Fannie Farmer was born 161 years ago March 23. Her “Boston Cooking-School Cook Book” introduced the concept of standardized measurements in recipes and included information on housekeeping, preservation of foods, and nutrition. She provided scientific explanations for the chemical processes that occur in food during cooking, and published suggested diets for specific illnesses, leading to an invitation to teach convalescent diet and nutrition to doctors and nurses at Harvard Medical School.

At age 16, a paralytic stroke had forced Fannie to give up plans for college and remain in her parents’ care. She learned to cook while recovering much of her physical function, and enrolled in the Boston Cooking School at the age of 30. Eventually, she created Miss Farmer’s School of Cookery. Although wheelchair-bound in the last years of her life, Fannie Farmer continued to lecture, write, and invent recipes and gave her last lecture 10 days before her death in 1915 at the age of 57.

In 1919, the Fanny Farmer Candy Company traded on her fame but changed the spelling of “Fannie” to “Fanny.” The company once had over 400 white-front candy shops nationwide, but went out of business in 2004. I really liked their maple fudge and almond bark when I was a kid.

Happy Birthday Fannie!