The Farm Cook and Rule Book

The Farm Cook and Rule Book (1923) by Nell B. Nichols is a practical, pioneering guide written for rural and farm homemakers at a time when most cookbooks targeted city women.

Drawing on old-time farm recipes gathered from rural women and her own background, Nichols modernizes traditional dishes with standardized level measurements and incorporates newer labor-saving methods of the era. The result is a comprehensive handbook that helps readers make the most of foods available in farm and small-town kitchens while managing the full range of household responsibilities.

Part I focuses on cooking, with chapters on measuring ingredients, beverages, yeast and quick breads, griddle cakes and waffles, cakes, cookies and doughnuts, cereals, candies, canning and preserving, pickles and relishes, jams and jellies, puddings and desserts, meats, poultry, fish, wild game, salads, sandwiches, sauces, and more. Part II shifts to “rules” for the home: laundry and cleaning methods, labor-saving devices (including homemade fireless cookers and other practical inventions), household recipes (soap-making, wallpaper paste, etc.), grandmother’s beauty secrets, and cooking for the sick.

The book is a vivid snapshot of early-20th-century American farm life and thrifty, resourceful homemaking.