Putting Up More by Stephen Palmer Dowdney is an excellent canning cookbook for those who want to push the boat out and explore a world of preserving projects that are outside the typical array of recipes.
Stephen Palmer Dowdney’s first book, Putting Up
While walking by the Cookbook Stall at Reading Terminal Market about a week ago, I happened to spot Putting Up More
One of the things that makes Dowdney’s books stand out in the pack of canning volumes is the perspective from which he writes. He owned a commercial canning operation for more than 10 years and so isn’t as tethered to the home canning practices to which we all cleave. He sterilizes his jars in a bleach solution instead of a canning pot or dishwasher, utilizes the inversion method for sealing, skips a processing step for hot pack recipes and even gives you the intellectual tools necessary to check the pH levels of your goods.
Though he doesn’t specifically say it, his instructions on how to test acidity and how to adjust to bring your goods into a safe range is the information so many of us have been looking for. As long as you’re willing to follow his directions (to the letter), this technique will finally set you free from the confines of tested recipes. If this sounds appealing to you, I recommend that you get your hands on both Putting Up
He includes a section of canning notes in each recipe, which details whether the recipe is one that will need to have its acid levels tested, what the yield will be, his recommendation for jar size (a hugely helpful bit) and whether the recipe can be safely increased or decreased. Dowdney has also taken a great deal of time to offer up suggestions on how to use and serve each recipe. For those of you who make things and then question what the heck to do with them, this is fantastic.
Other high points of this book include the safe for canning soups (including butternut squash, which I imagine will make some USDA canners devotees freak out), an entire section devoted to products made from hot peppers and an eggplant chutney that sounds incredible. As soon as the eggplant, peppers and summer squash are in season, I’m making it.
Because I think they’re excellent books, I’m giving away the pair of Putting Up
In totally other news, I just started another year of a photo a day over on my other blog, Apartment 2024 (I used my birthday as the start). If you’re curious about what else happens in my life, feel free to take a peek. Recently, I drank a really tasty glass of iced coffee with condensed milk, voted in my local primary election and took a day trip to New Hope courtesy of Chevy.
Since I did some jams and jellies late last season, I’d love to do more but I’d REALLY like to get into pickles!
I just made strawberry jam with just-picked berries and balsamic vinegar and it turned out SO DELICIOUS that I can not wait to make it again.
Rhubarb! Looking for ideas beyond strawberry-rhubarb pie filling. ;o)
Pesto as much as twenty basil plants will give us. We usually freeze blocks of it. But it will be nice to give out at winter solstice. Theirs nothing like a taste of summer in winter.
YAY for canning! I always want to can something new to me and generally different – and it sounds like the books have lots of great ideas! Thanks for doing the giveaway 🙂
I’m looking forward to canning lots and lots of tomatoes!
Awesome giveaway! I haven’t done too much canning to date (lemon curd, applesauce, and blueberry pie filling), but plan on canning all things tomato this summer. I have been reading loads of books and would love to get my hands on these!
I’m looking forward to more whole fruit! Thanks, for the chance to win these, Marisa!
Salsa! Also berries because my kiddos live on them.
I NEED my strawberry preserves…I opened my last jar this morning!
I am looking forward to trying new things this year. I think the most I am lookingforward the sundried tomatoes in olive oil and the blueberry jams.
i am new to canning and am looking forward to trying out some salsa, pickles and jams this summer!
I really want to get over my fear and can this year. I bought the equipment a few years ago, but have been terrified of poisoning my family. This year, I am determined to make a strawberry jam, apricot jam, and the chutney/barbecue sauce recipe from Barbara Kingslover’s Animal Vegetable Miracle.
I most look forward to canning pickles — though we eat them so quickly that refrigerator pickles are possibly more practical. I love salsa, too — another one that we gobble up right off. I really like this suggestion of canning soup; would love to win the books and start planning soups!
Want to find a recipe for fruit salsa…just tasted a store-bought peach/mango salsa at my daughter’s and it was delicious…how much better a homemade one would be.
I’m looking forward to pickles. Regular cuke pickles, pickled zucchini, pickled carrots, pickled squash… really it could go on.
I would love to learn how to can that tomato basil soup.
I make a killer chery amaretto jam, so can’t wait for cherry season!
I feel so unadventurous saying this, but I can’t wait to make big batches of plain jam: strawberry, raspberry, and peach! Of course, there will be the small batches of experimental flavour blends, but these are what I’m looking forward to now.
I am most looking forward to ‘putting up’ our favorites, strawberry jam and bread and butter pickles! These have been my husband’s favorites for the more than 50 years of marriage. I am always looking for something new to try.
I’d like to try canning. I wanted to can some marinara for Christmas, but then read not to used canned tomatoes:( So maybe some fresh tomato marinara this summer.
I’m looking forward to making more pickles! Pickled everything!
I’m also hoping to find a good recipe for homemade ketchup.
This past fall I deliberated over (and subsequently canned) some persimmon sauce after adjusting and checking the pH. These books sure would have been helpful! Thanks for the opportunity!
I’m looking forward to fig season – more fig-cardamom jam (can’t have too much of that stuff!)!
I’m moving this summer, so I’m actually trying to use up a lot of my canned stuff so I don’t have to move it cross country…but I think I’m going to make some cran-apple jelly soon as I can make it with stuff I have now, instead of waiting for harvest. I have got to get my hands on those books! I knew there had to be a way to get out of the USDA box.
Can’t wait to make a balsamic onion jam – so good on grilled cheese (and anything else, really)…actually, produce hasn’t been that great here the last few months, so I can’t wait to get summer’s bounty and put up everything I can get my hands on!
I’ve never canned anything before, but I am definitely looking forward to trying it out this year – I’m thinking I’ll start with strawberry jam.
I can’t wait to jar salsa with blackened corn. Yummy!!
Those books look like an amazing resource. I’m really looking forward to canning tomatoes. They’re not as exotic as a lot of things, but every time I use a jar of tomatoes I canned (which is often, for as long as they last), I feel good about it.
Made some Rainer Cherry Jam last year that got eaten before I could try it, gonna make it again so that i can finally have a taste.
I’m really looking forward to a couple of canning projects this year! I want to put up a few jars of blueberry jam, and I found a few Asian pickle recipes I want to try! Oh, and in the fall there’s an apple pie filling I wan to try out! My poor husband has a lot of putting up to put up with this year!
Wild Highbush cranberry jelly!!!! Last years shortage can not be allowed to happen again 🙂 will also be trying yet again to make dilled pickles — if at first (second, third) you dont successed try try again
Wow, those books look and sound amazing! I think I’ll have to pick up the pair even if I don’t win the giveaway. I am excited to can anything this year that I’ve grown myself. I’ve only been canning for about a year and I planted my first vegetable garden this year, so the prospect of being able to both grown AND preserve my own food is really exciting! I’m hoping I’ll be able to make dilly beans from my own green beans, maybe some zucchini pickles, or perhaps a small batch of strawberry jam. I’m a long way from being self-sufficient with my food, but just a taste of it is energizing to me!
I have two friends who run pickle companies and I’d like to try out some jarring techniques on things that they don’t normally pickle (ie: brussels sprouts). I’m not sure how your contests are run, but if I dont win I’m definitely scooping a copy of these books for tips.
Tomato sauce! You can never have enough to last you through the year. I’m also looking forward to making jam – specially plum and apricot – because last Summer I didn’t make any since I still had A LOT left from the previous year.
I am looking forward to canning something new like butternut squash soup! Also I know that I need to can a lot of tomatoes this year as we are on our last jar. And lots of juices!
I am hoping for a good strawberry season this year for jams.
Salsa – and hot sauce from Putting Up More – making my own hot sauce? woot!
We call it simply Heaven. Blueberry and nectarine jam with ah hint of lemon. It tastes like summer. And blueberry season is just around the corner here in Texas. I’m gearing up for the u-pick season to start.
Pickled red onions!
Every year I look forward to making the “fall butters” – pear butter, pumpkin butter, apple butter….maybe this year I’ll get started early and try some peach butter.
I have been living in the South for almost a year, and I can’t wait to try my hand at pickled okra!
i’m planning on canning 200 jars of jam to give away as favors for my wedding and really want to try some new recipes for that! i’m also planning to can salsa for the first time. these books sound great, thanks for the giveaway!
I’d love these books. I love making jams, or jellies, and I’d love to try my hand at canning some butternut squash soup. I have plenty in my garden.
I’m just ready to make any kind of fruit jam! It’s been forever since I’ve had any fresh fruit.
Looking forward to berries of all kinds that I grow…and citrus marmalade from my dwarf citrus trees…
I just started reading your blog a couple of weeks ago after it was mentioned by JD at Get Rich Slowly. After spending a year thinking, reading and collecting supplies for canning (no sense rushing into anything, right?) I finally canned my 1st thing last weekend – pickled carrots. I’m looking forward to canning my home grown tomatoes this summer.
I’m excited to can everything possible! I feel like I wasted so much produce from our CSA last year due to lack of knowledge and/or laziness. This year I’m determined to preserve everything we don’t eat fresh.
oh, the possibilities of canning! i was new to canning last summer and this summer i plan to become serious about it. right now i am craving rhubarb compote, so rhubarb compote goes on top of my list of things to can.
Thanks for giving us the heads up on these books. I have a steam canner that I’m nervous about using because the university extensions all tell me I’ll kill people if I use it- even for jam. I would love to see some other tried and true safe methods to use- I figure the Europeans have been using different methods than we do in the U.S. and they’re all fine, so why not try something new to me?