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.

Hundreds
of recipes
Original
page scans
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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Want to make your own card from a photo, URL, or recipe text? Turn a recipe photo into a card.

Articles

Timing and reference page from the 1896 first edition of The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book
History
How Fannie Farmer Standardized American Cooking

Why the 1896 first edition mattered, and how level measurements, sequenced method, and kitchen instruction traveled from the Boston Cooking School into ordinary recipe writing.

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Portrait recipe card preview of Strawberry Short Cake I. from the Fannie Farmer collection
Preservation
From Historical Cookbook to Recipe Card

How a dense nineteenth-century cookbook page becomes a readable, source-linked card without quietly rewriting the historical record.

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Entrées

Chicken Croquettes II.

312 · First Edition, 1896 · Report an issue

Ingredients

  • four-pound fowl
  • six cups boiling water
  • seven slices carrot, slices
  • two slices turnip, slices
  • one small onion
  • one stalk celery, stalk
  • one bay leaf
  • three sprigs thyme
  • one-fourth cup butter
  • one-half cup flour
  • one cup chicken stock
  • one-third cup cream
  • one egg, beaten
  • to taste salt
  • to taste cayenne
  • slight grating nutmeg, grated
  • garnish green peas
  • to serve Cream Sauce or Wine Jelly

Method

  1. Clean and dress a four-pound fowl.
  2. Put into a kettle with six cups boiling water, seven slices carrot, two slices turnip, one small onion, one stalk celery, one bay leaf, and three sprigs thyme.
  3. Cook slowly until fowl is tender.
  4. Remove fowl; strain liquor, cool, and skim off fat.
  5. Make a thick sauce, using one-fourth cup butter, one-half cup flour, one cup chicken stock, and one-third cup cream.
  6. Remove meat from chicken, chop, and moisten with sauce.
  7. Season with salt, cayenne, and slight grating of nutmeg; then add one beaten egg, cool, shape, crumb, and fry same as other croquettes.
  8. Arrange around a mound of green peas, and serve with Cream Sauce or Wine Jelly. ( Cream Sauce. )

Original 1896 Text

four-pound fowl six cups boiling water seven slices carrot, slices two slices turnip, slices one small onion one stalk celery, stalk one bay leaf three sprigs thyme one-fourth cup butter one-half cup flour one cup chicken stock one-third cup cream one egg, beaten to taste salt to taste cayenne slight grating nutmeg, grated garnish green peas to serve Cream Sauce or Wine Jelly Clean and dress a four-pound fowl. Put into a kettle with six cups boiling water, seven slices carrot, two slices turnip, one small onion, one stalk celery, one bay leaf, and three sprigs thyme. Cook slowly until fowl is tender. Remove fowl; strain liquor, cool, and skim off fat. Make a thick sauce, using one-fourth cup butter, one-half cup flour, one cup chicken stock, and one-third cup cream. Remove meat from chicken, chop, and moisten with sauce. Season with salt, cayenne, and slight grating of nutmeg; then add one beaten egg, cool, shape, crumb, and fry same as other croquettes. Arrange around a mound of green peas, and serve with Cream Sauce or Wine Jelly.

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