Mary Johnson Bailey Lincoln was an instructor at the Boston Cooking School, where she influenced a generation of cooking professionals, including Fannie Farmer, with her methods based in the "chemistry and philosophy of food." The Boston Cook Book, published in 1883, became a standard in American kitchens and was also widely used in cooking classrooms. Specific instruction in the basics of technique, kitchen set-up, and preparation insured that young and/or inexperienced cooks would have great success with Mrs. Lincoln's recipes.

"Distinctly a cook-book," this 1910 volume by Mary Lincoln and Anna Barrows aims "not to answer the question 'what" as to choice of foods, nor "why" certain processes have been adopted as best suited to their preparation for the table, but it endeavors to tell "how" to put materials together to produce results pleasing to the eye and palate and nourishing to the body."