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.
What a cool looking book. I’ve been thinking of making more things from scratch like chicken stock and even tortillas, but the thing that I really want to try (or two that is) is yogurt and mozarella. It just fascinates me that people make them from scratch, and I even saw one woman make yogurt in her crock pot! I’m totally trying that.
I loved her first book as well! Can’t wait to take a peek at this one. My husband is an avid hunter so it should come in handy! I just finished up canning Dilly Beans this morning — made from green beans in my mom’s garden. Next up is some pesto from basil that I picked.
I am just learning how to can. So my kitchen project is to can the tomatoes from my garden and to make some jam.
I just bought a case of peaches. My goal is to put them all up one way or another 🙂
I think this will have to be added to my wishlist… I’ve been wanting to make ketchup for a while so that will probably be my next project 🙂
My kitchen project I want to tackle is to make some hard Spanish chorizo. (and start making my own hard sausages – like Genoa and pepperoni)
With watermelons in the garden, all ripening at the same time, I want to try drying some very thin slices. I have a friend who did this and the dry morsels were so much better than I ever expected. They had good flavor, and just melted on your tongue. That’s my next project.
I so want to try making my own greek yogurt – I love that stuff!
I want to learn to use my pressure canner this year. Thus far I have been too intimidated.
My husband’s grandma makes this amazing pear honey that I need to master so that I can carry it on. Hope I win!
Projects on my list…clean out & reorganize my kitchen & pantry, learn to make yeast bread, and learn to can!
I want to add this book to my growing collection of preserving books…I’m addicted now! My next project is to make your apricot jam recipe, and then it’s into clearing a space in our cellar to put a shelving unit to store all the jams and pickles I been making this year.
I want to try some pear jams, as well as nectarine & pear (have pear butter processing as I type)… I’d also like to try making some pickled veggies this summer…
Barb
I want to make my own sous vide machine using a rolling cooler (the kind you keep sodas in). Then, I want to sous vide items using homemade powdered smoke (to impart a smokey flavor). Maybe I can can them afterward!
I would like to try lemon marmalade as I have a very productive lemon tree in my yard.
Would like to learn to make ricotta, cottage, and soft cheeses and make another batch of jalapeno jelly that uses cranberry juice as the liquid.
My kitchen projects include:
– a peach chutney
– green tomato pickles
– dilly beans
– tomatoes with basil
– tuna in oil and jalapenos
and so far this year I have made:
– mulberry jam
– Traverse City Cherry jam
– blueberry champagne jam
– blueberry grand marnier jam
– cucumber pickles
– mixed pepper pickles
– pickled beets
really getting my blog going & getting in a daily habit of writing on it!
My goal is to finally use my pressure canner for PRESSURE canning, not just hot water bath canning. And to put up some tomatoes for my tomato loving husband this winter.
I’m trying to perfect pizza dough and the tomato sauce to put on it (from my garden’s tomatoes).
My big goal (and fear) is canning tomato sauce…I planted tomatoes in my first-ever garden and am growing a huge crop from the six plants I put in. I will make eggplant tomato caponata (also a new recipe) but will tackle the sauce with a little trepidation. I may break out my pressure canner for that one…
Love your posts and fabulous information!
We recently got a smoker and I’m dying to try smoking a duck with tea!
This book looks awesome!
I’ve been wanting to make homemade tortillas. Yum!
I’m waiting for Montana’s Flathead cherries so I can make my brandied cherries 🙂
I’m looking forward to can green chiles and green chile sauce. Roasting, peeling, and seeding 60lbs of green chiles can take up the whole day, so my canning friend and I are thinking about tackling it together!
I’m still looking forward to trying fruit leathers!
I have been wanting to try making gravlax for some time . . . now I am waiting for a friend of mine to get her annual airdrop of king salmon so that I can give it a shot. The plan is to swap trout that DH caught this spring for salmon, so everyone should be happy!
I’ve been wanting to make my own sauerkraut for so long!
We’re waiting for the big tomato harvest to come in to can tomatoes like crazy
I want to make shelves in my kitchen for my spices.
That book looks fantastic! I’ve been wanting to tackle a completely homemade sourdough starter. I actually started one when it was cooler but it didn’t survive long. I can’t wait to try again and actually make some bread from it!
mmmm, smoke. I have always wanted to try smoking foods
It’s more a matter of which thing on my very long list am I dying to make first. I’m just waiting for more cucumbers from my garden so I can make pickles, then when it gets colder I want to try my hand at beef stock. I hope that book is as good as it looks.
I truly need this book and others like it for survival.
I just got a pressure canner – I must admit I am a little nervous after growing up with tales of exploding pot roasts and other stories of ’70s cookery gone horribly wrong! But- I plan on making BBQ sauce when (if) my tomatoes finally ripen and to can beets without pickling them this year.
i want to try making catsup
This book looks AMAZING! It’s always so nice to see how far food photography has come, not to mention preserving in general.
I have been wanting to try my hand at making flavored liqueurs and oils, but I am moving soon and don’t really want to move more stuff. Sigh. Soon I will do it. Maybe it will be a good winter project.
Well I’m still trying to successfully bake a good loaf of bread. Mine are so dense and non-fluffy! I’ve tried new yeast, kneading more, kneading less, adding gluten, etc etc
My next kitchen project is canning…it is that time of year when soon tomatoes will be going like crazy (or so I pray) and I’ll be canning those, more pickles, zucchini relish,and some of our other staples to make it through to next year. I just can’t open that last jar of tomatoes until I KNOW that I’ll be filling hundreds of jars of things again 🙂 So far it has only been a couple of dozen!
Thanks for the giveaway,
Heather
I would love to win this book. The first things I ever canned were my grandmother’s mint jelly and her brandied peaches. I remember sitting at the kitchen table on a hot summer night peeling a bushel of peaches with my grandfather, while my grandmother processed jar after jar. When they get ripe too fast you had better get to work , no matter what time it is!!
I really want to get into dehydrating fruits and vegetables….one of these days I will break down and buy a dehydrator!
Projects! Mine include organizing my canning jars so I’ll actually know how many of what sizes I have, learning to make cheese, and trying to dehydrate some fruits and veggies. Wish us all luck on our various projects!
I need a push to start canning. My mom used to make jam every summer. We would get fresh berries in the morning, she would make pie that day and start jam early the next morning. Homemade jam is so much better that store bought. Jam and tomatoes would be a good start for me!
Such a lovely memory you have Deb! I hope to have a daughter someday who will be able to repeat your words to some or the same variation.
The kitchen project that needs to be done is finish labeling and storing all of the jars put up so far. Dream project? Master my fear of pressure canning. But for today it is get my peach jelly done and figure out what I am doing with all of the tomatoes that were given to me this morning using produce and pantry items on hand. Since the goal is to not spend any more money until pay day.
What a great book! Would love to tackle a few new projects in the kitchen.
Cheesemaking! I plan to tackle it this fall.
I’m a Wisconsin transplant in Vermont (2 great cheese places), so I’ve been dying to make some of my own. I’m also thinking of making some butter and yogurt—basically anything dairy!
Looks like another great book! Over the next few weeks I should be filling the freezer with salmon I’ve caught here in Puget Sound – time to make more gravlax!
After successfully making yogurt (in a slow cooker!), I have found myself more interested in things that involve culturing: sourdough, cheese…kombucha? I’ve never successfully kept a sourdough starter alive for more than few months, but I had an equally abysmal record with plants and this summer my potted garden’s going strong. So maybe the time is ripe.
I am working on our family being as self sufficient as possible. I adore canning and preserving and need as many ideas as possible….this would open up alot of jars for me!