Boston Cooking-School cook book

From the librarian's dossier · AI-generated, grounded in the scanned text

This dossier describes an edition of the Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, the celebrated American culinary reference associated with Fannie Merritt Farmer and the earlier work of Mrs. D. A. Lincoln. Structured as a comprehensive household manual, the book opens with cooking temperature charts and menu-making philosophy before moving through an enormous range of material: beverages, breads, soups, sauces, fish and shellfish, meats and poultry, vegetables, salads, puddings, frozen desserts, pastries, cakes, candies, and home preservation. With over 1,600 anchored food records, it functions as both an instructional text for the home cook and a record of formal entertaining practices among a particular class of early twentieth-century American households. The recipes move between plain family fare, such as fish balls and corned beef hash, and elaborate restaurant-style preparations like Lobster Thermidor and Fillets of Sole Marguery. Readers today will find it valuable as a window into domestic science education, professional cooking-school instruction, and the culinary aspirations of its era, as well as a practical, if dated, reference for traditional American and French-influenced techniques. The book's scope, spanning fundamental kitchen technique to festive multi-course entertaining, makes it a foundational text in the history of American cookbook publishing.

The book proceeds from foundational technique to specific categories of dishes. It opens with temperature charts and menu-planning guidance (section 1), then covers measuring, mixing, and cooking methods along with condiments and beverages (sections 2-3). Bread chapters follow, moving from yeast breads to quick breads, griddlecakes, and doughnuts (sections 4-5). A long sequence addresses appetizers, stocks, and soups (sections 6-8), then sauces and an extended run of fish and shellfish chapters (sections 9-11). Meat chapters cover beef, lamb, mutton, veal, and pork, followed by offal and poultry and game (sections 13-15). Italian pasta dishes, cheese, fritters, croquettes, and chafing-dish and molded preparations appear next (sections 17-18), followed by an extensive vegetable and salad sequence (sections 19-22). The dessert portion is substantial, covering custards and puddings, souffles and frozen desserts, dessert sauces and pastry, pies, and cakes with frostings (sections 23-24, 26-29). The book closes with candies, preserves, canning and pickling instructions, and multi-section alphabetical indexes with period advertisements (sections 31-32, 34-36).