Product Description

Here is the great basic American cookbook—with more than 1,990 recipes, plain and fancy—that belongs in every household.

Originally published in 1896 as The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book by Fannie Merritt Farmer, it became the coobook that taught generations of Americans how to cook. Completely updating it for the first time since 1979, Marion Cunningham made Fannie Farmer once again a household word for a new generation of cooks.

What makes this basic cookbook so distinctive is that Marion Cunningham, who is the personification of the nineteenth-century teacher, is always at your side with her forthright tips and comments, encouraging the beginning cook and inspiring the more adventurous. She knows what today's cooks are looking for, and she has a way of instilling confidence and joy in the act of cooking.

In giving the book new life, Mrs. Cunningham has been careful always to preserve the best of the old. She has retained all the particularly good, tried-and-true recipes from preceding editions, retesting and rewriting when necessary. She has rediscovered lost treasures, including delicious recipes that were eliminated when practically no one baked bread at home. This is now the place to find the finest possible recipes for Pumpkin Soup, Boston Baked Beans, Carpetbag Steak, Roast Stuffed Turkey, Anadama Bread, Indian Pudding, Apple Pie, and all of the other traditional favorites.

The new recipes reflect ethnic influences—Mediterranean, Moroccan, Asian—that have been adding their flavors to American cooking in recent years. Tucked in among all your favorites like Old-Fashioned Beef Stew, New England Clam Chowder, Ham Timbales, and Chicken Jambalaya, you'll find her cool Cucumber Sushi, Enchiladas with Chicken and Green Sauce, or a layered dish of Polenta and Fish to add variety to your repertoire. Always a champion of old-fashioned breakfasts and delectable desserts, Mrs. Cunningham has many splendid new offerings to tempt you.

Throughout, cooking terms and procedures are explained, essential ingredients are spelled out, basic equipment is assessed. Mrs. Cunningham even tells you how to make a good cup of coffee and how to brew tea properly.

For the diet-conscious, there is an expanded nutritional chart that includes a breakdown of cholesterol and fat in common ingredients as well as in Fannie Farmer basic recipes. Where the taste of a dish would not be altered, Mrs. Cunningham has reduced the amount of cream and butter in some of the recipes from the preceding edition. She carefully evaluates the issues of food safety today and alerts us to potential hazards.

But the emphasis here is always on good flavor, fresh ingredients, and lots of variety in one's daily fare, which Marion Cunningham believes is the secret to a healthy diet. Dedicated to the home cooks of America, young and old, this thirteenth edition of the book that won the hearts of Americans more than a century ago invites us all—as did the original Fannie Farmer—to cherish the delights of the family table.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7030 in Books
• Published on: 1996-09-09
• Released on: 1996-09-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 896 pages

Amazon.com
Marion Cunningham's brilliant revision of this classic home cooking reference addresses "good everyday cooking." Cunningham states that "every meal should be a small celebration," and she eases the preparation of those celebrations with clear, straightforward instructions and hints on how to make the most of every meal through beautiful presentation and balanced nutrition. The chapter on microwaved foods is clear and presents recipes that are simple and taste great. Cunningham's work especially shines in the chapters on baking, as might be expected from her work on The Fannie Farmer Baking Book and The Breakfast Book. Your piecrusts will always be crisp and flaky under her tutelage.

From Publishers Weekly
In its 13th edition, a classic American cookbook is here revised for the contemporary home cook. Restaurant consultant and San Francisco Chronicle columnist Cunningham has added chapters on microwave and outdoor cooking, cut down on excessive fats and revived lost comfort foods (lemon curd, semolina pudding). Warnings about salmonella and other health concerns are highlighted; abundant new and vegetarian recipes are conveniently marked. Cunningham's 325 additions to the Farmer roster use ingredients from ethnic cuisines, including Mexican and Indian spices and Chinese sesame oil and rice vinegar. Contradicting manufacturers' claims for the microwave oven, she carefully explains its best uses (steaming or braising foods) and offers recipes specifically designed to take advantage of its virtues (quick polenta, bananas in caramel sauce). True to its American roots, this remains an excellent meat-and-potatoes cookbook, but exhibits welcome range--from frankfurters to roast goose, smoked salmon tartare to trail mix--relishing food as a social enterprise. Illustrations not seen by PW. Author tour; BOMC alternate, Home Style Book Club main selection, Better Homes and Gardens Book Club alternate.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
This " Fannie Farmer for the Nineties" is not so very different from the Fannie Farmer for the Eighties. Cunningham's major revision and 12th edition of this 94-year-old title was published in 1979; for this edition, she has dropped some "stodgy" recipes and added 300 new ones--Lobster Newburg, Capellini with Salsa Cruda, Baked Apples. There are new, fairly brief chapters on microwaving, outdoor cooking, and vegetarian dishes (new dishes and other vegetarian dishes are highlighted throughout the book). This by no means replaces the 12th edition, but Fannie Farmer remains a classic, making Cunningham's latest revision essential for most collections. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/1/90.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Still the one
If I could only have one cookbook -- this would be it. I buy it as a gift for kids starting out on their own and foreign visitors looking for a souvenir of America. It is nearly encyclopedic and the recipes are of a uniformly good quality. I find the recipes more consistently good than Betty Crocker and consistently better than the Joy of Cooking. The only general purpose standard American cookbook that beats it for the taste of the food is James Beard (who unfortunately died of heart failure for a reason -- food tastes better with more butter, cream and sugar).

Of course, I actually own a couple of hundred cookbooks -- so I no longer use it every day. I tend to find a recipe here, a recipe there that I like (often a unique treat). But when someone requests something standard that I don't have a special favorite for, I always start here. And Thanksgiving would not be Thanksgiving without Fanny Farmer on the counter -- sweet potatoes with pineapple (sometimes) and pecans (always) and creamed onions. This book has some of the best recipes of Marion Cunningham's other classic The Breakfast Book (e.g., Dutch Babies) but not all (so buy both). As with all New England cooking, it excels at the finish (Indian pudding, every cake in the book and cookies -- lace in particular). Pies are also first rate (although I usually use the Norske Nook for pies -- the advantage of having more books). By the way, the recipes do go beyond traditional American, I just rarely try the "ethnic" ones since I usually have a specialized alternative.

The only negative about the book is the formatting. The recipes are written in one paragraph (steps are not broken out). This makes them compact (and allows more recipes in a book). But I find it too easy to skip a sentence and miss a step.

If you are looking for a general purpose, day in day out cookbook, you cannot go wrong here.

The Best of The Best!
The Fannie Farmer Cookbook has been a staple in our kitchen for over 30-years. I've not found a better guide and I give it as a gift to new households.

Great basic cookbook
The Fanny Farmer cookbook is great for somebody who just needs to know how to make good, solid meals. It does not have all the fancy recipes that other books have. Instead, it is just the kind of cooking that Mom did to feed her family. In addition, it has thousands of recipes and how-to-cook suggestions so that you will always know what to do...