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.
I’m looking forward to canning my bread and butter pickles.
I’d be interested in these books. I’ve generally followed the USDA guidelines up to this point. I’ve canned pickles, jam and tomato sauces. If the USDA is the ultimate word in canning though, can the directions in these books be “safe”? I’m confused.
I’m looking forward to making strawberry sauce and strawberry butter. I never do any canning with berries, since they’re devoured so quickly that I usually don’t get to bake with them, let alone can with them . . . but I want to branch out this year!
Jam! It’s pretty much fool proof – and I can use all the fool proof I can get. This year I’m going to experiment more with eleagnus jam [autumn olive – it’s a fruit, not an olive]. I’m interested to try it without pectin and in some fun combinations.
Canning seasonally has always been my focus. Plan to try some figs this year!
I’m looking forward to making tomato sauce for the first time this year 🙂 My seedlings got way too leggy and failed, so I’m going to have to buy plants, but I’m not deterred!
I can’t wait for tomatoes, peaches and apples. I made peach / applesauce last year and my husband nicknamed it “awesomesauce”
I haven’t been too adventurous in the past but I’d love to try canning broth or soup this year.
Hi Marisa
Oh my goodness, these books sound awesome! I’ve tried canning things that the USDA does not recommend for some time now (like squash butter and pumpkin puree) and these books would be a great addition to my library!
This year I’m hoping that garlic I planted will give me scapes so I can try my hand at pickling them. 🙂
Happy canning! 🙂
Oooooh, these books look good. I’m most excited about making peach butter, from the peaches at the farmer’s market. Oh my.
I am excited to can tomatillos again this summer as well as explore chutneys!
omg a book that teaches us how to test ph for our own recipes? I would love this! I want to be able to can my frijoles recipe. I make jars and jars and jars of them over the summer using my CSA box and have been freezing them. Canning would really free up some limited freezer space.
This summer I will actually have my own garden. I really want to make pickles, but also some shallot jam or items such as that to go with cheese plates
Quince Jelly if I can get the darn quinces off the bushes this year before the bugs get into them. And pickled anything my heart desires.
Blueberry jam. Mostly because our blueberries didn’t yield their usual crop last year, and, subsequently, I’ve been having to buy manufactured jam after running out of homemade stock early.
AAAH We can BEETs every year, great Christmas gifts. Have Peach, Apple, Cherry Trees (They were supposed to be DWARF, NOT) but last year they were prolific..this year late frost..so we’ll wait and see. DH makes a marvelous salsa! So glad to know of these Books…will buy if don’t win..they sound like winners thank you
This year I’d like to can more soups, as well as more veggies in general. I canned tomatoes last year, but we’ve expanded our garden and hopefully will have a lot more produce to see us thru the winter. We’re also growing a selection of rare, very hot peppers, and I need to know what to do with them once we’ve picked them!
Eggplant chutney?! YUM!
Bread and Butter pickles and blueberry jam….both so simple and so delicious and both make my mother happy!
Strawberry Jam is first and foremost on the list as it has the most likes in my family. My greatest hope is to put up apples this year (sauce, pie filling & butter). I canned 80 pounds of apples one year and they only lasted five months!
More homemade Salsa! I haven’t had to buy a jar since last September and I’m loving it.
I would love these canning books. I love to try new recipes. I’m looking for a good tomato sauce.
OOOOH, wonderful. I’m making the chive blossom vinegar this week. Last summer was my first experience with canning. Excellent tomato sauce, salsa, and quince jelly. Looking forward to trying a spicy tomato jam this year.
I’ve always been really traditional in my canning – grape jam, tomatoes, and so on. I’m looking forward to experimenting more, especially with infusing other flavors – like vanilla – into things like jam and canned pears.
Definitely pickles!
Tomatoes and tomato sauce! They help me make yummy meals all year long.
With my Grandma’s recent passing, this will be my first year canning solo, I am looking forward to jelly most, which was one of her specialties. Strawberry, Blueberry and Peach! YUM!! I can only hope my peach jelly is close to the deliciousness Grandma’s was! I don’t have any books on canning, these would be perfect to assist me! Love you Grandma!!
i’m really new to canning, i would love to make some nice jams, and see if i can find a good tomato sauce recipe that i can put aside for days i don’t want to cook, but don’t want store bought.
I’ve managed to connive a canning starter kit for my birthday (wooo, 21!), and I’m super keen to have a go at the snow peas in my garden : )
I love canning, so pretty much anything I can grow is fair game. I especially love putting up dill pickles.
I’ve been wanting to read these. The canning season is well underway here in central Florida. We’ve already done strawberries, tomatoes and blueberries from the u-pick fields!
I actually want to try your strawberry lemon marmalade. Sounds delish!
I am most looking forward to BBQ sauce. It is great for the me, the home cook, and is great for gift giving, especially to take to other hostesses as a last minute gift I can grab from my pantry.
I can’t wait for the u-pick places to open so that I can make strawberry jam!
That sweet onion jam page looks tempting! I think I’m most looking forward to canning up some carrots. That might sound boring, but I think they look so beautiful in jars!
Other than jams and marmalades, I haven’t canned much. We moved two days ago and are looking for a home to buy in NC. One of my first projects will be to work on a garden, and it’s my hope to can roma tomatoes roasted with a hit of lemon zest.
Cheers,
*Heather*
I had been looking forward to putting up more bread and butter pickles and some different tomato products (paste, maybe) this year, right up until I read the words eggplant chutney.
We have just taken on our first allotment (part of a shared community gardening space) and I have gone a little overboard with planting, so I image that I will definately have a lot of beans and courgettes to can.
Hot sauce with chile peppers from my garden!
I’m looking forward to making jam. 🙂 I would also love to learn how to make delicious pickles 🙂
I look forward to making the first strawberry jam of the season with balsamic vinegar.
Looking forward to salsa, and strawberry-rhubarb pie filling. Among many others!
As i am on the other side of the world in new Zealand we are coming to the end of our preserving but I still getting though the last of the fruit and vegtables, this season I have made Tomato sauce, relish and pasta sauce,sweet pickles,capsicum relish, chow chow (the kids love this with cheese on bread in their school lunches)Apple sauce,apple pie filling,vanilla pears,all kinds of berry jams and for the first time I tried out a pasta sauce with cooked spaghetti added at the last minute,just before canning, it looks amazing in the jars and the kids just love it, its fantastic knowing they are eating spaghetti that has no additives like the commercial brands! I would love to win these books!
Anything! We’re just learning to can. My mom always had yummy things on the shelf when I was a kid. Looking forward to reviving the tradition.
My husband moved my garden to a sunnier location for me this spring and it is already producing an abundance of greens. The broccoli, cauliflower, peas brussel sprouts, garlic, onions an asparagus are doing well and as soon as the weather improves here in MA (not likely) I’ll be transplanting tomatoes, peppers and starting cucumbers, zucchini, squash,beans, melons and pumpkins. So, I will need all the help I can get preserving that bounty as my freezer space is limited.
I’m looking forward to making Zucchini Relish, last year I didn’t make anywhere near enough. Also this season I want to try catchup and pizza sauce for the first time.
This book is now on my list. The fact that he gives you the tools to figure out acidity and Ph levels makes this book a must have for the next level of canning. Unless of course you subscribe to the canning police, which I don’t.
Mmmm… strawberry jam, kosher dill pickles, pickled scapes and tomatoes.
Pickles — asparagus, brussels sprouts, dilly beans and more.
I want jars and jars of beautiful different colored pickled peppers, onions, and cucumbers too display (and eat!). We have hard water so I’ve been concerned about the acidity level of canning, and aside from jams, I’m embarrassed to say I haven’t put anything by…yet!
Most of all I’m looking forward to putting up plain old canned tomatoes. Nothing beats popping open a jar of sweet, summery tomatoes on a cold & snowy day! I also have a great gnocci sauce that I like to can (even thought I’ve never had gnocci, it’s great on homemade pasta!)
Peach preserves. My coworker made them last summer and I only got a taste. It was the best thing I ate all year!