Cover of The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book
The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book
Fannie Merritt Farmer
First printing, 1896 · Little, Brown and Company, Boston
Portrait of Fannie Merritt Farmer
Fannie Merritt Farmer
1857–1915

Principal of the Boston Cooking-School. Author of the first American cookbook to require level, standardized measurements. Published the first printing at her own expense after Little, Brown doubted it would sell.

1000+
Preserved Recipes
567
Original Pages
1896
First Edition
Card My Recipe

The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book

Fannie Merritt Farmer · 1896

Preserved from a verified first printing and organized as a working browser of recipes, menus, and reference sections. Recipe text remains verbatim to the 1896 book, with Kitchen Notes kept separate from the source text.

The book first appeared in 1896 after Farmer financed publication herself when Little, Brown doubted that a manual built on precise level measurements would find a wide readership. Its success brought the book into regular trade publication and helped fix cups, tablespoons, and teaspoons as the standard language of American recipe writing.

Born in Boston in 1857, Farmer went on to lead the Boston Cooking-School and to codify the level cup, tablespoon, and teaspoon that still structure American recipe writing. Her book is both a practical manual and a record of how domestic instruction was formalized at the end of the nineteenth century.

The book below keeps the table of contents, recipe cards, scanned page links, and menu structure together so the original volume can still be read and cooked from as a whole.

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Soups, chowders, and soup preparations

Mock Turtle Soup.

116 · First Edition, 1896

Ingredients

  • 1 calf's head.
  • 6 cloves.
  • 2 cups brown stock.
  • ¼ cup butter.
  • ½ cup flour.
  • ½ teaspoon peppercorns.
  • 6 allspice berries.
  • 2 sprigs thyme.
  • ⅓ cup sliced onion.
  • 1 cup stewed and strained tomatoes.
  • Juice 1½ lemon.
  • Madeira wine.

Method

  1. Clean and wash calf's head; soak one hour in cold water to cover.
  2. Cook until tender in three quarts boiling salted water (to which seasoning and vegetables have been added).
  3. Remove head; boil stock until reduced to one quart.
  4. Strain and cool.
  5. Melt and brown butter, add flour, and stir until well browned; then pour on slowly brown stock.
  6. Add head-stock, tomato, one cup face meat cut in dice, and lemon juice.
  7. Simmer five minutes; add Royal Custard cut in dice, and Egg Balls, or Force-meat Balls.
  8. Add Madeira wine, salt, and peрper to taste.

Original 1896 Text

Mock Turtle Soup. 1 calf's head. 6 cloves. 2 cups brown stock. ¼ cup butter. ½ cup flour. ½ teaspoon peppercorns. 6 allspice berries. 2 sprigs thyme. ⅓ cup sliced onion. ½ cup carrot, cut in dice. 1 cup stewed and strained tomatoes. Juice 1½ lemon. Madeira wine. Clean and wash calf's head; soak one hour in cold water to cover. Cook until tender in three quarts boil- ing salted water (to which seasoning and vegetables have been added). Remove head; boil stock until re- duced to one quart. Strain and cool. Melt and brown butter, add flour, and stir until well browned; then pour on slowly brown stock. Add head-stock, tomato, one cup face meat cut in dice, and lemon juice. Simmer five minutes; add Royal Custard cut in dice, and Egg Balls, or Force-meat Balls. Add Madeira wine, salt, and peр- per to taste.