• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Home Garden Joy
  • Home
  • Articles
  • Gardening Basics
    • Healthy Soil
    • Composting Basics
    • Vegetable Gardening
    • Growing Fruit
    • Growing Herbs
    • Seed Starting
  • Gardening Terms
  • Recipes
    • Canning and Food Preservation
    • Vegetarian Meals
    • Salad Recipes
    • Soup Recipes
    • Dinner Recipes
    • Dessert Recipes
  • Books & Classes
    • Herbalism Classes
    • Indoor Herb Gardening
    • Books for Christian Herbalists
  • About
    • Awards and Accolades
    • Privacy Policy

Cooking with Fannie Farmer & Me

February 5, 2022 by Jeanne

My older sister Ann, introduced me to the Fannie Farmer Cookbook. I don’t remember when she bought it – probably sometime in the 1980s – but when she began cooking from the recipes in the thick hardcover, our lives dramatically improved.

Our family’s Thanksgiving roll recipe came from the pages of this cookbook and my sister’s expert hands. So too did many other recipes that became family staples over the years.

This cookbook was the only one that I bought as a hardcover for myself and still use almost every day. Each weekend, in fact, I cook a new recipe from the cookbook and share the photos on Instagram and Facebook. It’s one of the most popular posts each week (especially the bread I’ve baked) (always the bread!)

Sharing My Fannie Farmer Adventures with You

It suddenly occurred to me, after yet another request for a recipe after posting pictures of my weekend cooking adventure, that it would be fun to cook my way through the Fannie Farmer cookbook, like Julie did in “Julia and Julie”, and blog my cooking adventures here.

So, this section of Home Garden Joy is now dedicated to Fannie Farmer & Me, or cooking with the 1896 Boston Cooking School.

The following are affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Thanks so much for being a part of Home Garden Joy!

I will be cooking with the 13th edition of The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, which is coincidentally the 100th Anniversary edition, too. All page references are to this edition.

Who the Heck Was Fannie Farmer, Anyway?

Fannie Farmer was born in 1857 in New England. Although she lacked formal education, she went on to write the first cookbook with standardized measurements – a big plus for people trying to follow along with her recipes.

Wait? People Didn’t Have Standardized Measurements Years Ago?

Not in recipes, no.

If you’ve ever tried to follow an old family recipe, perhaps one written by your great grandmother or a relative even further back in the family tree, the lack of standard measurements can be very frustrating.

We take it for granted that a tablespoon or a half cup is just that, but before Fannie standardized written measurements in her cookbook, everyone had a ‘granny glass’ that was the reference point, so cooking was a lot less standardized than now.

The First Successful American Cookbook

Anyway, Fannie’s cookbook was a success, eventually selling 360,000 copies during her lifetime. It is not without controversy – in the 1960s, critics had a field day attacking the recipes for roast chicken, turkey, and lamb, and it is said that any well-bred Boston lady over the age of 65 will not touch an edition published before 1925, when Ms. Farmer was succeeded as editor over the cookbook by a variety of people.

That said:

  • I am not a well-bred Boston lady over the age of 65. I’m a middling oddball 50+ year old former New Yorker who loves to cook.
  • I’m not cooking for the Ladies’ Aid society, I’m cooking for myself and my husband, and occasionally friends. We aren’t high society.
  • We’re on a specialized food plan that has to be low in salt and cholesterol. So, many of the recipes that I’ll be cooking I must adapt to this food plan. I’ll share my adaptations. In my experience, cutting back both salt and cholesterol, or both, doesn’t hurt the recipe, but be aware that it will taste different.

I’m not going to cook the recipes in order. If I did that, we’d eat nothing but soups or cookies for weeks a time, which I wouldn’t mind but would probably make my husband sick. Instead, I’ll jump around, sharing our family favorites first, then moving into new territory.

Recipes Adapted for Low(er) Salt and Cholesterol

And lastly, I reserve the right not to cook anything that includes disgusting body parts of animals that are best fed to dogs (tongue, anyone? liver?) or that I have to drive more than half an hour away to find the ingredients for. Seriously, once I moved to rural Virginia, I found my ingredient choices a little more limited than they were on Long Island.

Thankfully, though, The Fannie Farmer Cookbook really does use common ingredients for the most part, and you can find them in your local grocery story or big box store. And, if something special is needed, Amazon is a great place to find it.

So who is ready for my cooking adventures? Let’s get cooking!

The Fannie Farmer Cooking Experiment

  • Easy, Healthy Split Pea Soup (page 97)
Pin
Share
Tweet
0 Shares

Filed Under: Easy Recipes

Previous Post: « David Austin Roses – 2022 Introductions
Next Post: Easy, Healthy Split Pea Soup »

Primary Sidebar

note about hgj

Featured

logo of the american horticulture society

Home Garden Joy was featured by the American Horticultural Society on #plantchat.

We were featured in Porch.com and answered reader's questions about indoor plants.

Gardening Articles

Quick and Easy Vegetable Gardening Tips and Tricks Anyone Can Do

17 year cicada

Do the 17 Year Cicadas Hurt Gardens?

strawberries are great for vertical gardening

Vertical Gardening Hacks to Expand Your Space

rosemary growing in containers for space saving gardens

5 EASY Space Saving Vegetable Garden Ideas

The Herbal Academy (Affiliate)

Herbal Academy Online Courses

Footer

a blue wheelbarrow filled with compost

Does Garden Fertilizer Expire? Get the Facts

Does garden fertilizer expire? Garden fertilizers can expire or lose effectiveness over time, especially if not stored properly. The shelf life of a fertilizer largely depends on its composition and how it is stored. Inorganic or Chemical Fertilizers Chemical fertilizers typically have a longer shelf life compared to organic fertilizers. However, they can still degrade…

Read More

chervil plant

Chervil Plant Profile: What Is Chervil?

What is chervil? My favorite herb writer, Bertha Rappaport, likens chervil to parsley, but this French herb differs from parsley. I grew chervil plants this year for the first time in the garden. Here, a chervil plant profile, including medicinal uses, chervil vs. parsley, and more. Chervil Plant Profile Chervil is a delicate, lacy-leaved herb…

Read More

blue jay at bird feeder

Feeding Birds in Winter – Best Tips to Help Wild Birds

Depending on where you live, feeding birds in winter may make a big difference in the lives of the local wild bird populations. Common sense tells us that of course, birds have survived for centuries without any human help during cold weather. In times past, people had a hard enough time surviving in the wilderness…

Read More

a person in wellies standing on a lawn with a pitchfork

What Is Aeration? Important Gardening Terms To Know

What Is Aeration? Aeration plays a crucial role in maintaining the healthy lawns and garden beds. To aerate a garden means using an implement to make small holes in the soil surface. Aeration improves the flow of air, water, and nutrients to your plants’ root systems. A well-aerated garden can lead to lush, vibrant, and…

Read More

Copyright © 2023 Home Garden Joy on the Foodie Pro Theme