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

Tomato Soup.

125-126 · First Edition, 1896

Ingredients

  • 2 teaspoons sugar.
  • 1 teaspoon salt.
  • 1½ teaspoon soda.
  • 2 tablespoons butter.
  • 3 tablespoons flour.
  • Cream of Tomato Soup.
  • (Mock Bisque.)
  • 1 slice onion.
  • 4 tablespoons flour.
  • 1 teaspoon salt.
  • ⅛ teaspoon pepper.
  • ⅓ cup butter.
  • ½ can tomatoes.
  • 2 teaspoons sugar.
  • ¼ teaspoon soda.
  • 1 quart milk.
  • ½ cup carrot.
  • ½ cup turnip.
  • ½ cup celery.
  • 1½ cups potato.
  • 1½ onion.

Method

  1. Cook the first six ingredients twenty minutes; strain,
  2. add salt and soda; bind, and strain into tureen.
  3. Scald milk with onion, remove onion, and thicken milk
  4. with flour diluted with cold water until thin enough to pour, being careful that the mixture is free from lumps;
  5. cook twenty minutes, stirring constantly at first.
  6. Cook
  7. tomatoes with sugar fifteen minutes, add soda, and rub
  8. through a sieve; combine mixtures, and strain into tureen
  9. over butter, salt, and pepper.
  10. Vegetable Soup. 2 tbsp-four.
  11. 1 quart water.
  12. tablespoons butter.
  13. ½ tablespoon finely
  14. chopped parsley.
  15. Salt and pepper.
  16. Wash and scrape a small carrot; cut in quarters lengthwise; cut quarters in thirds lengthwise; cut strips thus
  17. made in thin slices crosswise.
  18. Wash and pare half a
  19. turnip, and cut and slice same as carrot.
  20. Wash, pare,
  21. and cut potatoes in small pieces. Wash and scrape celery
  22. and cut inquarter-inch pieces.
  23. Prepare vegetables before
  24. measuring.
  25. Cut onion in thin slices.
  26. Mix vegetables (except potatoes), andcookten minutes, in four tablespoons
  27. butter, stirring constantly. Add potatoes, cover, and cook
  28. two minutes.
  29. Add water, and boil one hour.
  30. Beat with spoonor fork to break vegetables.
  31. Add remaining butter
  32. and parsley.
  33. Season with salt and pepper.

Kitchen Notes

  • Scald milk means heat it until very hot, not boiling.

Original 1896 Text

Tomato Soup. 2 teaspoons sugar. 1 teaspoon salt. 1½ teaspoon soda. 2 tablespoons butter. 3 tablespoons flour. Cream of Tomato Soup. (Mock Bisque.) 1 slice onion. 4 tablespoons flour. 1 teaspoon salt. ⅛ teaspoon pepper. ⅓ cup butter. ½ can tomatoes. 2 teaspoons sugar. ¼ teaspoon soda. 1 quart milk. ½ cup carrot. ½ cup turnip. ½ cup celery. 1½ cups potato. 1½ onion. Cook the first six ingredients twenty minutes; strain, add salt and soda; bind, and strain into tureen. Scald milk with onion, remove onion, and thicken milk with flour diluted with cold water until thin enough to pour, being careful that the mixture is free from lumps; cook twenty minutes, stirring constantly at first. Cook tomatoes with sugar fifteen minutes, add soda, and rub through a sieve; combine mixtures, and strain into tureen over butter, salt, and pepper. Vegetable Soup. 2 tbsp-four. 1 quart water. tablespoons butter. ½ tablespoon finely chopped parsley. Salt and pepper. Wash and scrape a small carrot; cut in quarters lengthwise; cut quarters in thirds lengthwise; cut strips thus made in thin slices crosswise. Wash and pare half a turnip, and cut and slice same as carrot. Wash, pare, and cut potatoes in small pieces. Wash and scrape celery and cut inquarter-inch pieces. Prepare vegetables before measuring. Cut onion in thin slices. Mix vegetables (except potatoes), andcookten minutes, in four tablespoons butter, stirring constantly. Add potatoes, cover, and cook two minutes. Add water, and boil one hour. Beat with spoonor fork to break vegetables. Add remaining butter and parsley. Season with salt and pepper.