The Modern Family Cook Book

Chicago: J. G. Ferguson and Associates (2nd Edition, 1953). Hardcover with gray boards; no dust jacket (if issued). Spine has been repaired with black book tape; hinges are loose, but intact. Text pages and all edges are toned; faint red stain covering part of top edge (possible bleeding from endpapers). Boards are scuffed, with edge wear and bumped corners. Pictorial endpapers are still brightly colored. A few pages have minor food stains.

ABOUT THE BOOK: Meta Given's Modern Family Cook Book is a mid-century modern culinary classic, a beloved and bestselling family cookbook that features thrifty, time-saving and money-saving ways of cooking and creating all the traditional classics. With sections on measurements, dollar stretching, freezing, care of food in the home, menus, diets, children's food, beverages, meat sundries, preserving and canning, chowders, sandwiches, deep fat frying, leftovers, candy, and all the usual favorites from cookies and cakes to eggs, meat, cheese, bread, seafood and vegetables.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Meta Hortense Given (1888 – 1981) was an American entrepreneur, nutritionist, home economist, photographer and best-selling cookbook author. Given grew up working on her family's farm in Missouri. There, little variety in foodstuffs were available, and after studying nutrition as an undergraduate at the University of Missouri and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and she also did undergraduate and graduate work at the University of Chicago. Given grew interested in devising recipes that maximized the culinary and gustatory value of farm staples but minimized the cost to the consumer. Her best-selling The Modern Family Cookbook was first published in 1942; the Encyclopedia of Modern Cooking was published in two volumes in 1947. Both were revised and reprinted in succeeding decades and followed during the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s by other volumes about food and cooking.