Lincoln’s Mrs. Lincoln’s Boston Cook Book: What to Do and What Not to Do in Cooking was influential, especially because Fannie Merritt Farmer was among her students at the Boston Cooking School.
Specifically, Lincoln offers these “Picnic Dishes”: Woodlawn Chicken, Sweetbread Sandwiches, Potted Liver, Highland Eggs, and Chantilly Cakes (chocolate with coconut icing). But she also suggests Bouillon, Parker House Rolls, Lobster en Brochette, Oyster Plant Croquettes, Salad Sandwiches, Gingerbread, Dutch Cheese, Pannikins, Canapes, Curried Eggs, Fried Oysters, and Cole Slaw.
See Mary Johnson Bailey Lincoln. Mrs. Lincoln’s Boston Cook Book: What to Do and What Not to Do in Cooking (Boston, 1884). Below is Lincoln’s recipe for Scotch eggs.
Scotch Eggs. –One cup of lean cooked ham chopped very fine; six hard-boiled eggs. Cook one-third of a cup of stale bread crumbs in one-third of a cup of milk to a smooth paste. Mix it with the ham; add half a teaspoonful of mixed mustard, half a salt (what’s a salt spoonful?) spoonful of cayenne, and one raw egg. Mix well, remove the shells from the eggs, and cover with the mixture. Fry in hot fat for two minutes. Drain, and serve hot or cold, for lunch or picnics. Cut them into halves lengthwise, and arrange each half on a bed of fine parsley. The contrast between the green, red, white, and yellow gives a very pretty effect.
No. 2.–Boil six eggs for twenty minutes. Make a force-meat with one cup of any kind of cold meat finely chopped, half a cup of soft bread crumbs cooked to a paste, in one-third of a cup of milk and one raw egg, beaten light, using just enough of the egg to unite the mixture, being careful not to have it too soft.
If chicken be used, season with chopped parsley and a pinch of herbs; season ham with mustard and cayenne; veal, with lemon juice or horseradish; and salmon, with lemon and cayenne.
Divide the eggs crosswise or lengthwise, or leave them whole. Cover each half or whole egg thickly with the force-meat, and place them on a buttered tin pan, and bake in a hot oven till slightly browned. Arrange on a hot platter with a white sauce poured around (not over) them.