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Original 1896 Boston Cooking-School Cook Book
Considered the “greatest American cookbook,” Fannie Merritt Farmer’s Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, published over a century ago, was acclaimed for a number of innovations. It was the first to use terms now considered standard in American cooking (e.g., a level cupful, teaspoonful, and tablespoonful); it relied on simple directions and showed a hitherto neglected concern for nutrition. Novices as well as practiced cooks of the period were treated to a vast amount of information that left nothing to the user’s imagination — from instructions for building a fire to how to bone a bird.
This is an unabridged republication of the 1896 edition, complete with original illustrations and product advertisements. Today’s cooks will find step-by-step instructions for preparing an enormous array of dishes, including such early American fare as fried corn meal mush, baked cod with oyster stuffing, and tipsy pudding; adaptations of continental cuisine — quenelles and loin of veal à la jardinère — as well as hundreds of recipes for beverages, breads, pastries, meat, vegetable and poultry dishes, soups, salads, hot and cold desserts, and much more.
A fascinating record of how people cooked in the late nineteenth century, this authentic facsimile of the first Fannie Farmer cookbook will delight lovers of nostalgia. For homemakers, it remains “the ultimate American cookbook classic … as useful today as it was 100 years ago.” — Jacques Pepin, author and host of PBS-TV’s Today’s Gourmet.
This is an unabridged republication of the 1896 edition, complete with original illustrations and product advertisements. Today’s cooks will find step-by-step instructions for preparing an enormous array of dishes, including such early American fare as fried corn meal mush, baked cod with oyster stuffing, and tipsy pudding; adaptations of continental cuisine — quenelles and loin of veal à la jardinère — as well as hundreds of recipes for beverages, breads, pastries, meat, vegetable and poultry dishes, soups, salads, hot and cold desserts, and much more.
A fascinating record of how people cooked in the late nineteenth century, this authentic facsimile of the first Fannie Farmer cookbook will delight lovers of nostalgia. For homemakers, it remains “the ultimate American cookbook classic … as useful today as it was 100 years ago.” — Jacques Pepin, author and host of PBS-TV’s Today’s Gourmet.
640 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1896
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500 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
July 24, 2024
When I went to my local Tractor Supply, I found “Fannie Farmer 1896 Cook Book: The Boston Cooking School” and decided to purchase it. Written by Fannie Merritt Farmer and published in 1896, I was excited not just about learning more about American history (which can be easily done by reading cookbooks of any particular era), but also trying out some of the recipes. This book gave me these things, and more.
As I read the book, I came across a recipe for “Bride’s Cake.” Decades ago, I inherited many old heirlooms, among them papers. Included in that stash of paper was an old handwritten cookbook from my great-grandmother. I distinctly remember one of those recipes as—you guessed it—Bride’s Cake. Back in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, books were even more expensive than they are now. Many times, women would either borrow each other’s cookbooks and hand write recipes down or the book’s owner would write the recipes down for their friends—all before the era of photocopiers and iPhones. I was delighted to discover that this was how my great-grandmother got this recipe.
Another recipe has left my family flabbergasted for years. My second great-grandmother (born 1865) used to make a hot water cake in a cast iron lamb mold, decorate it with white frosting and coconut, and sell the cakes for money. My great-grandmother continued the tradition of making those cakes for family members. My mom asked for the recipe but never received it. Over the years we’ve found various recipes for hot water cakes, but after tasting them, my mom said that they were “off.” While reading this cookbook, I came across two recipes that used hot water: “Hot Water Sponge Cake” and “Cheap Sponge Cake.” As that line of the family was very poor, they no doubt used the second recipe.
I am absolutely thrilled that the discovery of this book helped me to answer two important questions about my family history. But I am equally thrilled that this book includes numerous recipes for yellow crook neck squash. Sure, you can cook with fresh squash. But I am growing squash and there are SO MANY of them that the only thing that I can do is freeze them. Farmer’s book instead provides numerous recipes for this vegetable. For example, I had never even considered using them in a pie!
This book is brilliant. At the time that this cookbook was written, people ate a lot of oysters, so Farmer naturally included copious recipes for them. Nowadays, oysters are expensive and people eat fewer of them, but the recipes reveal how many different ways that this meat was utilized. In this book, one can also see how closely British cooking aligned with American cooking at the time. For example, the recipes for eels and Plum Pudding.
Farmer’s cookbook isn’t just for people interested in cuisine or for people who are nostalgic, but even for people using older methods of cooking. For example, she teaches people how to blacken a stove, how to light a fire in the stove, and even includes recipes for laundry, home cleaning (including dealing with laundry stains), prepping food for sick people. I especially like how the publishers purposefully left the old advertisements at the back of the book. It was wonderful seeing how popular Farmer was because her name is often mentioned in those ads.
Fannie Farmer was one of the first cooks to use standardized measurements, so these recipes can be easily reproduced in a modern kitchen. However, with baking, modern cooks will need to guesstimate a proper oven temperature to bake at. For those using old stoves (wood stoves), this is a perfect book.
Overall, this is an excellent book and I absolutely recommend that and everyone purchase a copy of it!
As I read the book, I came across a recipe for “Bride’s Cake.” Decades ago, I inherited many old heirlooms, among them papers. Included in that stash of paper was an old handwritten cookbook from my great-grandmother. I distinctly remember one of those recipes as—you guessed it—Bride’s Cake. Back in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, books were even more expensive than they are now. Many times, women would either borrow each other’s cookbooks and hand write recipes down or the book’s owner would write the recipes down for their friends—all before the era of photocopiers and iPhones. I was delighted to discover that this was how my great-grandmother got this recipe.
Another recipe has left my family flabbergasted for years. My second great-grandmother (born 1865) used to make a hot water cake in a cast iron lamb mold, decorate it with white frosting and coconut, and sell the cakes for money. My great-grandmother continued the tradition of making those cakes for family members. My mom asked for the recipe but never received it. Over the years we’ve found various recipes for hot water cakes, but after tasting them, my mom said that they were “off.” While reading this cookbook, I came across two recipes that used hot water: “Hot Water Sponge Cake” and “Cheap Sponge Cake.” As that line of the family was very poor, they no doubt used the second recipe.
I am absolutely thrilled that the discovery of this book helped me to answer two important questions about my family history. But I am equally thrilled that this book includes numerous recipes for yellow crook neck squash. Sure, you can cook with fresh squash. But I am growing squash and there are SO MANY of them that the only thing that I can do is freeze them. Farmer’s book instead provides numerous recipes for this vegetable. For example, I had never even considered using them in a pie!
This book is brilliant. At the time that this cookbook was written, people ate a lot of oysters, so Farmer naturally included copious recipes for them. Nowadays, oysters are expensive and people eat fewer of them, but the recipes reveal how many different ways that this meat was utilized. In this book, one can also see how closely British cooking aligned with American cooking at the time. For example, the recipes for eels and Plum Pudding.
Farmer’s cookbook isn’t just for people interested in cuisine or for people who are nostalgic, but even for people using older methods of cooking. For example, she teaches people how to blacken a stove, how to light a fire in the stove, and even includes recipes for laundry, home cleaning (including dealing with laundry stains), prepping food for sick people. I especially like how the publishers purposefully left the old advertisements at the back of the book. It was wonderful seeing how popular Farmer was because her name is often mentioned in those ads.
Fannie Farmer was one of the first cooks to use standardized measurements, so these recipes can be easily reproduced in a modern kitchen. However, with baking, modern cooks will need to guesstimate a proper oven temperature to bake at. For those using old stoves (wood stoves), this is a perfect book.
Overall, this is an excellent book and I absolutely recommend that and everyone purchase a copy of it!
November 24, 2018
Sometimes nostalgia overcomes, especially when one is referencing a much-loved book while passing on a family legacy, in this case, baking. My wife, as always, felt compelled to bake pies for Thanksgiving. This is high ritual magick in our house. A major winter holiday without my wife’s apple and pumpkin pies is, in a word, unthinkable. And the pies were delicious, of course. Even more so this year in light of the fact that our seventeen year-old son helped with the baking. Now you must understand that the boy has always had a knack for cooking, but it’s a talent that he does not exercise very often. But my wife was getting over a cold, my daughter was busy with other stuff, and I…..well, I know damn well to stay out of the way when the flour starts flying. And so it fell to the boy to be the primary helper, and he stepped up to the plate in a big way. He made both of the crusts from scratch, and did a GREAT job of decorating the pies with Totoro embellishments. Thus a skill has now been passed down, and we may just have a pastry chef in the family.
But wait…….Goodreads is a review site, Mike. Why all the fluff? Just get to the damn book review already……
Ok, well…..hold on a second. This is MY review, and I get to present it any way that I like. No one is obligated to read this if they don’t want to. The thing is….you need CONTEXT to do a proper review, and I always refer back to one of the most basic rules of writing when I approach these things: write what you KNOW. So you’re going to have to put up with a bit of the Jandrok domestic life here if you wanna get to the good stuff.
My wife and I got married back in 1990. Books and a love of reading were a big factor in our getting together on a serious level. The fact that I could outlast my then-girlfriend at the used book store was a HUGE plus in my favor, let me tell you. It’s a habit that continues to this day. So somewhere around the second year of our marriage we managed to unearth a battered old copy of “The Fannie Merritt Farmer Boston Cooking School Cookbook.” It was stuck in the racks at our favorite bookstore, and priced at a ridiculous $2.00. It’s a 10th edition, revised and published in 1959, beat to hell, full of notes and recipes and food stains from the original owner and…...it’s a freaking treasure. There is such a vast amount of culinary knowledge packed within these 596 pages that it almost staggers the mind.
You get EVERYTHING in this one book. From beverages to meats to veggies to desserts to pastries to pickles to canning and…...IT’S ALL HERE!!!! Now look, I enjoy cooking, but I learned so much from using this cookbook over the years that I feel like an expert in the kitchen or on the grill. My wife has used it primarily for baking purposes, but anyone who enjoys cooking can benefit from the massive amount of information presented within. It’s more than a cookbook, it’s a work of art. I’ve picked up the occasional cookbook through the years, but they almost always make their way back to the buyback pile eventually. No other cookbook that I have ever handled even comes close to this bad boy.
There are also a good number of blank pages at the end of the book for the user to write down their own recipes, and we have just about filled up all of that space. And yes, I may have to do some book repair one of these days. The top of the spine is now torn, a few of the pages coming loose from the fabric. But I’ll fix it up and maybe put a mylar cover on it. For a book as old and well-used as it is it’s really not in too awful a shape.
Look, I’ll tell you now…..because I have cancer and legacy is an important thing to me. A book like this, one that has been used and loved for so long…..it takes on a life of its own. It’s a heirloom, yes, but it’s more than that. It’s a memory of a life well spent while learning and enjoying the fine arts of cooking and baking. Food is life. Food is love. And maybe I’m not just reviewing a book at this point, I’m reviewing an experience. And maybe that’s not what you are here for, maybe you just want me to say that it’s a great book and you should buy it yadadadadadada……….but folks, that ain’t the way I roll. I got into Goodreads as a form of therapy and a way to better track and document my reading habits. But what I have found through this review process is a way to CONNECT to people. And that’s worth more to me than the other stuff.
Now I almost never mention my cancer in these forums. I have made an uneasy peace with my mortality and I don’t want my disease to define me. I’m doing okay, taking the occasional maintenance chemo treatment, and generally living a more or less normal(ish) life. But it’s important to this review, because of the idea that I have in my mind that I need to pass down things to my kids that have MEANING. So maybe you’re getting a bit more than you bargained for when you just wanted a cookbook review, but this is MY review space and I need to get this stuff out there…….
Yes, this a great damn book and you should buy a copy. But I would urge you to use that thing often, spill crap all over it, crinkle the pages, write in the margins, make a big freaking mess of the entire book. And then find someone important to you in your life that you can pass it down to when it’s time. Because that way you can pass those memories down with it. A book is only alive when it’s read and used, otherwise it’s just a dead thing sitting on a shelf somewhere. If you like to cook or bake, get a copy of this. Make it alive. KEEP it alive.
So there. Maybe the crappiest review I have ever put down on paper, but I’m glad I did it. Some stuff just needs to be said. Go forth. Cook. Bake. Live. And if you have two kids, flip a coin to see who gets it in the will. Or if you’re smart like us, buy a couple of other copies and give those out NOW. We will figure the rest out later.
FINIS
But wait…….Goodreads is a review site, Mike. Why all the fluff? Just get to the damn book review already……
Ok, well…..hold on a second. This is MY review, and I get to present it any way that I like. No one is obligated to read this if they don’t want to. The thing is….you need CONTEXT to do a proper review, and I always refer back to one of the most basic rules of writing when I approach these things: write what you KNOW. So you’re going to have to put up with a bit of the Jandrok domestic life here if you wanna get to the good stuff.
My wife and I got married back in 1990. Books and a love of reading were a big factor in our getting together on a serious level. The fact that I could outlast my then-girlfriend at the used book store was a HUGE plus in my favor, let me tell you. It’s a habit that continues to this day. So somewhere around the second year of our marriage we managed to unearth a battered old copy of “The Fannie Merritt Farmer Boston Cooking School Cookbook.” It was stuck in the racks at our favorite bookstore, and priced at a ridiculous $2.00. It’s a 10th edition, revised and published in 1959, beat to hell, full of notes and recipes and food stains from the original owner and…...it’s a freaking treasure. There is such a vast amount of culinary knowledge packed within these 596 pages that it almost staggers the mind.
You get EVERYTHING in this one book. From beverages to meats to veggies to desserts to pastries to pickles to canning and…...IT’S ALL HERE!!!! Now look, I enjoy cooking, but I learned so much from using this cookbook over the years that I feel like an expert in the kitchen or on the grill. My wife has used it primarily for baking purposes, but anyone who enjoys cooking can benefit from the massive amount of information presented within. It’s more than a cookbook, it’s a work of art. I’ve picked up the occasional cookbook through the years, but they almost always make their way back to the buyback pile eventually. No other cookbook that I have ever handled even comes close to this bad boy.
There are also a good number of blank pages at the end of the book for the user to write down their own recipes, and we have just about filled up all of that space. And yes, I may have to do some book repair one of these days. The top of the spine is now torn, a few of the pages coming loose from the fabric. But I’ll fix it up and maybe put a mylar cover on it. For a book as old and well-used as it is it’s really not in too awful a shape.
Look, I’ll tell you now…..because I have cancer and legacy is an important thing to me. A book like this, one that has been used and loved for so long…..it takes on a life of its own. It’s a heirloom, yes, but it’s more than that. It’s a memory of a life well spent while learning and enjoying the fine arts of cooking and baking. Food is life. Food is love. And maybe I’m not just reviewing a book at this point, I’m reviewing an experience. And maybe that’s not what you are here for, maybe you just want me to say that it’s a great book and you should buy it yadadadadadada……….but folks, that ain’t the way I roll. I got into Goodreads as a form of therapy and a way to better track and document my reading habits. But what I have found through this review process is a way to CONNECT to people. And that’s worth more to me than the other stuff.
Now I almost never mention my cancer in these forums. I have made an uneasy peace with my mortality and I don’t want my disease to define me. I’m doing okay, taking the occasional maintenance chemo treatment, and generally living a more or less normal(ish) life. But it’s important to this review, because of the idea that I have in my mind that I need to pass down things to my kids that have MEANING. So maybe you’re getting a bit more than you bargained for when you just wanted a cookbook review, but this is MY review space and I need to get this stuff out there…….
Yes, this a great damn book and you should buy a copy. But I would urge you to use that thing often, spill crap all over it, crinkle the pages, write in the margins, make a big freaking mess of the entire book. And then find someone important to you in your life that you can pass it down to when it’s time. Because that way you can pass those memories down with it. A book is only alive when it’s read and used, otherwise it’s just a dead thing sitting on a shelf somewhere. If you like to cook or bake, get a copy of this. Make it alive. KEEP it alive.
So there. Maybe the crappiest review I have ever put down on paper, but I’m glad I did it. Some stuff just needs to be said. Go forth. Cook. Bake. Live. And if you have two kids, flip a coin to see who gets it in the will. Or if you’re smart like us, buy a couple of other copies and give those out NOW. We will figure the rest out later.
FINIS
September 12, 2020
Fannie Farmer, she of the famous cooking school, has left us this 1896 cookbook whose influence lives on today. In many ways the first nationally distributed cookbook, its pages contain illustrations and, in the back, advertisements for products, some of which still exist (such as King Arthur Flour, Knox's Gelatine, and Swansdown Flour), others of which are long gone (Cottolene shortening; Witchkloth, the "magic polisher"). The recipes tend to hang in the balance between quaint and more modern. The Creole Sauce has changed very little over the past 125 years, yet the "Macédoine" consists entirely of vegetables, not fruits! Of the eggless "potato mayonnaise" recipe on p. 291, it is said: "By the taste one would hardly realize eggs were not used in the making." Miss Farmer's recipes are also noteworthy for their insistence on precise measurements, a novelty at the time.
This particular bit of rock-ribbed Americana is in hardcover. Should one buy it? It's so useful still -- why not?
PICTURE: "Witchkloth" magazine advertisement, ca. 1896
This particular bit of rock-ribbed Americana is in hardcover. Should one buy it? It's so useful still -- why not?
PICTURE: "Witchkloth" magazine advertisement, ca. 1896
February 4, 2012
So much better than The Joy of Cooking. I have a 1965 edition -- fully stained, coverless, held together with duct tape, and passed down to me from my mother who also learned to cook from this book (and eventually went on to become a chef). I love the recipe structure and overall layout of the book. And all bases are covered: is your chicken not fully plucked? Here's how to finish that task.
August 31, 2021
A facsimile of a classic book? Social history? Vintage recipes and advertising? Yes, please!! I LOVED this. Especially since I could not locate (nor probably afford) an original copy of this sacred text in the annals of the history of American cookery and cookery books. I cannot wait to cook from this!!
April 18, 2020
I own a very old copy of this cookbook and I probably refer to it the most out of all my cookbooks.
September 25, 2011
This is a facsimile of the original 1896 printing of the Boston Cooking-School Cookbook by Fannie Merritt Farmer. It also, amusingly enough, is a facsimile of the original owner's amendments and comments, so that one occasionally finds amounts annotated in a neat, round hand, or Molasses Cookies labelled "good" and Soft Molasses Cookies labelled "not good." The facsimile advertisements at the back of the book are a hoot.
The recipes are good, but take some getting used to. "Soda," for example, means baking soda, and there are occasional other terms which need decoding. The instructions are pretty brief, as is normal with older cookbooks. On the plus side that means this book has a wealth of authentic late-Victorian recipes packed into its 500+ pages. On the minus side, you have to already be familiar with basic cooking and there's no hand-holding.
I love this book, but an inexperienced cook might find it overwhelming.
The recipes are good, but take some getting used to. "Soda," for example, means baking soda, and there are occasional other terms which need decoding. The instructions are pretty brief, as is normal with older cookbooks. On the plus side that means this book has a wealth of authentic late-Victorian recipes packed into its 500+ pages. On the minus side, you have to already be familiar with basic cooking and there's no hand-holding.
I love this book, but an inexperienced cook might find it overwhelming.
March 4, 2011
Great book to have in your library. I don't know that I will ever see a first edition of the 1896 Fannie Farmer cookbook, but this book is the exact replication of that edition. I read cookbooks like novels and these kinds of old cookbooks is no exception. I can't wait to dig in (no pun intended!) Another great find at Half-Price Books in Dublin, CA.
March 31, 2024
still practical and useful
While yes the recipes will be rather bland, one just needs to look at them more as a base it’s a good start. But it’s also a great book for people who don’t like as much seasoning
While yes the recipes will be rather bland, one just needs to look at them more as a base it’s a good start. But it’s also a great book for people who don’t like as much seasoning
January 9, 2020
This cook book is amazing. I self taught my self to cook with this book when i was kid and still use it from time to time to learn new non basic technics.
Read
May 31, 2020Has every recipe you can think of.
September 14, 2021
mannnn I farted in this book
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 12, 2023
My edition is from 1942. Lightning cake, pg. 632, is a recipe for the ages.
July 18, 2023
My edition was revised and published in 1979.
December 5, 2023
I inherited the fabulous 1923 edition of this cookbook from my Mom. It is a very rare treasure for me. Wonderful recipes for sure, without canned soup ingredients too!!!
December 8, 2024
Great book. Great condition from thriftbooks.com.
Great beginner book but even experienced cooks can learn things!
Great beginner book but even experienced cooks can learn things!
April 14, 2012
Found my 1906 version, previously owned by a Mrs. Blanche Rooney (according to the inscription), in a dusty little antique shop in S.TN/N.AL summer of 2011. Loved this book, partly because it was well used and even had a small "valentine" in it as well as a week of dishes straight from the book. I loved the history of the book and it really made me step back and take note of cooking and its history. Well worth a flip through.
February 14, 2013
Fannie Farmer 1896 Cook Book would be a lot more interesting and exciting if it were not "Kindle" sized. The book is much smaller than a cookbook of it's heft ought tot be. The binding makes it hard to keep open and the small size makes it hard to even browse.
It is surprising how "international" the recipes are. I would love this book if it was in a format that was reader friendly.
It is surprising how "international" the recipes are. I would love this book if it was in a format that was reader friendly.
September 12, 2019
I found it very interesting to see the difference in how cooking has changed throughout the years. I also like seeing the change in the facts about food. I have done research in the past to see how the food pyramid has changed throughout history. I would recommend this book to anyone who is going to pursue a cooking profession in the future.
January 11, 2009
This has been our family's basic cookbook for years and the older version was given to me by my mother when I got married. I am not as familiar with the newer version but it is a good standard cookbook with very good baking recipes.
January 17, 2009
My great grandma gave this to me, it's a wealth of information!
There is a lot of lard in the recipes, but they are easily updated to today's methods and ingredients. And there is ton's of very "modern" nutrition info!
There is a lot of lard in the recipes, but they are easily updated to today's methods and ingredients. And there is ton's of very "modern" nutrition info!
July 14, 2011
I've had this classic cookbook in my kitchen for years, but honestly haven't used it that much. It's well-organized, but the format doesn't allow the pages to lie flat--have to prop it open. It's a good source though when you can't find what you're looking for elsewhere.
November 15, 2007
Get the latest revised paperback, not the original. This is my favorite all round cook book!
March 23, 2012
some very interesting recipes.
May 14, 2021
I have the original edition. It is great fun.
June 20, 2020
So fun to read. Going to do their suggested 50 recipes everyone should know how to do.
December 5, 2008
I like seeing what people used to make and how things have changed in the kitchen.
Read
January 30, 2018I love reading this book. It was printed in 1942 and some of the recipes are outdated, some of the terms aren't used anymore. Still it is interesting in the details. The history of cooking is woven through the book. The measurements in the back of the book are enlightening in the foods that they measure. The cooking charts in the front of the book are demonstrative and helpful to copy down if you are used to reading old cook books. The recipes reflect the area, New England, that the author worked in. If you like to read cook books this one is a pleasure to peruse. And the recipes for the most part are all doable. Especially since you don't have to use special electrical appliances for the most part.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews