So often over the life of this blog, I’ve written about beautiful cookbooks. These posts are fun for me to write because I love any excuse to sit awhile with a new cookery volume and explore what it has to offer. Many of you take the time to write me an email or leave a comment, to tell me how useful you find these cookbook pieces, because they give you a chance to peek inside a book in a way that’s different from the experience on Amazon.
Today’s cookbook feature is a particularly unique joy, because this time, I’m sharing my own book
. Now, I realize that I’ve been talking about this book for many, many weeks now. Thing is, for all that excited chatter, I haven’t taken much of a chance to tell you what you’ll find when you open the cover and why it might be a good canning book for you.
To my mind, the book is a tangible embodiment of this website. It brings together the most popular recipes from the archives as well as a number of new recipes you’ve never seen before. All the previously-published recipes were retested and rewritten before being included in the manuscript to ensure that they were the best versions of themselves. Many were also scaled down to yield just three or four pints, to keep with the small batch theme.
It includes detailed canning instructions (with helpful instructional pictures!), tips on how to determine whether your jam has reached its set point, a guide for adjusting processing time for altitude and all the best safety practices.
The recipes are sorted by genre, so that all the pickles are in one chapter, jellies in another and so on. Within each section, the recipes are arranged by season, so that each spring, you can start at the beginning of the jam chapter and then work your way through to the end.
The book is also full of really gorgeous images. Truly, my jars have never looked better. The photography was done by Steve Legato, at his Philadelphia studio, and it was such a pleasure to watch him work. Also, I made all the canned goods pictured, so you can trust that your finished products should look pretty darn close to what you see.
Another way I tried to keep the book tied closely to this site is that it’s not just about canning. Towards the back of the book, you’ll find sections devoted to nut butters, granolas, bread and scone mixes in jars and even flavored salts. There’s also information about how to best freeze different fruits and vegetables, and some details on pressure canning low acid foods.
Finally, the reason I think so many of you will like the book is that it’s me. It’s my voice, the same one you read here day after day. I’m always working to write about food preservation in a way that conveys the fact that it’s a joy, not a chore. That feeling ribbons throughout the book. I love joining so many of you in your kitchens through this blog and I hope I’ll get to do the same through the book.
Thanks to my kind publicist at Running Press, I have three copies of the Food in Jars (the cookbook) to give away to Food in Jars (the blog) readers. Here’s what to do:
- To enter the giveaway, leave a comment on this post and share your favorite kind of food in jars. Jam? Jelly? Pickles? Chutney? Canned peaches? Granola? Iced coffee? There is no wrong answer.
- Comments will close at 11:59 pm eastern time on Sunday, May 27, 2012. Winner will be chosen at random (using random.org) and will be posted to the blog on Monday, May 28, 2012.
- Giveaway is open to U.S. and Canadian readers.
- One entry/comment per person, please.
If you can’t bear to wait and see if you win the giveaway, you can always order a copy by clicking here: Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year-Round.
My aunt gave me a recipe for zucchini bread in a jar. It was a huge success.
i love canned tomato sauce! lots and lots of hours in the kitchen bubbling away, but oh so worth it in the middle of the winter.. would love to check out this book 🙂
Tomatoes, if you have tomatoes in jars you have a base for so many other things.
What I can most often, are pickled jalapenos, but my favorite is any type of pickle. Jams are good, but I can make a quick pickle out of so many different things in small batches. I also keep the homemade salsa in a jar for the few days that it lasts before it disappears into the bellies around this house.
Congratulations!!!! The book looks wonderful (your blog is, so that’s no surprise). My favorite food in jars is definitely pickles – so little work for such big results!
Concord Grape jelly remains my whole family’s favorite. We’ve tried others, and we like others, but we always come back to grape. I can never make enough to get us through the whole year.
Thank you for making canning less intimidating and accessible for those of us who don’t have 16 children or an orchard or farm from which to gather fruit and veg. And congrats on the book!
Anything in a jar!!! Favorite new recipe is Carrot Cake Jam.
I love to try canning everything, but jam will always be my old favorite. Jam just reminds me of childhood and family members that are too old to can now. It really is a comfort food. Also….I am really looking forward to your new book…it looks wonderful!
Dilly Beans are my favorite food in jars. It is these that started my canning obsession. And it is my most requested food in jars. My aunt made them first when I was young. Several years later, when I was married I saw fresh dill heads at a farmers market and it triggered my memory. I made Dilly Beans and then tried a few other things but stopped for several years. Then about 6 years ago my son asked me to make Dilly Beans. It was that request that got me back into canning and I haven’t stopped!
My husband and I love applesauce. I canned applesauce for hours last fall and we ate it up so quick. I can’t wait for the fall apple season and many more hours in the kitchen with my friends.
We went to a packing plant in Stockton, CA last week and bought 25 pounds of Asparagus Tips. We pickled 9 quarts. Can’t wait to try them. The rest we will just eat. Yum! Maybe will make some Asparagus Ice Cream.
Can’t wait to see the book! My favorite is probably jams. NOTHING beats a properly balanced, homemade, chunky jam.
I love jam. Huckleberry, blackberry, mixed berries, peach, rhubarb and the list goes on. It is easy to make, and tastes so good in the middle of the winter.
Pickles! The degree to which I love pickles is really just BEYOND. Mmmmm briny, dilly, peppery pickles.
Jam — any kind, any time. Somehow it just brings so many memories to mind. Thanks for the book giveaway. I hope I win, but if not I’ll surely buy. It looks wonderful.
Chutney…love chutney. My mom used to make a green mango chutney that was the BEST. Wish I had that recipe.
My all time favorite food from a jar has to be peaches!! There is nothing better than those wonderful little reminders of summer/fall on a cold day in February!!
Peaches. Absolutely. Peaches in jars are my comfort food, quite literally. But other foods in jars are also good, and I’d love to have a cookbook to discover them. ; )
Congrats congrats on th’ book at long last! I have some friends who’re starting canning who’re about to get some hearty recommendations from me on what they should be reading. =;)
When it comes to my favorite jarred food… it’s Pickled Fiddleheads. Such a brief season, such an excellent treat.
My favorite kind of food in jars has always been pickles, but lately I had a raspberry jam with peppers in it that was spicy and delicious and delightful!
just bought the book last week. cant wait to try the delightful recipes
Applesauce is my current favorite but it changes often!
Thanks for the chance to win your book; it looks wonderful!
I’m partial to making jams. This year i hope to try my hand at canning green beans, if i can grow enough.
dilly beans for sure!
This time of year…iced coffee or chai tea…..but in August…plum jam!
Thanks for doing this – hope I win!
Lemon curd. I have a hard time not eating it straight out of the jar with a spoon.
Plum crabapple wine jam, strawberry triple sec jam 😉
I love everything in jars! Canned tomatoes, jam, pickles. Granola, baking supplies, grains, iced coffee and teas. I use jars for so so many things! I am so appreciative that my mother grew up canning with her mom, so that I had the chance to do the same. Now I make jams with my own son.
My favorite food in jars — apple butter.
My absolute favorite is homemade jam I’ve put up myself. I’m wanting to branch out to include “savory” jams this year, so winning one of your fantastic cookbooks would really kick start the project! Thanks for a great blog.
I love pickles
Strawberry Jam!
I’ve just ventured into canning recently, so I’m going to say that my own rhubarb jam is my favorite for now!
The book looks beautiful.
I’m all about pickles this year.
The book looks beautiful.
I’m experimenting with pickles.
Appkesauce!
While I love a good fruit butter in a jar, my favorite use for jars is iced tea. I just put a couple of tea bags in a quart size jar, fill it up with water, and stick it in the fridge. An hour later I have a lovely jar of smooth iced tea!
Love your book and would love another copy to give to a good friend!
Deirdre
Salidou…. which is a salted caramel spread made with milk from Brittany (France). I love to put it on ice cream or crepes. Definitely recommend trying it!
Congratulations on having your book in hand- and into our hands too!
I love to make wild blueberry jam.
I love pickles! Jams and Jellies are up there too!
kippered king salmon in jars!! yum! thanks for the great giveaway!!
Over the years I have many types of preserves. My favourite is chutney. One of my brothers told me that he will take any/all of the apple chutney I make.
Blueberry is one of my favourite fruits and the only kind of pie I will eat. I made conserve once and cooked it too long. I called it blueberry tar. A coworker, who didn’t like blueberries, liked my description and asked for a jar. She raved about it.
I love a good apple butter like my Granny used to make 🙂
I love to drink my green smoothies out of a jar! Would love a copy of the book, it looks beautiful!
tomatoes-so easy to can and I use them all winter long!
My children would say my Garlic Kosher Dills or canned tomatoes but they would be a tie with my Peach Vanilla Jam.
Favorite food in jar? Probably pickles. I just learned how to make them this past year.
Chutneys! No, wait… Anything involvimg vinegar.
Pickled beets not only taste great but add a bit of colour to a plate.
I LOVE pickles… any kind of pickle! Kimchi, bread n butter pickles, dilly beans, lime chutney… if it’s briny and/or fermenty I love it! 😀
Jams are my favorite because of the wonderful variations you can try with them.
My favorite is raspberry preserves.
Just one? I love so many. Homemade dill relish!!
The first year I moved out to the country and grew a large garden, I made 100 quarts of garlic dill pickles!! (Definitely not small batch canning.) My kids ate them as an after school snack almost every day, and we ate them ALL in one year. Your book looks beautiful, by the way.
Hard to pick one favorite, but probably soup, followed by a good chutney.
Jams …. It all starts here!
I love food in jars. My favorite would have to be my mom’s tasty spicy garlic pickles as well as any jam she made.
I did pinto beans one year they were awesome!
I love to make jams, but I’ve been wanting to try pickles and relishes too.
I love my mom’s sweet pickle relish, or my aunt’s red raspberry jam!
My favorite food in jar is jam! I love jams!
I love tomatoes in jars. You can do anything with them!
My favorite food in jars is cherry jam. However I spend alot of time canning peaches because it is my husband’s favorite.
Dilly beans! A friend gave me the recipe for them when I was younger, because I kept stealing them from her lunch box! My mom makes them every year now, and I’m soon going to be taking up the torch. Now that I’m older, I think they’re great in bloody marys!
any jam with vanilla in it plus chutneys are my faves! your book looks beautiful!
I love savory, non pickled things in jars best. You know, like rich ketchup, chutney, and savory jams. I think it’s because fewer people think about making/canning these type of condiments – yet when you put them on the table – people cannot get enough!
Apple butter on homemade bread! The best!
Dill pickles, mango jam and lemon curd are my jar food favorites!
How absolutely fantastic! Congrats on the book! I can’t wait to gift it to my son and his family. I have so very much enjoyed your blog and FB page.
Pickles and peaches are my faves so far to can (memories from childhood keep them there I think). But love the process and results…like jewels on the shelves.
Thanks for sharing copies of your book. Good luck to everyone.
Blueberry Jam
dill pickles and peaches! separately of course.
My favorite food in jars is blueberry jam.
I love pickled veggies! Especially beets, green beans, and of course pickles.
I would love a copy of your book! Jam is definitely my favorite jarred food, especially if it contains rhubarb. Mustard is a close second.
I love salsa and spicey pickles. Really, I just love to eat anything that came out of a canning jar.
I just found your site and am going to give your book to my Mom for Christmas–she loves to can! I can’t think of anything I’ve had that isn’t good canned. My partner and I started canning dilly beans (something new for me) and they’re addictive!
My favorite kind of food in jars is Jam.
This month, I love to go to Food In Jars for jam ideas (last week it was blackberry-apricot and rosemary rhubarb). But last winter I used it for baking and gift ideas. My favorite reasons change with the seasons!
Spicy pickled beans!
I know its simple, but good ole strawberry jam is my absolute favorite to make and eat 🙂
I love jams and jellies, but I am anxious this summer to try my hand at making various kinds of pickles!
For me, nothing like a jar of homemade hummos or baba ghanouj to bring to work as a snack that everyone else envies.
too many to choose from – granola, jam, soup … leftovers:) thank you so much for such a lovely giveaway.
I like jellies and jams in a jar!
Pickles are my favorite!
My mom’s home grown green beans. Reason enough that I want to learn to can.
Farmstyle pickle. I hate all pickles except this one and it goes wonderfully on cheese flavoured english muffins with cheese!
Wine!
Or pickles.
My favorite is apricot jam – but once I had some canned peaches, which I really liked.
This book is beautiful, and I would love to have a copy that no one can steal! My favorite food in jars is…a tie, actually. Jams and pickles, pickles and jams. No way I can choose! My current favorite is a mulled plum jam I made last year, inspired by one of your posts. Mmmmm.
I love bread and butter pickles and jams.
Pickles of any sort!
Jam! We’ve picked berries & made jam every year since we moved to Oregon twenty-three years ago. See you at Powell’s in June!
Love the jams & a great home canned pickle!!
My favorite would have to be black raspberry jam. Since it’s so difficult to find black raspberries, it has to be small-batch. The book looks phenomenal!
My favorite food in a jar: mum’s spicy garlic mustard carrot and cauliflower pickle. crunchy, spicy, smoky yumminess. Or for that matter, any of mum’s many homemade pickles. None of which I have the recipe to, because I lost her early. So now I devour preserving books, seeking to capture some of her lost magic. Thanks for the giveaway and the opportunity! Much luck with this lovely book journey.
Lemon curd, yum!
CAKE!!!!! TY for such a sweet giveaway!!!!
Pickles, I think, although I have been making lots of yogurt lately thanks to your recipe. We love jam and chutney too. If I don’t win, it’s ok – this book is on my birthday list, so I win either way. Congratulations!