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The Fabulous Fannie Farmer - Emma Bland Smith & Susan Reagan

By Emma Bland Smith & Susan Reagan

Release Date: 2024-01-30

Genre: Cooking & Food for Kids

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ALSC Notable Children's Book
CCBC Choices 2025
A NSTA-CBC Best STEM Book
2025 Texas Topaz List
2025 Rise: A Feminist Book Project Title

Fannie Farmer, Americaā€™s most famous cooking teacher, discovers that precise measurements are a recipe for cooking success in this STEAM picture book that includes two of her classic recipes.

ā˜… School Library Journal, starred review
ā˜… Youth Services Book Review, starred review

When Fannie Farmer learned to cook in the late 1800s, recipes could be pretty silly. They might call for ā€œa goodly amount of saltā€ or ā€œa lump of butterā€ or ā€œa suspicion of nutmeg.ā€ Girls were supposed to use their ā€œfeminine instinctsā€ in the kitchen (or maybe just guess). Despite this problem, Fannie loved cooking, so when polio prevented her from going to college, she became a teacher at the Boston Cooking School. Unlike her mother or earlier cookbook writers, Fannie didnā€™t believe in feminine instincts. To her, cooking was a science. Sheā€™d noticed that precise measurements and specific instructions ensured that cakes rose instead of flopped and doughnuts fried instead of burned. Students liked Fannieā€™s approach so much that she wrote a cookbook. Despite skepticism from publishers, Fannieā€™s book was a recipe for success.

Written with humor and brought to life with charming illustrations, this book explores the origins of Fannie Farmerā€™s quintessentially American cookbook. A cookbook that was beloved because it allowed anyone to make tasty things, with no guessing, no luckā€”and certainly no feminine instinctsā€”required.

The Fabulous Fannie Farmer - Emma Bland Smith & Susan Reagan

By Emma Bland Smith & Susan Reagan

Release Date: 2024-01-30

Genre: Cooking & Food for Kids

(0 ratings)
Read Download
ALSC Notable Children's Book
CCBC Choices 2025
A NSTA-CBC Best STEM Book
2025 Texas Topaz List
2025 Rise: A Feminist Book Project Title

Fannie Farmer, Americaā€™s most famous cooking teacher, discovers that precise measurements are a recipe for cooking success in this STEAM picture book that includes two of her classic recipes.

ā˜… School Library Journal, starred review
ā˜… Youth Services Book Review, starred review

When Fannie Farmer learned to cook in the late 1800s, recipes could be pretty silly. They might call for ā€œa goodly amount of saltā€ or ā€œa lump of butterā€ or ā€œa suspicion of nutmeg.ā€ Girls were supposed to use their ā€œfeminine instinctsā€ in the kitchen (or maybe just guess). Despite this problem, Fannie loved cooking, so when polio prevented her from going to college, she became a teacher at the Boston Cooking School. Unlike her mother or earlier cookbook writers, Fannie didnā€™t believe in feminine instincts. To her, cooking was a science. Sheā€™d noticed that precise measurements and specific instructions ensured that cakes rose instead of flopped and doughnuts fried instead of burned. Students liked Fannieā€™s approach so much that she wrote a cookbook. Despite skepticism from publishers, Fannieā€™s book was a recipe for success.

Written with humor and brought to life with charming illustrations, this book explores the origins of Fannie Farmerā€™s quintessentially American cookbook. A cookbook that was beloved because it allowed anyone to make tasty things, with no guessing, no luckā€”and certainly no feminine instinctsā€”required.

More by Emma Bland Smith & Susan Reagan

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The Fabulous Fannie Farmer

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