Tidbits About Cookbooks thru the 19th Century

For today's post I thought I'd share some cookbooks throughout the 19th Century all of these are linked to Google books so you can download or browse a copy for yourself. You might be wondering why a writer would want or be concerned with cookbooks from the time periods they're writing in. It gives you a deeper understanding of the food available at the time and the differences in the recipes. Today we hardly ever cook with lard but during the 19th century and the first 70 years of the 20th century lard was used regularly. I hope you enjoy this short list.

The First is The New Family Receipt This is an English publication from 1810. Not that Receipt is the older version of the word recipes. This book also includes other recipes for Household cleaners, purifying wool, cleaning silk, etc.

The Second is The New Family Receipt Updated in 1820 with over 800 receipts whereas the first one had over 700.

The Third is an earlier version of one I had downloaded before. The French Cook1822. The later version 1829 no longer seems to be on Google books.

The Fourth is the first American Cookbook in this list The American Frugal Housewife1835 This book in my opinion is very practical.

The Fifth book is The New England Economical Housekeeper This one has far more food recipes than some of the previous books listed.

The Sixth is from 1851 Miss Leslie's Complete Cookery Miss Leslie has many versions of this book and updated throughout the rest of the Century.

The Seventh is The Book of Household ManagementSome of the reasons I like these management books are that not only do they have recipes but they also give a good insight in how the social mindset of people of that generation thought. Mrs. Beeton also has many later versions of her book(s)

The Eighth is another book that's been updated throughout the century. Dr. Chase's Family Physician, Farrier, Bee-Keeper and Second Receipts Book And as you can see by the title it includes more than food recipes.

The Ninth is Mrs. Owens Cook Book and Useful Household Hints

And the tenth and final cookbook for this list comes from a church cookbook. I've collected several over the years after all who hasn't been to a great Church pot-luck. Cook Book of Tried Recipes


Lynn A. Coleman is an award winning & best-selling author who makes her home in Keystone Heights, Florida, with her husband of 42 years. Lynn's latest novel "The Shepherd's Betrothal" is the third book in her Historical St. Augustine, FL. series. Coming in Oct. The Rails to Love Romance Collection

The Extraordinary Fannie Farmer

Hi Winnie Griggs here.

I’m sure most of you have at least heard the name Fannie Farmer and are aware that there is a famous cookbook that bears her name.  But how much do you know about the woman herself?  Fannie Farmer was a woman of keen intelligence, unusual motivation, avid curiosity and deep personal courage.

Fannie, born in 1857 in Medford, MA, to Mary Watson Merritt and John Franklin Farmer, was the oldest of four daughters.  Her father was an editor and printer and both parents placed a high value on education - it was expected that Fannie would go to college.  However, when Fannie was 16 she suffered a paralytic stroke and could not continue her education.  For a number of years after her stroke she was unable to walk and remained in her parents’ care.  It was during this time that Fannie developed an interest in cooking. 

At the age of 30, Fannie, who now walked (though she would have a pronounced limp for the remainder of her years), enrolled in the Boston Cooking School. This was at the height of the domestic science movement and the school utilized a scientific approach to cooking and food preparation.  It also trained women to become cooking teachers at a time when their opportunities for employment were limited.  Fannie attended the school for two years, learning what was considered the most crucial elements of the science - nutrition and diet for the healthy person, cooking for convalescents, methods of cleaning and sanitation, techniques of baking and cooking, and general household management.  During her time as a student, Fannie studied under Mary J. Lincoln, who published the Boston Cooking-School Cook Book.  This cookbook was used in a number of cooking schools, most of which were established for the training professional cooks.

Fannie proved herself to be one of the school’s outstanding students and was kept on after she graduated as assistant to the director.  During this time, Fannie started exploring the association between eating and health.  She went so far as to take a summer course at Harvard Medical School to aid in her understanding of this connection.  Eventually she was appointed school principal and then, in 1894, director.  It was just two years later, in 1896, that Fannie revised and reissued The Boston Cooking School Cookbook.  The publication of Fannie’s book was a highly significant event in cooking history.  Before this publication, ingredient measurements were imprecise using terms such as ‘the size of an egg’ or ‘a teacup full’.  Fannie’s cookbook introduced the idea of using standardized measuring utensils with an emphasis on taking care to use level measurements..  In addition to the more than 1800 recipes, the book included scientific explanations of the chemical processes that occur during cooking as well as essays on housekeeping, the importance of cleanliness in the kitchen, canning and drying produce and nutritional information.

Little, Brown & Company, who produced the book, didn’t think the book would do well and so only produced 3000 copies, which were published at the author’s expense.  However, the book proved so popular that Fannie saw twenty-one editions printed during her lifetime.  It has remained a standard work and it is still available in print today, over 100 years later.

Fannie continued to serve as director of the Boston Cooking School for eleven years, then resigned and went on to establish her own school.  Miss Farmer’s School of Cookery, as it was known,  emphasized the practice of cookery rather than just theory.  Its target student were housewives rather than future academics.  Fannie’s school also focused on developing cooking equipment for the sick and disabled.  She became a highly respected authority in this field and was invited to deliver lectures to nurses, women’s clubs and even the Harvard Medical School.  Her lectures were printed by newspapers nationwide making her influence widespread and her name a household word.  She also wrote a popular cooking column for the national magazine, the Woman’s Home Companion, that ran for ten years.

In addition to the 1896 Boston Cooking-School Cookbook (Later know simply as the Fannie Farmer Cookbook, Fannie published five other books.  They are

Chafing Dish Possibilities, Fannie Merritt Farmer, 1898.

Food and Cookery for the Sick and Convalescent, Fannie Merritt Farmer, 1904.

What to Have for Dinner, Fannie Merritt Farmer, 1905.

Catering for Special Occasions, with Menus and Recipes, Fannie Merritt Farmer, 1911.

A New Book of Cookery, Fannie Merritt Farmer, 1912.

Later in life, Fannie suffered another paralytic stroke that confined her to a wheelchair for the last seven years of her life.  However, that did not prevent her from carrying on her responsibilities.  She continued to lecture, write, invent recipes and travel.   In fact, just ten days before her death, she delivered a lecture from her wheelchair.  Fannie died in 1915 at the age of 57.

For those of you interested in taking a look at the original Boston Cooking-School Cookbook here is a link to the online version  http://www.bartleby.com/87/