Overlooked No More: Fannie Farmer, Modern Cookery's Pioneer
She brought a scientific approach to cooking, taught countless women marketable skills and wrote a cookbook that defined American food for the 20th century.
'Since 1851, obituaries in The New York Times have been dominated by white men. With Overlooked, we’re adding the stories of remarkable people whose deaths went unreported by the newspaper.
Recipes in 19th-century cookbooks relied on measurements like a “handful” of rice or a “goodly amount” of molasses — on the assumption that women largely knew how to cook.
Fannie Merritt Farmer changed all that. Widely credited with inventing the modern recipe, Farmer was the first professional cook to insist that scientific methods and precise measurements — level teaspoons, cups and ounces — produce better food, and also the first to demonstrate that cooking classes could be mass-market entertainment.
These were just a few of her contributions as the foremost cooking teacher, writer and lecturer of her day. Chiefly, she was responsible for “The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book.” First published under her name in 1896, it was a best seller and remains in print, with more than seven million copies sold. The book’s popularity and longevity has made Farmer a primary source for generations of American cooks.
“Correct measurements are absolutely necessary to ensure the best results,” Farmer famously wrote.
Julia Child, one of the only American cooks to become as widely influential as Farmer, said that “The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book” was the primary reference in her own mother’s kitchen, and that she cut her teeth as a cook on its pancakes, popovers and fudge recipes.'>>>
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/13/obituaries/fannie-farmer-overlooked.html?
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