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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Vegetables and potatoes

Oak Hill Potatoes.

286 · First Edition, 1896

Ingredients

  • two cups Thin White Sauce.
  • a small piece from end of French loaf.
  • four hard boiled eggs.
  • salt.
  • pepper.
  • lastly vinegar.

Method

  1. Cut four cold boiled potatoes and four hard boiled eggs in one-fourth inch slices.
  2. Put layer of potatoes in buttered baking-dish, sprinkle with salt and pepper, cover with layer of eggs; repeat, and pour over two cups Thin White Sauce.
  3. Cover with buttered cracker crumbs and bake until crumbs are brown.
  4. SALADS, which constitute a course in almost every dinner, but a few years since seldom appeared on the table.
  5. They are now made in an endless variety of ways, and are composed of meat, fish, vegetables (alone or in combination) or fruits, with the addition of a dressing.
  6. The salad plants, lettuce, watercress, chiccory, cucumbers, etc., contain but little nutriment, but are cooling, refreshing, and assist in stimulating the appetite.
  7. They are valuable for the water and potash salts they contain.
  8. The olive oil, which usually forms the largest part of the dressing, furnishes nutriment, and is of much value to the system.
  9. Salads made of greens should always be served crisp and cold.
  10. The vegetables should be thoroughly washed, allowed to stand in cold or ice water until crisp, then drained and spread on a towel and set aside in a cold place until serving time.
  11. See Lettuce, page 263.
  12. Dressing may be added at table or just before sending to table.
  13. If greens are allowed to stand in dressing they will soon wilt.
  14. It should be remembered that winter greens are raised under glass and should be treated as any other hothouse plant.
  15. Lettuce will be affected by a change of temperature and wilt just as quickly as delicate flowers.
  16. Canned or cold cooked left-over vegetables are well utilized in salads, but are best mixed with French Dressing and allowed to stand in a cold place one hour before serving.
  17. Where several vegetables are used in the same salad they should be marinated separately, and arranged for serving just before sending to table.
  18. Meat for salads should be freed from skin and gristle, cut in small cubes, and allowed to stand mixed with French Dressing before combining with vegetables.
  19. Fish should be flaked or cut in cubes.
  20. Where salads are dressed at table, first sprinkle with salt and pepper, add oil, and lastly vinegar.
  21. If vinegar is added before oil, the greens will become wet, and oil will not cling, but settle to bottom of bowl.

Original 1896 Text

Oak Hill Potatoes. Cut four cold boiled potatoes and four hard boiled eggs in one-fourth inch slices. Put layer of potatoes in buttered baking-dish, sprinkle with salt and pepper, cover with layer of eggs; repeat, and pour over two cups Thin White Sauce. Cover with buttered cracker crumbs and bake until crumbs are brown. SALADS, which constitute a course in almost every din- ner, but a few years since seldom appeared on the table. They are now made in an endless variety of ways, and are composed of meat, fish, vegetables (alone or in combination) or fruits, with the addition of a dressing. The salad plants, lettuce, watercress, chiccory, cucum- bers, etc., contain but little nutriment, but are cooling, refreshing, and assist in stimulating the appetite. They are valuable for the water and potash salts they contain. The olive oil, which usually forms the largest part of the dressing, furnishes nutriment, and is of much value to the system. Salads made of greens should always be served crisp and cold. The vegetables should be thoroughly washed, allowed to stand in cold or ice water until crisp, then drained and spread on a towel and set aside in a cold place until serving time. See Lettuce, page 263. Dress- ing may be added at table or just before sending to table. If greens are allowed to stand in dressing they will soon wilt. It should be remembered that winter greens are raised under glass and should be treated as any other hothouse plant. Lettuce will be affected by a change of temperature and wilt just as quickly as delicate flowers. Canned or cold cooked left-over vegetables are well utilized in salads, but are best mixed with French Dress- ing and allowed to stand in a cold place one hour before serving. Where several vegetables are used in the same salad they should be marinated separately, and arranged for serving just before sending to table. Meat for salads should be freed from skin and gristle, cut in small cubes, and allowed to stand mixed with French Dressing before combining with vegetables. Fish should be flaked or cut in cubes. Where salads are dressed at table, first sprinkle with salt and pepper, add oil, and lastly vinegar. If vinegar is added before oil, the greens will become wet, and oil will not cling, but settle to bottom of bowl. A Chapon. Remove a small piece from end of French loaf and rub over with a clove of garlic, first dipped in salt. Place in bottom of salad bowl before arranging salad. A chapon is often used in vegetable salads, and gives an agreeable additional flavor. To Marinate. The word marinate, used in cookery, means to add salt, pepper, oil, and vinegar to a salad in- gredient or mixture and let stand until well seasoned.