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 hope that even if i don’t win, I can find and afford these books, they look great!
I have never canned anything before, but have been wanting to for quite some time. My grandmother used to can everything. She once gave me a jar of green beans that I kept until this day just because it was so pretty. Her mother always canned everything. She wsa even in the local newspaper once when i was young for her artful canning, though the artistic bit was just for fun while the actual canning was out of necessity…
This year my grandfather helped out when i enlarged my garden. Im growing a lot of things for the first time, and staring to feel comfortable growing a couple old standbys. One of the newer additions is onions, and we got carried away and planted far too many. So i think I would like to use those books to make something with that surplus of onions. Something I can share with my grandparents.
Thanks for sharing!
Oooh I really want to do soups…. but You mentioned two of my hot buttons… what to do with the canned product AND ph testing… ooooh yeah… now I need a shelf builder for more space for canning cookbooks…lol
What a lovely set of books to add to one’s library!
Perhaps most looking forward to bell pepper season because we are about to run out of “Peppers in Sauce Olvero,” a very popular ingredient in this household.
I made my first canning attempts recently with corn relish and strawberry jam. I’m hooked. Thank you for the great information you post and the encouragement to can.
I’m so looking forward to canning some balsamic-onion jam, as inspired by my jar of Beekman Boys 1812 onion jam. Mmmmmh, yum!
I’d be curious to try that pickled brussels sprouts recipe. Otherwise I’m going to make some daikon pickles soon.
I’d like to try canning something more “interesting” than jams this year. I have a bumper crop of rhubarb, so that’s a start – maybe conserves, or curd. I’m also going to can pumpkin and apple cakes for holiday giving.
I really need some inspiration/instruction in this area!
I look forward to green tomatoes at the end of the summer. Last year I got 25 lbs. of them after a horribly hot summer. They make great relish and chutneys. I actually plan for them by planting indeterminate tomatoes.
I am going to try canning pie fillings this year. I’m pretty excited about it.
Tomatillo sauce again! So delicious, so wonderful, so almost gone 🙁
Trying tomato salsa for the first time this year. My oldest did some calculations, and we need to make a LOT. He’s game.
I was a beginning canner last summer. I just tried jams and salsa. This year I’m looking forward to more salsa, tomato sauce, and rhubarb! Yes, I’m going to find a way to can rhubarb, as sauce or otherwise.
I’m looking forward to doing more of my own homegrown tomatoes. Last year was the first time I’ve had the space to have my own “real garden” and I finally understand why that’s the #1 thing people go nuts about. Between some purchased “Grade B” specimens and my own San Marzano’s last year, we made it through the entire winter without buying any canned tomatoes, which was just awesome and terribly delicious.
I also want to say thanks for the tip on the Putting Up series. I’m one of those folks who trusts the science behind things and I’m willing to experiment but I get frustrated that there’s so little info out there to go by. I get so tired of hearing, “Don’t do this….cause the USDA said so,” when I know the science is more flexible than that. It’s wonderful to see published work where someone’s done the homework to take it to the next step.
If you happen to find something that explains how to experiment with pectin, I’d love to see that too. The directions for pectin are pretty unwavering too (HUGE batches and exact statements like “cook for exactly one minute”). I’d love to be able to develop my own pectin-based recipes or recipes for smaller batches but don’t know how/where to start.
Last year’s tomato jam was so good I want to do it again. And I want to play around with more stonefruit, and if I have these books, maybe I’ll see if I can do an onion marmalade.
I’m looking forward to blueberry jam!
Last summer I made some fabulous spicy dill pickles; those are long gone so I’ll need to make more! I’d also like to experiment with sweet cucumber pickles–I’d been so used to the sickly store-bought ones, but after eating some homemade ones I can’t stop craving.
Pickles are one of my husband’s favorite things, so I would like to learn how to make and can them.
I got so excited I thought The book it is done ….how did she do that so quick man she is good…..I am going to be tickled pink when you book comes out but in the mean time this is a great giveaway….Just picked a apricot tree Sunday and made Three types of jam….Just got done talking to hubby wish my garden grew faster..have a blessed day
My children love, as do I, gooseberry syrup for all those winter pancakes.
I’m really looking forward to replenishing our jam supply…seasonal fruits sweetened with honey. I also want to can some pureed roasted tomatoes for soup…I froze them last year but intend on canning some this time !
I can’t wait to get some tomatoes in jars! I have several friends that want to learn canning so it will be wonderful to have a gaggle of friends to can with this season.
I am always excited to canning classic fruit jams (strawberry, blueberry, peach) from fruits we pick ourselves, but am hoping to move into savory territory with perhaps salsa, pickled onions, etc. Thanks!!
I’m really looking forward to canning more using my pressure canner. I barely use it and this year with the rising food costs, I am going to focus on canning anything and everything.
I am looking forward to canning everything that comes from my garden and from gleaners! My children most love marionberry jam from the canes in my backyard.
I can’t wait to can salsa and taco sauce. I am almost out of my stash from last year.
I’m really looking forward to canning good old classic strawberry jam.
asparagus…peaches…berry jams…marmalade…pickles…tomatoes…chutney…SALSA!
I’m looking forward to it all. This is my first year trying to put up in every season and make more staple foods (I’m talking about you, spaghetti sauce), instead of just a few summer jams.
Would love a crack at these books! I can’t wait to begin my canning season. Thanks for a great blog!
I can’t wait to make more of your delicious pickled red onions (I made 3 cases last summer!) and more salsa verde. I have been watching my tomatillos closely and hope for a great crop this year!
I have Dowdney’s first book and unfortunately haven’t used it much, though I intend to! Since I just bought my first house and put in a HUGE garden, I look forward to canning anything homegrown. In fact, in looking for a house, I told my husband I was determined to can my own tomatoes, someway, somehow, this summer. Beets, peppers, and pickling cucumbers are right up there with tomatoes too.
Oh my goodness! I’m really looking forward to pickling some green beans! I’d never had them before this past summer and thought they were some of the tastiest things I’ve ever had…
Our green beans are coming up!!! They are so pretty. Green beans are my favorite of all foods to can. There is nothing like homegrown canned green beans. Got to go pick cherries to make juice. write later.
Pickles, pickles, and more pickles! With cukes, beans, peppers, and whatever else I can find. Also more jams and lots of veggies. And jams.
I can’t wait to start making jam this year, maine blueberry jam, to be exact!
I hope this year to make something with cherries–our local pyo’s just planted a few years ago and hopefully this year they will be mature enough to let us in. Also, I can’t believe you only started this blog two years ago? Amazing. I haven’t heard of these books yet but they sound wonderful.
i’m really looking forward to making more jams this year (perhaps from our new tayberry vine), and also some hot sauces. i’ve been learning to make cheese lately, and there are some that are submerged in olive oils… not sure if those can be canned or not, but that springs to mind, too. : )
Gosh, I have no idea what I’m most looking forward to. I’ve started all my plants from seed this year so if I have anything at all to can, I’ll be ecstatic.
My grandmother’s chowchow recipe – my dad can’t wait!
I’m most looking forward to canning pear ginger jam. I made a small batch last year as an experiment and the demands for this jam have already started rolling in. Patience is necessary to wait until pear season. Could read these two books while I wait?
the thing i’m most excited about this year is happening next weekend – strawberries!
we’re getting married this fall though, and hope to have enough jars to include a small jar of jam in a gift basket for all of our guests, so i reckon i’ll be busy all summer though 🙂
I am so excited he has published another book! I checked out Putting Up from the library last season and I made 4 recipes. The most popular were the peach chutney and the pickled garlic which are both definitely on my list for this year! The new thing I am excited about trying this year is pizza sauce. Had not considered it before until I saw a post for it a few days ago! I looks delicious!
I am very excited for pickling cucumbers this season – I am especially looking forward to a garlicky but sweet recipe I’ve used in the past, but which I ran out of about a year ago. Sadly, I was in the midst of a move last year and didn’t have the time to make more. Definitely craving those pickles.
Another giveaway?! You’re too nice! 🙂
I can’t wait to start putting away my tomatoes. Boring, yes, but I depend on them all throughout the winter and they bring me such joy. I’m on the fence about buying a pressure canner this year or not because I planted ~10 bush beans. Maybe you’ll convince me…
Have a great day 🙂
Summer canning! I can’t wait to “put up” some chili sauce! It’s my favorite next to corn relish! That’s the good stuff right there!
I joined a crop share through our botanical gardens and I’m so excited, because I have no idea what we will get and I think it will be so fun to find new things to put away. I loved making pickles and dilly beans last year. I love canning and I’m so excited that there is so much information on the web and so many new books about canning that more and more people are getting the canning bug. Thank you Pam
I’m looking forward to starting with strawberries, shifting into cherries, and rolling right through apples in the fall. I am so looking forward to summer fruit. These books look essential. If I don’t win them (but of course I will!) I’m going to buy them for sure. Thanks, Marisa.
I am looking forward to canning the many tomatoes my friends will be growing! There is always overflow from their gardens and I am lucky enough to get it 🙂
I live in the fertile wine producing area of Washington state. I am going to get my hands on some grapes and uniquely preserve them.
Looking forward to making a new batch of my zucchini pepper relish! Actually, everyone is! It was such a hit last year. Love the website!
I’ve finally got the right grinder to try my grandmother-in-law’s famous chili sauce recipe. I’m so ready for the tomatoes and peppers to come on.