I just picked up a copy of “The Original Boston Cooking-School Cook Book” by Fannie Merritt Farmer, 1896.

The preface is as follows:

“Cookery means the knowledge of Medea and of Circe and of Helen and of the Queen of Sheba. It means the knowledge of all herbs and fruits and balms and spices, and all that is healing and sweet in the fields and groves and savory in meats. It means carefulness and inventiveness and willingness and readiness of appliances. It means the economy of your grandmothers and the science of the modern chemist; it means much testing and no wasting; it means English thoroughness and French art and Arabian hospitality; and, in fine, it means that you are to be perfectly and always ladies—loaf givers.—RUSKIN.”

Except for the part about always being ladies, this quote, written more than a century ago applies today.

This book, written before the automobile, explains everything from Kola, to Braising, what to do with leftovers, how to set the table, and no fewer than 3 pages dedicated to fire, and how to build one for cooking.

Peruse a digital copy below.