"fannie farmer" news and stories

She may or may not be a household name in your household or even in your parents', but she likely was in your grandmother's. As The Fannie Farmer Cookbook turns 112 years young, it is the perfect opportunity to visit, re-visit or learn about this important name in the domestic arts.

American cooking would not be the same without Fannie Farmer. So who was she and how did she have this much impact? Fannie Merritt Farmer was born in 1857 in Medford, MA. After a childhood that included a paralyzing stroke, Farmer enrolled in the famous Boston Cooking School at the age of 30. The Boston Cooking School was known for teaching the science of cooking as well as its art, and it was here that Farmer's influence on the domestic sciences began. Farmer, considered one of the school's star alumna, became its principal in 1891, and in 1896 published The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book (which was, to be fair, a revision of the earlier Mrs. Lincoln's Boston Cook Book).

The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book was groundbreaking; in addition to almost 2,000 recipes, it contained direction on housekeeping, canning and preserving, nutrition and the science of cooking. It also contained exact measures, a convention that we take for granted but which was revolutionary at a time when recipes (or receipts, as they were often known) contained such direction as "about twenty-five drops of liquid," "a common-size tumbler" or (my favorite) "two jills." Curiously (except, perhaps, to writers), the publisher was not optimistic about the book's success and ordered a short run.

The Sacramento Bee compiled a list of the most valued cookbooks in America, based on previous lists and interviews with members of "cooking trades" - which I take to mean caterers and professional cooks. They are definitely some of the best general interest cookbooks that cover everything from breakfast to baking, roasts to vegetables, and excellent books to have, especially if you only have one or two cookbooks. I, on the other hand, have six of the top ten. I'm not going to try to count how many other cookbooks I have.

1. "Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book," first published in 1930
2. "Betty Crocker Cookbook," first published in 1950
3. "Joy of Cooking," first published in 1931
4. "The New Basics Cookbook," first published in 1989
5. "The Silver Palate Cookbook," first published in 1982
6. "The Art of French Cooking," first published in 1961
7. "The Fannie Farmer Cookbook," first published as "The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book" in 1896
8. "The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook," first published in 1988
9. "The Moosewood Cookbook," first published in 1992
10. "Larousse Gastronomique," first published in 1938

 

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