Fannie Merritt Farmer (23 March 1857 – 16 January 1915) was an American culinary expert whose '' Boston Cooking-School Cook Book'' became a widely used culinary text.

Education

Fannie Farmer was born on 23 March 1857 in

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Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

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, to Mary Watson Merritt Farmer and John Franklin Farmer, an

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, organization, a ...

and printer. The family was Unitarian. The oldest of four daughters in a family that highly valued education, she was expected to go to college, but suffered a paralytic

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

at the age of 16 while attending Medford High School. For the next several years she was unable to walk and remained in her parents' care at home. During this time Farmer took up cooking, eventually developing a reputation for the quality of the meals her mother's boarding house served. Farmer developed a substantial limp that never left her. At the age of 30 she enrolled in the Boston Cooking School at the suggestion of Mrs. Charles Shaw. Farmer studied there during the height of the

domestic science Home economics, also called domestic science or family and consumer sciences (often shortened to FCS or FACS), is a subject concerning human development, personal and family finances, consumer issues, housing and interior design, nutrition and f ...

movement, learning its most critical elements, including

nutrition Nutrition is the biochemistry, biochemical and physiology, physiological process by which an organism uses food and water to support its life. The intake of these substances provides organisms with nutrients (divided into Macronutrient, macro- ...

and diet for the well, convalescent cookery, techniques of cleaning and sanitation, chemical analysis of food, techniques of cooking and baking, and household management. Farmer was considered one of the school's top students, graduating in 1889 and staying on as assistant to the director. In 1891, she took the position of school principal.

Cookbook fame

Fannie published her best-known work, '' The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book'', in 1896. A follow-up to an earlier version called '' Mrs. Lincoln's Boston Cook Book'', published by Mary J. Lincoln in 1884, the book under Farmer's direction eventually contained 1,850 recipes, from

milk toast Milk toast is a breakfast dish consisting of Toast (food), toasted bread in warm milk, typically with sugar and butter."An Alphabet For Gourmets" by Mary Francis Kennedy Fisher, MacMillan Salt, pepper, paprika, cinnamon, cocoa, raisins or other ...

to ''Zigaras à la Russe''. Farmer also included essays on

housekeeping Housekeeping is the management and routine support activities of running and maintaining an organized physical institution occupied or used by people, like a house, ship, hospital or factory, such as cleaning, tidying/organizing, cooking, shopp ...

, cleaning,

canning Canning is a method of food preservation in which food is processed and sealed in an airtight container (jars like Mason jars, and steel and tin cans). Canning provides a shelf life that typically ranges from one to five years, although under ...

and drying fruits and vegetables, and nutritional information. The book's publisher ( Little, Brown & Company) did not predict good sales and limited the first edition to 3,000 copies, published at the author's expense. However, the book was so popular in America, so thorough, and so comprehensive that cooks would refer to later editions simply as the ''Fannie Farmer Cookbook'', and it is still available in print over 100 years later. Farmer provided scientific explanations of the

chemical A chemical substance is a unique form of matter with constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Chemical substances may take the form of a single element or chemical compounds. If two or more chemical substances can be combin ...

processes that occur in food during cooking, and helped to standardize the system of measurements used in cooking in the USA. Farmer left the School in 1902 and created Miss Farmer's School of Cookery. She began by teaching gentlewomen and

housewives A housewife (also known as a homemaker or a stay-at-home mother/mom/mum) is a woman whose role is running or managing her family's home—housekeeping, which may include Parenting, caring for her children; cleaning and maintaining the home; Sew ...

the rudiments of plain and fancy cooking, but her interests eventually led her to develop a complete work of diet and nutrition for the ill, titled ''Food and Cookery for the Sick and Convalescent'', which contained thirty pages on diabetes. Farmer was invited to lecture at

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...

and began teaching convalescent diet and nutrition to doctors and nurses. She felt so strongly about the significance of proper food for the sick that she believed she would be remembered chiefly by her work in that field, as opposed to her work in household and fancy cookery. Farmer understood perhaps better than anyone else at the time the value of appearance, taste, and presentation of sickroom food to ill and wasted people with poor

appetite Appetite is the desire to eat food items, usually due to hunger. Appealing foods can stimulate appetite even when hunger is absent, although appetite can be greatly reduced by satiety. Appetite exists in all higher life-forms, and serves to reg ...

s; she ranked these qualities over cost and nutritional value in importance.

Later life

During the last seven years of her life, Farmer used a wheelchair. Despite her immobility she continued to write, invent recipes, and lecture, giving her last ten days before her death. The ''

Boston Evening Transcript The ''Boston Evening Transcript'' was a daily afternoon newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts, published for over a century from July 24, 1830, to April 30, 1941. History Founding ''The Transcript'' was founded in 1830 by Henry Dutton and James We ...

'' published her lectures, which were picked up by newspapers nationwide. Farmer also lectured to nurses and dietitians, and taught a course on dietary preparation at

. Farmer died in 1915 at age 57 of complications due to a stroke, and was interred in

Mount Auburn Cemetery Mount Auburn Cemetery, located in Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts, is the first rural or garden cemetery in the United States. It is the burial site of many prominent Boston Brahmins, and is a National Historic Landmark. Dedicated in ...

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

. One hundred and three years later, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' published a belated obituary for her.

Works

* A complete list of editions may be found at Boston Cooking-School Cook Book. * * * * * * * epublication of ''What to Have for Dinner: Containing Menus with Recipes for their Preparation (1905).

References

External links