It has been FAR too long since I’ve done one of these cookbook round-up posts. Amazing books have been stacking up all around my apartment (quite literally, there are piles nearly everywhere you look) and there are so many I want to share with you. So I’m going to get back into the business of featuring the best of the food-focused books that are crossing my threshold. Today’s post features four such books that came out in the last three or four months and would all make great additions to your culinary library.
This summer was a really good time for jar-focused cookbooks (including mine!). One such book is Shaina Olmanson’s first, called Desserts in Jars. You might know her from her blog, Food For My Family. Shaina did all the writing, recipe development, food styling and photography for this book. My hat is off to her and the beautiful, accessible book that she created.
Desserts in Jars features all manner of cakes, pies, custards, puddings, fruit desserts and frozen desserts. There’s also a section in the very back filled with mixes for giving. There are a number of people on my holiday list who will be receiving jars of her Spiced Hot Chocolate Mix in their gift baskets this year.
Many words of praise have been heaped on Nigel Slater’s Ripe since it was published (it’s been out since 2010 in the UK, but has only been available in the US since late spring). It deserves every ounce of adulation too. It is beautifully written and photographed. The recipes are creative and allow you the space to adapt and explore the featured main ingredients.
The recipes in Ripe are named things like “A sharp damson pickle for cold meats” and “A high-summer jam to serve warm.” How could you not want to make things with such romantic and descriptive handles? One dish that I’m hoping to make in the very near future is his “Apples and quince baked in cream.” Just saying the name makes me feeling like I’ve been transported to a small village in the English countryside.
Written by the founder of Brooklyn-based Anarchy in Jam, Laena McCarthy’s Jam On is a really masterful preserving book because it doesn’t just contain a series of recipes. Laena has included the how and why of jams that she has learned throughout her career as a professionals fruit preserver. For instance, there’s a chart that breaks down which fruits are high in pectin, which have moderate amounts and which are quite low in pectin. That’s the kind of knowledge that makes it possible for cookbook users to explore fruit and put together their own jams, butters and marmalades.
Jam On has sections devoted to jams and jellies; preserves, marmalades and chutneys; sugar-free jams and fruit butters (I get lots of questions about sugar-free canning, those of you interested in this topic should definitely check out this book!); pickled fruits, syrups and shrubs; and pairings. I’m most enamored of the last two sections, as they have given me so many great ideas.
Written by Chef Paul Virant of Chicago’s Vie and co-authored by Kate Leahy, The Preservation Kitchen is an incredible book for canners who want to expand their preservation habit beyond their traditional jams and pickles. One of the best things about this book is that it takes a very scientific approach to the formatting of the recipes, listing the ingredients in volume, ounces, grams and percentages. This makes it easier to scale the recipes up or down, which is so useful when you need to work with the produce you have and not an exact, recipe-prescribed amount.
Particular gems in this book include chapters on Bittersweet Preserves (this includes aigre-doux and mostardas – both incredible with cheeses) and Pressure Canning. The pressure canning section is only three recipes deep, but all are winners, particularly the garlic conserva (detailed here by Hank Shaw) which allows you to have shelf stable, oil-packed, tender garlic.
Right now, your nectarine lime jam tops my list! It has been such a hit around here.
I think my favorite jam recipe is strawberry fig jam from my husband’s grandmother – the one I’m best at making is apple butter from my mother-in-law.
Then your directions also ask a question about cookware? I’d love to have a cast iron roaster like my husband’s grandmother had.
This summer I’ve been back and forth between your site (and now book!) and Canning for a New Generation; though my reigning favourite is the Vanilla Rhubarb Jam from your site! With David Lebovitz’s Elderberry Syrup taking a close second.
Grandma Graber’s pickles are all I’ve made. I am ready to learn more!
My mother’s mother’s mother’s Apple Butter recipe is my favorite. Everything is “to taste” and “soon”. The original is somewhere in Kansas, I have a photographed, faxed and scanned-in copy. It calls for honey as a sweetener!
Anything with blackberries! I put up lots of jams every year — even now that my kids are out of the house. They still ask for jars of them.
Your site – sour cherry jam!
My favorite is honey cinnamon peach preserves from farmersdaughterct.wordpress.com. It’s simple and delicious and on homemade bread reminds me of peach pie.
Ah…the quest to find amazing recipes is one of my pleasures. I have a huge collection of cooking books and always adding to it. I love my well used ones, all splattered and with corners bent…
the pickled Asparagus and dilly beans from Food in Jars and Radish Relish ( I think from Put Em Up) are my favorite pickled preserves… I love a good ginger peach jam, and the balsamic strawberry w/ black pepper and brandied cranberry conserve… i first turn to Food In Jars book, then Put Em Up, then Well Preserved for my canning endeavors.
Definitely the classic strawberry preserves in Canning for a New Generation! Think of them now with salty, creamy butter on a warm piece of toast.
I still love the Ball book. 🙂
My favorite is the slow-cooker naked apple butter recipe from Oh She Glows. http://ohsheglows.com/2012/09/26/slow-cooker-naked-apple-butter/
My favorite used to be plum blackberry jelly. My mother made it when I was a child and eventually, I began to make it. This summer I tried your nectarine lime jam and I was hooked. I ended up making three batches. I hope I made enough to last until next summer. Delicious.
My favorite recipes is tomato passata from my italian neighbor.
Grandma’s pickles are nostalgic and tasty, although I love Amy Pennington’s hibiscus peaches, too.
My favorite “recipe” is actually the inspiration of Marisa’s post about not sweating it when it comes to jam. Cook up some fruit with half as much sugar and flavorings until jammy. I’m most pleased with one I made using plums, orange juice and zest, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice.
I always rely on the county extension agency for dependable recipes. I’m looking to expand my horizons!
My favorite is my grandmother’s rhubarb-fig conserve recipe. I have it on a yellowing index card in her spidery handwriting. It’s so yummy!
I have a ceramic-top stove and a cookware set that doesn’t include a four-quart pot, so my quest is to find a reasonably priced canner that works on my stovetop or the perfect four-quart pot.
Well, you’ll think I’m brown-nosing, but one of my fave preserves is your tomato jam. My husband and I don’t even bother with canning whole tomatoes anymore, tomatoes are too precious to waste on anything but jam!
My most loved source for preserve recipes was my Hungarian Grandma, Borbola. It was in her home I had my first home preserved pickles, syrups and jams.She didn’t even own a refrigerator until my parents purchased her one when they went to visit her with her new & first grandchild (Me!) In 1968. Before then if it needed to stay cold it went in her well. I really also cherish your book. I have been teaching my daughter in law canning and we made several recipes for Food in Jars, every one more delicious than the last!
Several years ago, I was the lucky recipient of my great grandmothers ‘receipt box’
She left her home in Virginia when she married a railroad man in 1915 and they moved to Montana. Montana is the home of All or Nothing gardening. Short seasons mean either it wont grow, or it explodes out of the garden like a vegetable cataclysm.
This would why her recipe box had an inch thick section of cards and folded papers containing rhubarb recipes. including my favorite ever. A Rhubarb Carrot Conserve that has exactly 3 ingredients. Rhubarb, Carrots and Sugar.
It was the first sweet preserve i ever made without pectin, It tastes like heaven on warm buttered bread, and it was the recipe that set me on the path to experiment with preserving any plant that I can safely (ish- I have a thing for cactus fruit) wrestle into my kitchen.
I use Small Batch preserving and your book ….a lot!
I’m new to canning but my mother is a pro. She recently sent me some some red plum jam as I’m in southern Cali & apparently no one here likes it because almost no grocers carry it.
Without question: sauerkraut. My source: German Grandma.
My favorite source is really the Ball book – lame I know – but I find I can add twists from other books I have, but I keep going back to Ball for the basics. My favorite preserving recipe is not a preserve per se, but a pickle – I love the “Pickled Watermelon Rind” recipe from Martha Stewart living (available on her website now). It’s from an old issue and I’ve been making it for 12 (?) or more years. It works perfectly every time, it’s delicious, unusual and makes a great gift. It’s always on my Thanksgiving table!
Thanks for the book reviews – I’m always looking for new preserving books.
The first book on preserves that I bought (after checking it out of the library about 25 times) is “Preserving the Taste” by Edon Waycott. It has many lovely recipes in it, including a pear and ginger jam that makes all tasters swoon. 🙂 We make it every year!
There is a fabulous book by Edon Waycott called Preserving the Taste which has a delicious recipe for Caramelized Apple Marmelade with Thyme. It is my fave! Would love to win this book it looks like it’s right up my alley!
I treasure the bread and butter pickle recipe from a very, very special lady named Ruby, who sent my mom a card every single day for the 7 long months my mother suffered with cancer. She treated my dad, my youngest son, age 5, and me to a week of pampering, great food from her garden, and a happy fishing trip after mom passed away, by opening her home to us for a much-needed rest. A jar of Ruby’s pickles is always going to be a reminder of love and kindness and great food.
My favorite go to preserve is my Fig Preserves that I do each year & learned from my Mom & grandmother. But love trying new ones such as I did this past Summer, Strawberry Rhubarb Jam! So delicious! I love all canning!
I would absolutely love to have this preserving book in my collection! My favorite preserved food is ~ Gramma Helen’s Sour Dills ~ they leave you with a pucker!
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I find myself drawn to simple recipes, lots of fruit balanced with sugar and lemon juice. The Blue Ball Canning book recipes for fruit jam serve me well, but itwould be nice to branch out and try new flavor combinations.
My mom’s dill pickles.
I want this book! My favori preserves has to be my grandmother’s pickles!
Most of my preserve recipes have come from friends or the National Center for Home Food Preservation, but I have one favorite recipe from this canning season. I made maple bourbon peach butter from Local Kitchen… the recipe is here: http://localkitchenblog.com/2012/09/14/maple-bourbon-peach-butter/
DELICIOUS!
I haven’t ventured far from the Ball preserving book. I am new to canning and have made several berry jams over the past few summers. I would love to can vegetables and salsas if my garden can start producing enough bounty.
I’d have to say my favorite right now is Ball’s Green Tomato Salsa and a strawberry honey jam that I got from a friend. Not sure where she got that one from but it’s AMAZING! 🙂
My standby source for preserve recipes is Putting it up with Honey. It’s an older book with great guidelines for using honey instead of sugar in preservs.
I am still new to this game, but I must tell you that my favorite preserving recipe is an ancient one from my grandmother – it’s for Aunt Bertha’s Pickles (cucumbers processed in lime and then vinegar/sugar/spices and so crisp that they shatter!). But, I am open to new recipes…
Some of my favorite preserves are from Christine Ferber, her strawberry takes 3 days to make but it is the most divine and deeply strawberry flavored preserve I’ve ever had! I also make your apple butter every year. I’ve never found a better recipe!
My favourite source is probably the home centre for food preservation, if only because they clearly state when certain ingredients are included for safety or flavour. I have allergies, notably to citrus, and recipes that include lemon juice for flavour (instead of to insure a safe level of acidity) and don’t specify this can be a bit frustrating, especially when I was a beginner. It’s not a big deal now since I know a ratio conversion for vinegar, so I can still use recipes that look good but contain citrus. Your site has been a huge help, too. Even the things I can’t eat still get me thinking about what I could make instead for the same purpose. 🙂
One of my favorites is the apple pie filling from Local Kitchen! But I’m always looking for new canning recipes.
So Easy to Preserve may not be exciting, but it is my go to source.
I can’t remember where the recipe came from, but earlier this summer I made some pickled cauliflower that I just couldn’t stop snacking on.
I’m also a fan of the your recipe for sour cherry preserves!
Oh! love this book! Truly unique recipes and how to use them…. was so sorry when it had to return to the library.
Recipe I’m using most just now…. Vietnamese Daikon and Carrot Pickles from Simple Recipes http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/vietnamese_daikon_and_carrot_pickles/
Just got Food in Jars from library and looking forward to it+++
The Ball canning book provides lots of help for questions and the basics, but for more adventurous canning, I turn to Food in Jars and The Art of Preserving from Williams Sonoma.
I’m new to preserving and your dilly beans are my current favorite recipe.
I’m pretty new to canning, so I’m not sure if I have a favorite preserve recipe yet, but the internet has been a very helpful resource with some great results!
My mother’s strawberry jam is my favorite. A simple one, I know, but sooo good!
I got a pretty good pickle recipe from my CSA this summer but that is about the extent of my delving into preservation. 🙂