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.
The watermelons in my garden are just delicious this year, as is the rind, so I do believe I will be tackling pickled watermelon rinds. It sounds yummy, and I bet it will be a great way to relive a little summer in the winter months!
I LOVE Karen Solomon’s first book, which contains the kitchen project I’d like to tackle: smoked trout.
Well my pig share is due soon so maybe some lardo or bacon. If not I’ve been promising my mom that I would try to make cracklin from the skin.
I need to clean out my food pantry so I have somewhere to store all of my canned goodies. Those 20 jars of dilly beans made yesterday cannot live on my kitchen counter much longer.
Wow, I’d l love to try this book-I’ve been cooking on family recipes forever, but it may be time to branch out.
I wanted to conquer pickling and finally just jumped in after a trip to the farmer’s market. We’ll see how it all turns out when I open the pickled okra in a few weeks or so. Now, I want to conquer BBQ sauces, figuring out how to store all these jars in a smallish kitchen and creating packaging for jar gift giving. This book looks smashed full of wonderful ideas. Thanks for sharing!
I have been wanting to put up some pickled jalapenos. Our two plants are prolific, and if I wait much longer, it’s likely those spicy little guys are going to wilt on the plant.
the box of peaches on my counter!
Reorganizing my tupperware shelf. It is starting to take over everything. *sigh*
I haven’t even started canning this year, so I’ve got lots to do! First step – your garlic dill pickles from last year. My husband polished them off last year within about 6 months, so I’ve got to increase my production!
Picklepalooza is coming up soon at my house — always looking for new idesas to try.
I want to tackle making my own cheese….I’ve done butter and I think yogurt would be a snap….cheese always seems pretty daunting to me, but its on my list.
I would love to purchase a pressure canner and begin canning my own food. I have been researching the topic of canning and made a trip to my local cannery where I canned strawberry jam and tomatoes. I am truly anxious to begin more canning projects. Karen’s book sounds very helpful. I would love to win the giveaway. Thanks for the offer
Karen
I have so many things I’d like to try but never seem to have enough time. I expanded my garden this year and have squash and zucchini coming on, so I would like to make zucchini pickles.
I’d like to finally motivate myself to try making yogurt. More urgently, though, I ought to be making space for an impending avalanche of baby bottles and sippy cups!
I’ve been wanting to use my pressure canner more; I’m still a little afraid of it :S
I made pickles for the first time this summer due to your blog. I plan on canning tomatoes later this summer. I also love to freeze whole tomatoes and have done so for a few years due to advice from the farmer’s wife where I buy tomatoes until mine get ready. Really easy and really good in the winter.
Just getting back in the kitchen with everything else going on!
waiting for it to get just a leeeeetle cooler so i can smoke some more pork in my apartment again…
I’ve made quick refrigerator pickles many times, and want to tackle fermented sour pickles this summer. Waiting semi-patiently for our cucumber vines to really get going…
I want to try pressure canning turkey stock. I’m tired of taking up freezer space for the stock, and I have a new (from Christmas) pressure canner that I still haven’t used. Seems like stock might be a good thing to try it out with.
pickles! it will happen this weekend. they will be conquered!
i love her first book! and (hopefully) my next project is a batch of the graham crackers from that book.
I think (no, I know) that I have become addicted to printing off recipes that I have found on the internet. Now I need to take some time and organize them into some folders so that I might be able to find one that I would like to make!
Cleaning off my counters and reorganizing the kitchent cabinets are my top priorities. It’ll make cooking and everything else easier.
Does redecorating count? I would love to paint and put up a pot hanging rack. I really want to make some salsa and BBQ sauces this year.
I’ve been wanting to reorganize the cabinets in my kitchen for months, but never finding the time. 🙂
I think I’d like to can soups next. So far I’ve only done tomato products, jams/butters and veggies.
Ah, the next project will be something pickled. I don’t like pickles (or anything vinegar-y) but my boyfriend sure does, and I’d love to surprise him with a jar filled with something that’s not super sweet and jammy.
I would love a copy of that book. I am just learning so any help would be appreciated.
My last canning attempt was a disaster; my next kitchen project will be to muster the courage to try it again!
Well, I need to make blackberry jam from the few pounds of wild ones I picked … and I have the scars to prove it:)
I’m hoping to make pickles from the pickling cucumbers I’m growing in the garden.
I just finished 120lbs of tomatoes and need to start on the meager 20lbs of peaches in the kitchen next!! But first, blueberry picking!!
Ahhh…I need to figure out how to organize all my spices in such a small space!!!!!
I’m going to make stone fruit chutney today. Yum!!!
I would like to make some homemade ricotta, but the 10 lbs. of strawberries in my fridge will need to be tackled first.
I just checked this book out from the library last Friday! I’m so fortunate to have a local library system FULL of canning and food preservation books! This book has definitely made it onto my purchase wish list!
My current kitchen project is to figure out how to add more shelves to the wall! My vast selection of dried beans have taken over!
We are still in the process of remodeling our kitchen, but a smaller project to tackle: homemade tofu and soy milk. I’d love to make this happen 🙂
My next kitchen project is homemade ricotta cheese. I know it’s easy, but I just haven’t gotten around it it!
I want to make homemade bacon. I’m a chicken when it comes to homemade meat products though.
Lebanese stuffed grape leaves…I just picked the leaves in my friend’s backyard and now I have no more excuses!
I want to master puff pastry from scratch. And also find a way to keep our counters clear.
Dehydrate my herbs and try dehydrated marshmallows. My machine got recalled so I am waiting for the replacement.
I want to make homemade ketchup and mustard!
I want to expand our kitchen cabinets (to make room for all my newly canned goods). We have old cabinets from the 1960s that only go 3/4 of the way to the ceiling. I’m dying to add frosted glass cabinets along the top that would replace the basket storage we have up there now.
projects…there are many. Mainly I would just like to make and put up the curtain over my sink, or paint the floor, or finish the dish drying mat,or or or 😉
Our kitchen remodeling project is underway. We have been “talking” about it for 15 years.
I want to make cheese and jerky!
We do quite a bit of canning and freezing over the summer months, but I have yet to find the perfect pickle. That’s my goal this summer.
Steam cleaning the floor? Salt dough ornaments? No, no, the one I’ve been procrastinating the longest: Kale chips. Its too hot to bake 🙂
I’d love to make ketchup! I planted extra plum tomato plants this year in the hopes I’d have enough to dry and make ketchup but they just aren’t as prolific as I was hoping. I saw this book has a plum ketchup recipe, I’d love to try that one. I made a plum sauce this year (cooked it a bit to long, it’s really thick) and would love to try a plum ketchup.
There are a lot of kitchen projects I’d like to tackle but right now the one that tops the list is canning. I’ve been gathering my supplies and knowledge and just yesterday at the farmers market I purchased the ingredients that I didn’t grow in my garden. My first attempt 6 pints of salsa and a quart of peaches. I’m nervous and excited. Growing up my grandma always canned. I really wish she were still alive to teach me. Wish me luck with my project.
My next project will be pressure canning meat…I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to learn how to cure it and smoke it as well….Kitchen project? Need a complete over freaking haul!
I’ve learned via Food in Jars how to can fruits, but now I’d like to go to the next level with pickles and smoking meat. We never eat out anymore–too much good food right here!
I would love to try my hand at cured meats. I make brats to grill during the summer, but it’s be great to take the next step with some andouille!
The list is too long to even imagine, but beer and vinegar are both pretty high up there…
I want to make pretzels and mustard. Preferably on the same day so I can enjoy them together.
I’ve been wanting to make Savory Onion Jam, but I simply cannot find a recipe. I’m beginning to think that I’ll need a pressure cooker to actually make this–since I’m not sure how acidic onion jam would actually be.
Cleaned out the Fridge. Good to now have good food and flavors
I’ve been itching to make my own miso and I’ve been dreaming about a sourdough starter since I started baking bread (three years ago!) I hope I can finally give myself the kick in the pants I need to conquer either (or both) project.
I really want to do some cheese making. I’m an avid canner as well and am really hoping my pie pumpkin plants produce many pumpkins so I can put up puree, pumpkin butter, and Harry Potter’s Pumpkin Juice 🙂
I’d really like to get started canning, jams and preserves! I grew up seeing my grandma’s shelves full of can-goods, and would love to learn how! This book would give me a great start!
I’m new to canning. made my first strawberry jam several weeks ago, and it turned out to be strawberry syrup. Even so the family loved it. I want to put up enough strawbererry syrup to last to next summer’s crop. Investigating jars right now…. would love a copy of the new book!
So many kitchen projects I need to do. What I really want to do next is build some shelves into my coat closet and get some more mason jars to make a little pantry. I have way too little storage space in my kitchen.
I want to try making cheese Fron Karen’s first book. Loved it!
Kitchen projects? Where would I start? I want to be completely self-sufficient someday, so my list is long. Making my own cheese would be nice, and curing meat would be handy too. I’m excited to see what’s in the book!
My main goal lately has been to learn how to make more lacto-fermented things!
This book looks great! I grew up in southeast Alaska and loved to help smoke and can our freshly caught salmon. Now that I live far away from the ocean, I would really like to expand my canning repertoire beyond seafood! One of the local farms here lets customers pick their own produce, so I am looking forward to picking fresh tomatoes for canned tomato sauce and salsa. Can’t wait!
I’d love to get around to trying my hand at pickled grapes!
The book looks Awesome!! I would love it!
I’ve recently started my hand at making soft cheese and roasting coffee. Today it was getting raspberry vinegar started as well as blueberry liqueur. Have the vanilla beans here and ready to make vanilla! Think I am going to roast some coffee for the Kahlua I want to make.
My next kitchen project …. when the tomatoes are ripe here, I want to make and can Bloody Mary Mix and Salsa.
I want to learn how to make any variety of jams with xylitol or stevia. I have tackled the relishes…now on to the jellies!
I just started canning and I love it. I tackled apple sauce today which was a biggie because of the amount of apples needed. It tasted so much better than store bought. Two things I would like to tackle is peach salsa and tomato sauce. This book looks like an inspiration for both new canners and the experienced canner.
I’ve been putting off doing peaches for a couple of years this year. As a child, we had an over productive peach tree in our front yard. Peaches so juicy it runs down your chin. So many, we fed the ones on the ground to my rabbits (who also love to eat peaches). So much that my mom canned peaches, pie filling, and schnapps, among other things. (The tree has since split and died)
This year, I’m going to the orchard and I can’t wait.
I would love this book! We tackled a project today — we canned 36 jars of salsa. Yah!
Oh, I loved the first book! My must-try-next project is mustard, because I love, love, love my honey-mustard vinaigrette and I want to use all homemade ingrediants. Also, cheesemaking is on the list.
I am wanting to run a new electrical outlet in my kitchen so that I can move my refrigerator over to a different corner that currently doesn’t have electricity. After that, I am going to install shelves where the refrigerator was. The shelves will be used to store all the newly canned goodies that I’ve been making.
Well, I guess this is a kitchen project… but I have about 5,394,298 cooking magazines and books, it’s about time to PURGE. I’ve been wanting to take a couple of evenings, and a 3 ring binder, and pull out the recipes I know I want and dump the ones I don’t. I keep telling myself that my tastes will change and I’ll regret throwing or gifting the recipes I don’t want now. But, the truth of the matter is, I’m not looking at ANY of them now because the thought is too overwhelming! I have to keep the cookbooks I use on a regular basis and gift the ones I don’t! (this book would be a keeper!!! 😉
I have made approx. 20 pints of several different types of pickles, and am officially pickled out! And now have several dozen tomatoes staring at me from my kitchen counter.
My biggest kitchen project is making red pepper sauce and tomato paste. We have 7 tomato varieties and 5 different red pepper. I have to find something to do with all of it. I need to take my canning to the next level and try new recipes.
What a gorgeous looking books! Kitchen-project-wise I so need to find some time to hard-clean the fridge and freezer out. It has been on the to do list all summer, and other projects just kept taking precedence – I am hoping to have it done before the end of August, though. *crosses fingers*
I’d like to try making ketchup.
I want get the kitchen painted, and as a side note I want to get the basement user-friendly so that jars aren’t such a pain to go get.
Canning beans starts tomorrow, and canning frozen ground pork so I have room for peaches in the freezer.
HOLY FEEDBACK!! 620 COMMENTS!?!!? You are single handily bringing canning back on the radar!!!! With that said, I am dying to do your canned vanilla pears! I have decided the canned vanilla pears will be my Christmas gifts this year…. OH and BACON JAM! I saw the recipe in January and I have a brother-in-law who will devour it.
My kitchen project is to make a roasted tomato sauce out of the early tomato harvest that already spans across an entire windowsill.
Pickled green tomatoes! I had them on a charcuterie plate at a restaurant in Portland and I need them in my pantry…
I really want to try cold-pickled blueberries for use in drinks.
I’ve been wanting to can our tomatoes once they finally start ripening! It will be the first time trying.
Smoke-dried tomatoes!
My current project is just keeping up with canning whatever is “in” in the garden!
I want to can a bunch of tomatoes!!
So many projects, so little time. First on the list is to get the garden in order and start to prep all of the veg/fruits for pickling, roasting and freezing. Second is to finally paint the wall and and cabinets. The paint cans have been sitting in the corner for quite some time. I do dust them occasionally 🙂
I regularly can it, but this sounds like a book that will expand my smoky horizons.
I just loved her first book and would love her second. The kitchen project I need to do is organize the spice cabinet. I never find a way I’m happy with and reorganize it often, so its time to do it again – maybe I’ll finally find a system!
I am getting a crate of peaches on Friday. I will be canning all sort of peach concoctions. I am going to try my hand at some peach salsa.
Thanks for a great giveaway! I am anxious to make some of my grandmother’s sandwich spread and get it canned soon.
All I desperately want to do in the kitchen this year is to find the 5 pepper ketchup recipe I used last year that came out perfectly, but of course I forgot to right it done. So learning from my huge mistake, I am now righting everything down on index cards and actually using my vintage recipe box to keep them in. And, also, in the next few days I’m gonna try my hand at putting up the overload of banana peppers I have growing in the garden.
My lovely boyfriend does most of the cooking in our house – but he’s a fiend for pickles, so I’d really love to learn how to make the perfect pickle, as a way to say thanks for everything he does for me!
My next project will be home canned Refried Beans. I did this last year and put up 11 quarts. We are down to only two jars now.
But I misplacted the instructions. So I did some reserch and found your web-site. I will use the instructions I have found here on my next day off.
My project is to get summer fruits and veggies in the freezer, canned and dehydrated for winter 🙂