Fannie Farmer’s Chicken Pot Pie- Country Style

Is your Mom’s old copy of Fannie Farmer’s The Boston Cooking School Cook Book still gathering dust on the bookshelf or perhaps stowed away in the attic? Well, it might be time to take it down and have a look! I’m glad I did!

Fannie’s cookbook from 1941 remained on our kitchen bookshelf for decades, then another two decades went by before I decided to open it. I always thought the book looked a little old-fashioned, plus there were no splashy color photos in it. After a chef friend of mine told me she used Fannie Farmer’s cookbooks as a ‘bible’ when she was learning to cook, my interest started to pick up.

Fannie was born in 1857 in Boston. After suffering a stroke at age 16, she was encouraged to attend the Boston Cooking School, where she later became principal. Her first cookbook was published in 1896 with only 3,000 copies, but it became a roaring success with millions of copies now in print.

Fannie’s success was due to her introduction of standardized measurements, nutrition, and basic recipes that housewives could follow. She even taught convalescent nutrition classes at Harvard Medical School!

Looking through her Boston Cookbook, there are over 1,000 recipes, ranging from how to make steamed rice to recipes for Oysters à la Duxelles and Rum Tum Tiddy. One thing stands out: everything is made from scratch; in those days, there were no cartons of ready-made chicken stock for sale in supermarkets!

One recipe that attracted my eye was the recipe for Chicken Pot Pie, Country Style, topped with fluffy Biscuits. The gravy is made by using real chicken stock, made by simmering the chicken pieces in a pot of water with various aromatics (onion, bay, leaf, thyme, etc). After reducing the stock, the sauce is thickened with a roux of butter and flour.

Gravy sauce is made from scratch: no pre-packaged chicken stock used here!

Placing the home-made biscuits on top, gives the dish a real down-home country feeling:

What’s the over-all verdict of this dish?

My husband and I agreed that the gravy had a rich taste and my selection of the various vegetables was good (including the pearl onions). However, over the years, our taste buds have become more sophisticated and we wanted to see more ‘heat’ in the flavorings.

The first thing hubby said was, “I’d like to see some curry flavors added to this dish.” Wouldn’t you know it? The next recipe listed after Chicken Pot Pie, Country Style, was Chicken Curry! Looks like Fannie was already looking forward 120 years when my husband would be trying her pie!