Canning and preserving belong to an old tradition that is seeing a new interest. Not canned fruits or vegetables make great gifts, they let us enjoy our favorites even when they are out of season. ture, we have our memory to let us imagine, even smell, a peach in October, when it is not there, but, having canned some during the season, we can even taste them.
BALL Complete Book of Home Preserving
by Judi Kingry
Amazon Price: .61
Used Price: .69
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Review (rating: 3):
This book is great for beginners or those with little experience in canning - especially pressure canning.
Lots of recipes and instructions though a little higher-priced than I would have thought.
For the experienced canner there is little in this book that you can't find online with a little effort through various recipe websites or other information resources.
If you are just starting or learning the art of canning I recommend the book. However, for the rest of us it isn't worth the expenditure.
Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables
by Mike Bubel
Amazon Price: .17
Used Price: .24
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Review (rating: 5):
Love this book. The author did a great job providing several different forms of root cellaring and comprehensive instructions on how to build and maintain them. Everything from building an out building, to using an old refrigerator. Plenty of sketches and photos. They include lists of produce that is easy to store, and how to store it. Also included is plenty of recipes.
Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing
by Michael Ruhlman
Amazon Price: .10
Used Price: .85
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Review (rating: 5):
This is a great book and I love it, but I've found some errors, I believe, in the sausage recipes. They often say to use 2-3 tablespoons of salt for 5 lb of meat. If one tablespoon is 3 teaspoons, that is 6-9 teaspoons. Most of the recipes I've seen elsewhere call for just one teaspoon of salt per pound and really more than that tastes too salty to me. Don't let that stop you from trying the recipes, but remember that you can always add more salt, can't get it back out again easily.
I just made the turkey sausage recipe from the book with the sour cherries. I used bacon for the pork fat since that is hard to find here. (Using 3 tsp. salt since the bacon was salt-cured.) It was really delicious, very gourmet!
This is a great book for someone who wants to try making more of their own foods to lea...
Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods
by Sandor Ellix Katz
Amazon Price: .50
Used Price: .26
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Review (rating: 5):
I love this book so much. It's well written, with clear, concise, unintimidating instructions for so many kinds of ferments. The start of each chapter is a bit of history and commentary, and it's as much fun to read the non-recipe parts as it is to look at the recipes and make plans to incorporate fermented foods in your diet.
For me, the most inspiring instructions were for the ginger ale, the sourdough starter, and the vinegar. I love the idea of making my own vinegars from scratch for on salads, and I love baking bread, the idea of doing it with my own wild yeast starter is really exciting.
I love his introduction chapters, and his philosophy about fermenting. I've recommended this book both to people I know who are really interested in politics and sociology and people who are interested in cook...
Mary Bell's Complete Dehydrator Cookbook
by Mary Bell
Amazon Price: .59
Used Price: .99
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Review (rating: 5):
I needed to get more information on how to dehydrate foods, what foods were good to dehydrate and then how do I use them later in a recipe. This book covers all that and I am looking forward to using it very often as my resource.
Putting Food By (Plume)
by Janet Greene
Amazon Price: .97
Used Price: .54
Average Customer Rating: 5.0
Review (rating: 5):
This is a book everyone who does any food preservation should have. I bought one for myself and one for a gift.
Canning & Preserving for Dummies
by Karen Ward
Amazon Price: .55
Used Price: .47
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Review (rating: 4):
as always the 'for dummies' series is always full of interesting, educational information without being boring. alot of the info in the book can be found on the fda websites for free download, but it's got some good solid info and makes a nice gift for the novice canner.
Preserving Summer's Bounty: A Quick and Easy Guide to Freezing, Canning, and ...
by Rodale Food Center
Amazon Price: .53
Used Price: .63
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Review (rating: 5):
This book is excellent. Instead of just a book of recipes, although it does have them, it has practical how-to instruction on canning, freezing, drying and more. It also goes beyond the how-to and gives you the why. It is easier to improvise and change things if you know the why and not just the how...this book does that.
I highly recommend it.
