "love cake": 

The ring in the soup reminds me of an Indian wedding tradition, where the bride and groom play a game involving finding a ring in a dish of milk. Supposedly, whoever finds it first will dominate for the rest of their marriage. Maybe in giving him her ring, All Fur hands her salvation to the king as well.

As we've seen in The Little Red Hen, food's role in traditional tales is useful because of the innate reactions it invokes in us. Bakhtin's exploration of literary relationships with food looks to the idea of food as reward for labour, but also why the consumption of food is also significant: 

"Here man tastes the world, introduces it into his body, makes it part of himself." (281)

For All Fur, food is imbued with the emotions of the creator,  and becomes a message of love and desire to the consumer. In "Donkey Skin", the prince's hunger is a manifestation his desire, and Donkey Skin's cake is a manifestation of her identity as well as her emotions.

Works Cited:

• Grimm, Jacob, et al. The original folk and fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm: the complete first edition. Princeton University Press, 2014.
• Perrault, Charles. “Donkey Skin.” Donkey Skin: Charles Perrault, 29 Nov. 2003, link.
• Bachtin, Michail Michajlovič. Rabelais and his world. Indiana University Press, 2009.
• Goldberg, Christine. “The Donkey Skin Folktale Cycle (AT 510B).” The Journal of American Folklore, vol. 110, no. 435, 1997, pp. 28–46. JSTOR, JSTOR, link.