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
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
- 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
Preserves are my favorite.
What a beautiful book! I think I NEED it :)…I love anything (almost) pickled, but also jars of syrups, fruits and liquors..so hard to choose just one.
I made a batch of tomato conserva last summer and it’s taken any dish calling for tomato sauce or paste to the next level. Definitely the best thing I’ve put in a jar to date!
I love all jams. And chutneys. I made confetti relish this weekend. Oh, and I love drinking iced coffee out of a Mason jar. I would especially LOVE a free copy of your book!
I don’t think I can choose. I love huge green smoothies in jars, homemade plain old strawberry jam, granola and other homemade cold cereal, the list goes on!
I’ll be grabbing a copy no matter what, but I really just wanted to post and say congrats! The book looks amazing and I can’t wait to hold it in my hands.
Oh.. and pickles. Definitely pickled anything.
The cookbook looks amazing and if I don’t win, I’ll definitely be buying a copy 🙂 I love canning salsa, but that Strawberry Vanilla Jam you made looks great too!
Hi Marissa!
My favorite things to put in jars are homemade plum ketchup and zesty peach barbecue sauce but I would love to try some of your recipes in FOOD IN JARS!
Canned peaches, the queen of canned fruit! They taste like heaven in the middle of winter. (Your book looks gorgeous!)
I love canning bread and butter pickles and strawberry jam.
Canned stewed tomatoes – so many uses!
salsa
raspberry jam!
It might be applesauce. My daughter’s favorite, and I love how excited she gets about it. Being crazy easy to make doesn’t hurt, either!
I really like all types of homemade pickles and relishes. Thank you for a chance to win a copy of your new cookbook.
I don’t think I’ll ever have anything as good as my Grandmothers canned peaches!! I just found your blog thanks to a friend thanks for the chance to win.
I don’t know – that is why I want this cookbook 🙂
A greater joy than winning your book would be to get you here in Boulder for a book signing and workshop.
But back to the topic at hand: Liqueurs are the easiest to make but jam and marmalade can produce the most creative results. I like to pair a variety of fruits with herbs like lemon verbena and pineapple sage or spices like vanilla bean. I appreciate most types of fruit but really like working with the new and unfamiliar, which tends to be exotic.
I liked anything with rhubarb in a jar 🙂
My current favorite food in jars is pickled veg that aren’t cucumbers. My serrano pepper rings are house favorites, and the your recipe for pickled red onion is a winner on homemade pizza, salad, sandwhiches, right out of the jar!
I love fruit of any sort. Just fruit or made into jams and jellies. My husband however is a pickle fanatic. Needless to say we always have a ton of canned stuff around our house. My DH and I just spent last evening making apricot jam and canning apricot halves. Your book will have a loving home here with us!
So many good things come in jars! But I’m just gonna go with a classic dill pickle….
Apricot jam! But also cocktails 😉
Spicy bread-and-butter pickles – lots of mustard seeds.
Oh my.. I keep so many things in jars, it’s hard to choose just one! I do love to make my own jam, so I am going to go with that. Thanks so much. 🙂
The most recent favorite item I’ve made is preserved baby artichoke hearts. They’re preserved with lemon juice and olive oil, garlic, salt and a Thai red chili for fun.
I’m ecstatic to get your book Marissa!
i’m a simple strawberry jam kinda girl – it’s a saturday treat when i pick up a nice loaf of italian bread at the farmers market – so simple and so yum.
Peach jam or maybe strawberry.
Damson plum – vanilla preserves are thus far my favorite jarred food. Oh how I’d love to have your book of coveted recipes!
Cheers,
*Heather*
I love chutney…but have never made it. Jam is something I make all the time and will be making with my 11 yr. old this summer.
Love pickles!
I love canning foods. I love finding new ways to can food. I love canning pickles and relishes the most.
I’m a huge fan of blueberry ginger jam!
I love kimchi in jars! 😀
My favorite food in jars is the fermented curtido I always keep on hand. I also love sour cherry jam and concord grape jelly.
I love to make jams. I don’t actually like to eat them, but I like making them.
Peach preserves and pepper relish are my current favs in jars.
I use my mil’s antique blue mason jars in the bathroom… cotton balls, q-tips, French green clay (for mask), and dental flossers.
I love making jams and jellies, for my own family’s use and for gifts!
Overnight oats! Wait…peanut butter…those are my two favorite foods in jars : ) Cookbok looks awesome! I want one!
o my, the book looks perfect. lately, me: jam and salsa because they are staples that I now have in my cupboard all the time (look! magic! you can have salsa without going to the grocery store!), and as summer finds its way, an extra espresso, iced, with milk, in a 12-ounce quilted jar…
Fig jam, made from figs on the tree outside the building where my friend works. Yum.
Canned fruit is my absolute favorite food in jars. Preserving my favorite summer fruits gives me so much to look forward to in the cold dark of winter.
It is so hard to choose, but my favorite to eat would have to be salsa. My favorite thing to make and give as gifts is my almond peach jam.
CONGRATS.
I love the summer and can as many jams as possible to use all winter long.
I love any kind of pickled vegetables. I am new to canning and would love to have your book!
I’m into chutneys and BBQ sauces these days! And I’m dying for a copy of your book!
I <3 iced cold press coffee in jars. ^_^
tomatoes. in winter it’s like a taste of summer!
i love homemade relishes and apricot jam. yum! thanks 🙂
Hi! I can because I am a ‘working poor single mother’. So my favorite food in jars is Dandelion jelly.. it is almost FREE to make!
I live in Western Ma and if I win can I pick it up from you at the Oddessy book shop next week? Pretty please?! :o)