These days, it takes a lot for a canning book to delight me. After all, I’ve spent the better part of the last decade totally immersed in jamming, pickling, and preserving. I sometimes even begin to think that perhaps I’ve seen every trick and flavor combination there is. And then a book like The Modern Preserver drops out of the sky and into my mailbox, and I am charmed.
Written by Kylee Newton, an artisan jam maker from New Zealand and now based in London, The Modern Preserver offers up a familiar and fresh array of jams, pickles, compotes, jellies, cordials, and more. The design is clean, the photography is gorgeous, and the voice of the book is reliable and welcoming.
It opens with a short introduction that details Kylee’s background, and then offers a bit of information about her ethos as a preserver. From there, she talks about the rules of preserving. Do know that this section is far briefer than it would be in an American book. I’ll dig a little more into that in a moment.
Following the intro, we get into the recipes. The first section contains Relishes, Chutneys, and Sauces. Next up is Pickles, Fermentations, and Vinegars; followed by Jams, Jellies, and Compotes; and Curds, Candies, and Fruit Cheeses. Bringing up the rear of the book are the Syrups, Cordials, and Alcohol.
I have bookmarked a goodly number of recipes in this book, and every time I open it, I find something else that I’d like to make, or at the very least, use as inspiration for a related preserve (Blackberry Relish! How had I never thought to make that?!)
My only quibble with this book is that there’s no acknowledgement that best practices for preserving vary depending on where you are in the world. Here in the US, it’s standard practice that we use jars designed for canning (not recycled jars from store-bought preserves). We use two piece lids and we make sure that the flat lids are new each time we can. And finally, we run everything we make through a boiling water bath. None of this is in the book (I’m a little bit surprised that the US publisher didn’t make them at least add an appendix referencing the different standards).
All that said, I will still be preserving from this book. I’m just going to make sure that I bring along my food science knowledge and general understanding of canning. Everything will be packed into appropriate jars and will get a trip through the canning pot (to determine timing, I’ll reference recipes with similar ingredients and densities).
Disclosure: The Countryman Press sent me the copy you see pictured above for photography and review purposes at no cost to me. All opinions expressed here are entirely my own.
This blog inspires me!
All of your books inspire me. I recently bought the America’s Test Kitchen, “Foolproof preserving” .
I love this blog, too.
My inspiration lately has been rhubarb and I have been buying it up whenever I can find it.
My inspiration comes from this blog or one of the three books I have authored by Marisa. I have made many many of her jams and chutneys. I was lucky and landed on this web site over a year ago.
I’m a big Punk Domestics fan. So many great ideas are well organized and easily accessible on their site!
I haven’t tried to can very many things yet: tomatoes, peaches, applesauce and a flop of an attempt at strawberry jam … BUT … Friday I am taking a class from Fairfax county, Virginia on jams. Yay!
Now that the strawberries are here, I’m flipping through all my canning books. Yours are my general staples, and then I flip through others to supplement. I really love Batch because of their many uses for all parts of the fruits and vegetables, and the many methods they offer for each.
My current favorite is vanilla strawberry low sugar book And pickled strawberries from one of your book.
I use Madhur Jaffrey’s many books so frequently over the years, and still.
My go to book is the ball blue book. It isn’t modern in that new canning combinations are featured but it is all business. I also have your book that I picked up in maine
I get A lot of inspiration from blog sites along with cookbooks by my favorite authors
Thank you for this giveaway opportunity
This book sounds like great inspiration. And who needs direction? We just go to your blog if we need help!
My newest inspirations are your new book along with Beyond Canning
Aside from you, it’s been the mexicoinmykitchen blog. You both have the feature, that you can search for recipes by ingredient. It helps so much this time of year when the garden starts and the rest of the year when you’re using up your canned and frozen items. She also inspired me to start making my own fresh cheese!
It’s actually been this website! I just made the zucchini fridge pickles (with some modifications), mint simple syrup, rhubarb orange butter and rhubarb rosemary jam.
This time of year, I like to turn to Deborah Madison’s Vegetable Literacy for her light but creative touch with summer produce.
As others have said, the Art of Fermentation (again), I can open to any page and find something. Oh, and Naturally Sweet Food in Jars, just picked up a copy!
Blogs and Pinterest are my main sources of inspiration. The photos are always so enticing and inspire me to try new things.
Since berries are ripe and ready I have been making jams and jellies. I have been using some different ideas and cookbooks from the local library, including your food in jars that I am reading right now.
It’s quite common in books from other countries to not have as many how-to directions. I’ve found that in knitting and crocheting books as well; they expect the readers to already be familiar with the basics.
I get a lot of inspiration from seriouseats.com. I love J. Kenji López-Alt’s nerdy and enthusiastic science approach with results that taste fabulous.
Now that the summer vegetables are starting to roll in, I’ve been returning to the book from which I first learned to cook 20 years ago: Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. Love the vegetable recipes in this book.
My garden and all of its herbs and veggies are inspiring me, I can’t wait for the season ahead! This cookbook looks lovely, thank you for highlighting it!k
Mes Confitures, by Christine Ferber, when I’m up for a multi-day project; Preserving by the Pint when I want to get something put up quickly, and NW Edible Life’s chart of flavor combinations when I’m feeling creative. Right at the moment I’m trying to remember the proportions of a cherry-blueberry jam I made last summer.
thefirstmess.com
Her plant based recipes and flavor profiles are a good fit with my CSA at the moment.
Right now it’s Food in Jars, specifically the cherry butter recipe as I have loads of cherries to put up! This looks like an amazing book for more inspiration.
I love to cook from John Besh’s My Family Table.
My all-time favorite recipes have always been from Southern Living. I’ve made (& remade) more of their recipes than from any other source.
I’m most likely to look thru my own collection of cookbooks for inspiration. A favorite is Notes from a Country Kitchen by Jocasta Innes. It dates back to 1979 but has chapters on brewing, baking, preserving, cheesemaking and all those other back-to-the-land skills that are coming back into vogue yet again.
I’m inspired by using herbs in every possible thing right now. The newest addition to my cookbook collection is “Wild Drinks and Cocktails” by Emily Han and it’s so wonderful.
Totally into everything Erin at Naturally Ella has been posting lately!
My source right now is garden. I’m starting to harvest more and more and that is what is inspiring meals around here! I need to pull out Simply in Season again as it is so great for the different seasons!
I’m a brand new canner and YOU are my inspiration right now!
Right now, my source is The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving. I’m really liking it!
I’ve been leafing through Nigel Slater’s kitchen diaries a lot lately, and looking at the Food52 (not)recipes app. It’s casual, just a few sentences and loose measurements recipes that are inspiring me right now.
I am reading the Art of Fermentation as well and I have to say I am finding it quite inspiring. I wasn’t even that interested in fermentation before but now I can’t wait for the cabbage and the veggies to come in at the farmer’s market so I can give it a whirl. And every recipe you mentioned in this review sounds enticing…I’m definitely going to check this book out. Thanks.
Thanks for your honest review! My source lately has been America’s Test Kitchen. I am awaiting the berries to come in to start canning jam….
Ohhh! I want this!
Vegetarian cooking for everyone, is the cookbook most inspiring me lately. I love how simple the recipes pretend to be and then the results just shine! Makes me love cooking again. Having hungry toddler and baby crying for food while cooking certainly removed the joy of it for a long while.
Since its strawberry season I have been jamming and freezing and making everything I can think of.
My friend’s copy of Company’s Coming Preserve cookbook is a huge inspiration especially now that I have my own garden to preserve from.
On the couch right now are Put ’em Up, Preserving with Pamona’s, Well Preserved and both of your books. I pick strawberries and Dad’s out of home canned jam! This book sounds stuffed full of inspiration!
Don’t know if you would call it inspiration exactly, but I’ve been thinking about your strawberry fig jam recipe from a few years ago. Almost fresh fig time again and I have a some still in the freezer, strawberries too. Think it is time to do a clean out and make something really yummy. Would be interesting to see a canning book from another country. We all have our differences in cuisine that make for some fun things to try.
Right now, inspiration is coming from the farmer’s market with tried and true techniques. If I find something new I ask the farmer for suggestions.
I picked up The Violet Bakery cookbook a few weeks ago, and keep going back to it.
I get inspiration from so many places. I read Food Magazine and Bon Appetit which really helps me and of course, Pinterest and the good old www.
I got the most recent issue of Cook’s Illustrated, and I think I need to make all the recipes. Everything sounds good!
Every thing Sandor Katz talks about in The Art of Fermentation. We have a row of airlocked jars on the kitchen counter thanks to him 🙂
It’s so cliche but I do really love pinterest for recipe inspiration!
My blog thread is my source for recipes at this point. After a small house fire all my cookbooks that usually inspire me are all packed away. The internet is my savior!
I’ve been on an Asian Pickles journey with Karen Solomon for a while. I never win anything and I have no self control when it comes to cookbooks, so I am sure I will end up with this one. I have had the same concerns about some of my other UK books, like River Cottage. Is the main difference process? What I am getting at is if acid is still considered the main factor in safety. I don’t have the same breadth of knowledge as you, so I get nervous when adapting recipes, but the three you have highlighted look very appealing, especially saffron-lime jelly!
My recipe source for inspiration is my best friend who runs a small hobby farm and has been fermenting and pickling for years. I never get tired of picking her brain for ideas!