The Cookbook

The Cookbook

I have "owned" the cookbook for over 36 years now. The title of it is, Meta Given's Encyclopedia of Cooking and my version is the 1952 edition. My mother had two cookbooks that she used regularly, but this one was her favorite. It is a monster of a book at 1070 pages, including the index. It is filled with menus for a years worth of delectable cooking, beautiful pictures for each chapter, and directions on how to cook everything literally "from soup to nuts".

It was a tremendous gift given to me at my request after my marriage in 1970. We were going to Germany and I knew I had a lot to learn in the cooking department. My mom was a little taken aback I think, that I even asked for the book. We both had used it many times when I lived at home. As I said, she had two books she used, and I just asked for one of them, not knowing that the one I wanted was the most used. She let me take it with me though, and it wasn't until a few years later, when she would call me at our new home in Iowa after our return from Germany, that I fully understood that she would have done anything for me.

As I go through it now to find a recipe, it takes me back to childhood. My mom revered books so there were no dog-eared pages, just slips of paper to mark her most made recipes or favorite information. A newspaper clipping about how long to store foods is slipped into page 229 where can sizes are listed by weight, ounces and uses; A simple small piece of now faded green construction paper takes me to the page where measurements and their equivalents are listed. Another piece of paper on page 536 leads me to a basic recipe for quick bread. Before there was Pizza Hut or Dominos to deliver that mouthwatering treat of American invention, mom made pizza at home with the recipe on page 669. Page 735 is prominent with a torn corner of a 3 cent stamp and part of the envelope for a delicious plum cobbler.

We lived in the Pacific Northwest where seafood is always plentiful. Mom loved almost all seafood from the ocean. Weekend visits to the ocean garnered us a bounty of razor clams which she would grind up to use in fritters or in a chowder. How to clean and steam hard-shell clams is listed on page 913.

The daily Olympian in the 1960's always listed the next day's weather forecast as a small cartoon at the top of the page. "Oh boy!" with an ecstatic man and a full sun points the way to page 1007 and directions on how to make beef pot roasts. That was one of mom's best meals. When Dad was away in the Navy during World War II and Mom was still living with her parents in Seattle, she worked at a meat market. There, she learned how to cut and trim meats, and how to pick out the best cuts to take home to her grateful parents. Probably a great job to have during wartime. She told me she and her co-worker would deliver meat to the "Dog House". Enterprising kids that they were, Mom and her male partner would take along a cut of meat for themselves to the restaurant and they would cook it for their lunch.

There is nothing like coming home from school and walking in the door to the aroma of a mouthwatering garlic-y beef roast cooking in the oven, surrounded by potato halves, onions and long carrots. I have since asked my husband if it doesn't have an effect on him when he walks in the house and smells some favorite meal cooking, but he just looked at me like I was off my rocker. Those good meals that Mom cooked always said, "I love you" to me.

The most humorous page holder is a flyer addressed to my brother from Tumwater High School in 1964 that told him when to show up for registration. It is on page 1029 and I guess it marks the recipe for meat loaf. Page 1032 has a recipe for stuffed cabbage rolls that is marked with a small envelope addressed to me from my grandfather Moline in Seattle dated March 31, 1961. I would have been 10 at that time. I always look at it and wonder why he spelled my first name and added an 'e'. Was it just a curly-Q at the end instead? Mom's cabbage rolls were some of the best I have ever eaten.

Pages and decades later, one of my own page markers is inserted on page 1131. It is a recipe for my subscription to Playgirl magazine! Whoohoo! Now, you would expect the recipe noted to be for Polish sausage or something, right? Nope, it was for making pie crust. Hey, it was the 70's and I thought I was really somethin'.

How to cook baked or Navy beans, or skin and cook a rabbit; Even how to cook a squirrel (which stunk up the whole house!). This cookbook isn't just a reference for cooking. It is a repository of memorabilia and great meals from my childhood. My memories of my mother are in every chapter. I hope I can pass some of her recipes and memories on to my grandchildren someday. I think she would like that.