Fannie Farmer was an American “cookery” expert and author of the famous Fannie Farmer Cookbook. Fannie was born in Boston on March 23, 1857, in Boston, Massachusetts to a family who highly valued education and who expected that Fannie would be attending college. But, at age 16, Fannie suffered a paralytic stroke that forced her to end her schooling and left her with a substantial limp.
For several years, she was unable to walk and was taken care of by her family. During that time, she developed an interest in cooking and developed a reputation for making quality meals for the residents at her mother’s boarding house. At age 30, she entered the Boston Cooking School. Fannie studied there during the period of the domestic science movement and learning its most critical elements which included nutrition and diet for the well, convalescent cookery techniques of cleaning and sanitation, chemical analysis of food, techniques of cooking and baking, and household management.
She 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. In 1902, she left to open the Miss Farmer’s School of Cookery, which was designed to train housewives rather than teachers, institutional cooks or servants.
Farmer provided scientific explanations of the chemical processes that occur in food during cooking and helped to standardize the system of measurements used in cooking in the U.S.A. Her cookbook, The Boston Cooking School Cookbook, was first published in 1896. Although the publishers did not expect it to sell well and limited it to 3,000 books which Fannie had to pay for, it became very popular and is still in publication over 100 years later as The Fannie Farmer Cookbook.
She stressed in her cookbook the “knowledge of the principles of diet [as an] essential part of one’s education. Mankind will eat to live, will be able to do better mental and physical work, and disease will be less frequent.”
During the last seven years of her life, Fannie used a wheelchair. She continued to write, invent recipes and lecture. The Boston Evening Transcript published her lectures, which were picked up by newspapers nationwide. She also taught a course on dietary preparation at Harvard University and with her sister, Cora Farmer Perkins, she wrote a regular column for the Woman’s Home Companion from 1905 to 1915.
Farmer died on January 15, 1915, at age 57 of complications due to a stroke but her life lives on through her recipes.
Fannie Farmer Apple Cake
Fannie Farmer “Cottage Pudding” Apple Cake
This recipe comes from the original Fanny Farmer’s cookbook and is a simpler version often prepared with arranged apple slices on top. It can be served with Vanilla Sauce or ice cream.
Ingredients:
1 stick melted butter
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3-4 apples
½ cup sugar mixed with ½ tsp. cinnamon for topping
Instructions: Mix butter, egg, milk, and sugar. Stir in the sugar, flour, baking powder and salt until just combined. Spread in a pan, press apple slices into the batter, and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Bake at 400°F for 20-25 minutes.
Classic Fannie Farmer Vanilla Sauce (Cottage Pudding Style)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 cup boiling water
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Dash of salt and nutmeg (optional)
Instructions: In a small saucepan, mix the sugar and cornstarch.
Gradually add the boiling water, stirring constantly to prevent lumps.
Bring to a boil and cook for 5 minutes until the mixture is clear and slightly thickened.
Remove from heat, and then stir in the butter, vanilla, and seasoning (nutmeg/salt) until smooth.