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.
This book looks great! I’d like to replace all the handles/knobs in my kitchen. But, the green bean plants are calling me to make dilly beans, so…
I’ve been itching to make my own cheese (mozzarella to start, and then ultimately hard cheeses like parmesan). That and homemade ginger beer are high on my list!
I’ve been wanting to tackle refrigerator dill pickles b/c I’m scared of canning (one day I will overcome this fear, perhaps the same year that I have enough tomatoes to can) and I looooooooooove pickles, and I found your site’s recipe. I *just* made one wee jar, smaller than a pint, with my homegrown two ripe lemon cukes, garlic, and dill. Here’s hoping they turn out!
I just got a pressure canner. Can’t wait to make stock & beans!!
My husband and I just started fishing, and if there was one project I’d like to tackle, it would be learning how to smoke fish! Thanks for the opp!
My fiance recently brought home an old smoker that his grandmother had. I have no idea what to do with it, so it might be nice to have this book to give me some ideas. 🙂
Painting the kitchen walls a new color is one project (but that might get hired out, so perhaps doesn’t count). Another major endeavor is getting my misc. recipes under control in some neat, organized way.
The one project I want to do next is make ketchup. I would love to win the book, please enter me.
My next project is finding a new a way to preserve all the limes that grow around my house!
I’ve been wanting/needing to can some dill pickles…I have several pounds of cucumbers from my garden waiting for me in the fridge….
I’m getting ready to smoke my first chicken. All I need is a little courage to brave the heat!
Pretzels! Donuts! Everything That I won’t do until it cools down a bit and turning the oven and stove on for fun projects makes sense again!
I’m canning pickled beets from Put Em Up! tonight, pickles and canned tomatoes tomorrow.
The Mr. and I are trying to design a shelf/bookcase in our kitchen pantry to store all our goodies!
Canning the last of the summer’s peaches for sure!
I’ve got my first crock of pickles fermenting on the counter, and a shiny new pressure canner I’m just a teeny bit afraid of still (even after years of regular BW canning), but I’m breaking it in next week!
I just moved cross-country and am stocking my kitchen from scratch, so there’s LOTS I want to make… once I unpack. Condiments, jam, crackers, pickles, sauerkraut, etc. I suppose I’ll start with what I can find in season here, once I figure out what’s in season…
I ordered two canning books this week so I would love to have this one too! At this very moment I am canning my greenbeans. I just got back into canning after a long hiatus. I am loving it!
I would love to pressure can soups, but I don’t have the proper equipment yet. I just started seriously canning this year, so I’m building up.
So many things to choose from, I never leave the kitchen, except for that pesky thing called a job. I guess it would have to be mastering a pressure canner.
Homemade sauerkraut – every time I try it, I end up with a smelly mess.
My grandmother just gave me a couple of pounds of cherry tomatoes fresh from her garden, so I’d like to tackle your recipe for oven-roasted tomatoes so we can enjoy this taste of summer well into winter!
I just found your website while searching for some unique recipes to try now and put up before the colder months.
I have so many things I want to try but I am determined to expand my pantry with homemade vinegars, oils, and maybe even some homemade vanilla (if I can convince my hubby that I really do need those expensive vanilla beans)!
Marshmallows, I have Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It and all the ingredients but still haven’t gotten around to making them. Maybe next weekend.
I have a variety of canned juices and frozen fruit that I had preserved in the craziness of last year’s canning season (so it wouldn’t go to waste while I delt with all the many veggies that needed preserving) that I need to make jelly and jam out of. I really need to do it sooner than later. We only have one jar of strawberry jam left on the self!
This book looks great! I’ve just started getting into basic canning to help use up vegetables from my CSA. I’d love to learn how to pressure can things so I could can my own home-cooked beans.
I’ve been itching to try a million things, but I really want to make some pickled kumquats (a la Indian pickled limes). Now if only January would roll around so we can have kumquats!
The kitchen project at the very top of my list is to learn to make pickles for my husband ~ he loves them!
I would love a copy of this book. My current project is making jam out of the pounds of blueberries that my kids and I picked yesterday. Fun!
I have been wanting to try canning something more than jam, with the garden growing the way it is I think it will be happening this year.
So cool. I met Karen at an event in San Francisco and totally agree. She’s amazing, down-to-earth, and so incredibly humble. I would love to get my mits on her new book. I have a mile-long list of kitchen projects, but I’m mostly interested in preserving/jamming/freezing a pile of peaches sitting on my kitchen counter.
I love canning and just anything in the kitchen. My mother canned a ton of pickles and I remember all of that from my childhood. I have not caned much lately, but I had an opportunity to actually share my canning for the first time in a long time woth other people. I opened a cherished can and cut up my own dill pickles for potato salad.
It was so satisfying to share it!!
I love your blog…thank you for inspiring me every day!
Pam
Real pickles!!
I’ve been dying to try my hand at making crackers. I’ve had Smitten Kitchen’s Spelt crackers on my to-do list since they came out!
Awesome book!
Lately, I’ve been trying to tackle getting more meals canned. As I type I am currently preparing homemade chicken soup to can! So I’m tackling it a little at a time but my goal is to use up the rest of the mason jars I have on hand and put all fresh canned meals up by next weekend!
My project this year will be to fill the majority of canning jars I inherited when my mom passed away. She loved canning her own food, knowing that it was healthy and home made.
This will be no small task as there are dozens of cases of jars, and I’ve been on hiatus from canning for several years. The first to be worked up will be homemade applesauce using the apples from our own trees. Wish me luck!
Amazing giveaway! I’ve been dying to tackle making my own condiments, specifically mustard, sun dried tomato ketchup, and herbed mayonaise. Book looks dreamy!
In addition to my usual ones, I have a huge list of “new” canning projects I want to accomplish this year. I have already made watermelon jelly and zucchini marmalade. Both were yummy! Next I want to try canning salsa, root beer jelly, carrot cake jam, garlic jelly, bacon jam, onion marmalade, and pumpkin and/or apple butter. I’d love a copy of this book for more new ideas!
Thanks,
L
I am trying to convince my boyfriend to build a smokehouse…….mmmm….homemade bacon, cottage ham, sausage…..
I’ve been wanting to make the marshmallow recipe from the first book. Also peach-almond conserve and peach salsa.
I really want to make cheese ! With the price of organic grass-fed raw milk, I just hate the idea of wasting it with a flop, so I keep putting it off. I’d love a copy of this book !
Oh boy, I didn’t know it until right now, but the kitchen project I have been wanting to tackle is hot dogs and if I win this book I’m going to tackle it immediately.
Now that you’ve inspired a canning monster in me, I need to figure out a good way & place to store all these delightful canned goods!
I’m getting ready to can local Oregon tuna.
I’ve been so anxious to try making goat cheese & would love to try it with milk from our own goats. Sadly we don’t have room for goats in our current home so unfortunately it may wait a while. Unless I can get some goats milk locally….
my next project is making and freezing big batches of tomato sauce from the twenty so pounds of tomatoes i just got at the farmer’s market. woo!
Elderflower and Elderberry recipes! We recently bought a cabin in the North Georgia mountains and discovered we have a beautiful Elderberry tree. We were there in early June when the beautifully delicate and fragrant flowers were blooming. Loved watching the bees polinate the flowers and saw the start of the berries before we had to go back home to Florida. I was so excited to see the recent post with all the Elderberry recipes! I will definitely be canning with the berries next summer and making Elderberry cordials with the flowers! Thank you. I’m sooooo inspired!
Definitely have been wanting to try to smoke foods! I’ve heard of some amazing smoked foods from the expected meats to smoked cucumber!
I want to can enough tomates and tomato sauce that I don’t have to buy any this year. I”m excited to get started! Your blog and facebook page are so inspiring!
At the top of my list of the many things I want to try are soft cheeses, and pickled eggs.
I want to improve my sugar free jams and jellies.