It is stunning to me how much the world of information around canning, preserving and DIY food arts has expanded in the last couple of years. When I first started this blog in early 2009, it was so easy to be familiar with the canon of books on the topic. I had them all and they took up about 18 inches of space on the bookshelf.
Then suddenly, a new wave of books started to flow onto the market. One of the best of this first round was Karen Solomon’s Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It. It offered instruction on canning, easy home dairy items and a variety of other projects that were universally welcomed by home cooks who wanted slightly more control over their food.
Karen recently published a follow-up volume called Can It, Bottle It, Smoke It that is just as delightful as her first book. It includes a handful traditional preserves, as well as instructions for homemade cereals (cornflakes! puffed rice!), miso, rice milk, smoked nuts and so much more.
For those of you who were intrigued but overwhelmed by Charcutepalooza and its many meaty challenges, you’re going to want to take a peek at the Hunt It section of the book. Karen has included a series of accessible, easy to follow recipes for corned beef, pastrami and hot dogs (as well as instructions for how to transform those hot dogs into corn dogs.
Every time I sit down with this book for more than a few minutes, I start to itch for the kitchen. The urge to cook become irresistible. My apartment has seen her Sesame Rosemary Granola, the Basic Barbecue Sauce and the Pickled Grapes (so good).
Last fall when I was in San Francisco, I got to meet Karen. We were both judges at the Good Food Awards and during a break in the tasting, she bought me a cup of coffee and we shared tales of obsessive preserving and cookbook writing. Somehow, that led to a request that I write a blurb for the book’s back cover. Entirely flattered, I was thrilled to do it.
All that said, here’s the point I really want to make. Even if I’d never known the first book, never met Karen and never spent hours pouring over a xeroxed galley copy trying to concisely say why I thought it was so good, I would still like this book. The recipes are super solid. The head notes are full of personality. And the pictures are pretty. It’s definitely a buy it, use it, love it book.
My tomatoes are finally starting to ripen. My project this week will be canning tomatoes. when I have enough sauce – I will start using the green tomatoes and peppers to make my husband’s Great Aunts recipe for Chow Chow.
We have a huge kitchen project to tackle this winter. A very old built in stove and oven needs to come out which calls for some rebuilding of the present cabinets and counter tops.
I’ve gotten a good start on pickling, this year I want to tackle jam making.
I have so many projects I’d like to do! I think the first one is making homemade tomato sauce.
I’d like to do pickled peppers. The garden isn’t thriving with so little rain, but the pepper plants haven’t seemed to notice 🙂
Canning anything smoked, fish or meat. I say anything because I’ve yet to conquer smoking. Then again, one has to try in order to conquer. 🙂 First I really need to get those two HUGE turkeys out of my freezer, get them cooked and can them up into individual meals.
I’d love to tackle a cordial, an alcohol anything. For some reason, these seem mysterious to me even after tackling lots of jarred recipes over the years.
You must try it. Making your own cordials is almost too easy. All you need is patience as it can require several weeks or months before you can taste your final product. One of the oddest yet amazingly delicious is “nocchino” made out of fresh, black walnuts still in their casings and a few simple spices. Super easy.
I’m going to figure out how to make a creamy fennel gratin. If I make it the traditional way, they separate. Delicious, but ugly. I want creamy.
This book looks great. Homemade cornflakes? Soda syrups sound like a great Christmas gift idea.
Next kitchen project is to clean out the spice cupboard. Lord only knows what is in the back of that bad boy.
Oh boy a kitchen project. We are renovating an 1860s farmhouse so there are so many to choose from! This weekend we are tiling the mudroom floor and we are putting sheet rock on the what-will-soon-be-a-pantry walls! Very excited stuff! Thanks for a shot at winning such a great looking book!
I have canned tomatoes but never a pasta sauce so that is next on the list.
I’ve started canning for the first time this year and am loving it. My two goals for the remainder of the season are to can plenty of salsa and plenty of applesauce.
Does is have to be big or anything? I want to tackle under the sink. I need organizers under there…
I want to have organized spices. I have a drawer set aside for spices but need more jars!
Sourdough in all it’s complexity. I just spent a week experimenting with a starter I was given but it was very lazy so now it’s resting in the refrigerator until I try it again. I ordered a free sample of Carl’s 150 year old sourdough starter and am waiting to try that one.
I am new to your site but enjoying it very much.
Thanks for this! I’ve been wanting a starter, but no one around here bakes sourdough bread. 🙂
I have a glut of cherry tomatoes that are begging to be dehydrated!
hey! I’m going to try for this lovely book too! what fun! the one thing in the kitchen I have been wanting to tackle forever and haven’t yet is making homemade pasta. I really have to get on that!
Cornflakes! I had no idea! I would like to make some pickled carrots this week. Never tried those.
Just washed 4 bushels of green apples. We’ll be making apple butter and pepper apple preserves today. Canning tomorrow. Then, something fun with the skins!
I just moved into a new house, so my biggest kitchen project is getting everything organized! Right now everything is shoved into cabinets and drawers , and I can’t find anything!
Cheesemaking & pressure canning are the top two on my list. But first I need to make an inventory of everything I’ve canned so far this season!
Nocino! Finally, something to do with those walnut trees sprouting in my yard. (And if I miss this season… walnut ice cream!)
My next project should be cleaning out the pantry, but will more realistically be making a peach pie:@)
I think my next attempt will be using the pressure canner.
in two weeks: me vs. the tomatoes. I’m taking a whole week off from work to can puree and juice. I am serious!
the last time I tried to make jam, I terribly failed. I ended up with two jars of balsamic strawberry syrup. so I still need to tackle the jam making. I think with more knowledge behind me I can do it. oh and bake a pie. that’s been on my list for a looong time now.
Oh, so many! Root beer, ginger ale, lacto-fermented pickles….yum!!
I’ve been wanting to put in some sort of backsplash. Cookingwise? Canning, of course!
I would love to refinish the floors in our kitchen! Cooking wise, I have been wanting to make crockpot yogurt and ricotta cheese for some time…maybe this week!
I want to get all my summer canning done before the doctor ok’s my knee replacement surgery. Salsa verde, jams, jellies, so many pears to can. Clean out the basement to make more room for my canned goods. So much to do, so little time. And wouldn’t it be nice to make my own hotdogs so that I’d know what REALLY goes into them.
My husband is an avid fisherman and we are running out of freezer space with dish, I’d love to try to can salmon sometime
I want to make Watermelon Pickles. I remember having these as a child and I’ve been
dreaming of them.
Pressure canning, there is so much more you can preserve, but it makes a bit nervous.
Home cured bacon!
I would like to build maybe 4″ wide shelves with sliding doors to hold my canned goods ~ just narrow the dining room by that 5″ all along one wall! I only have 3 walls because my guests can sit in the dining room and see everything that’s going on in the kitchen.
New to canning but got the hang of jams, jellies and preserves…would love to start on other things like veggies and sauces for the winter. Can’t believe I started all this at almost 60 years old! Who knew I would love it….even more than quilting!
I would like to design and have made (by my husband) a vertical pot rack on one end of my kitchen island. After 50+ years of marriage I deserve one! Also looking for a new jelly making pot! While making basil peach jam last year my old enamel jelly pan suffered a bad scorch. It was so good , we were able to salvage some of it.
The corn flake recipe intrigues me, hope I win the new give-away!
The new book looks great; we love the first one. We’re picking peaches this morning and putting them up this afternoon – –
Pressure canning – my goal for next year (as I am up to my neck in canning projects this season – I think I’ll wait ’till the winter to take on a new challenge!)
We are hoping to tackle sausage making this year…and I’ve just started canning again for the first time in years and am loving it.
I would love to smoke some fish so I can send it back home to my family for Christmas gifts.
My next kitchen project is to grind breakfast sausuage this weekend, use the bones to make pork stock, and think of something to do with the 12 pounds of tomatoes that are left over from making salsa yesterday.
My current kitchen project is trying to teach my teenage daughter how to turn the knob on the dishwasher! LOL! Once I conquer that feat, I’d love to write a cookbook just like Karen’s. And until then, I’d love to have a copy of this book!
I just ordered 2 boxes of pickling cucumbers and 48 lbs of peaches. I found a recipe for a peach jalapeno jelly and can’t wait to try it!!!
would love to finally try making fruit leather, as it’s just so hard to snack on a handful of jam on the go…
I want to make more jam. Jam is my favorite food group.
I would love to process my own meat when my husband comes home with a moose. I want to learn how to make my own sausage!!
I would love to try and make real fermented cucumber pickles and sauerkraut! This book looks amazing!
The next kitchen project is a complete gut and remodel. While I love the original 1950’s styling, the small plywood cupboards do not have enough space except for the very basics, do not have enough depth for a built in dishwasher and the cupboards underneath the drawers are always filled with sawdust. Can’t wait!
I already do just about everything I can with edibles, herbs, meat and even dry flowers, plants and seed pods and make wreathes from woodland findings here in the Santa Cruz mountains in California. It is always fun to find something new and I believe I will in the give-away book you have to offer this week. Thanks for the chance to win and for your great blogs!