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
My strawberry freezer jam- the first thing I ever canned!
Spent last summer making all kinds of jams, spent all fall and winter eating them… So I’d say that’s one of my favorites. I also love ice water with lemon or lime on a hot summer’s day in a jar.
Plum jam from backyard plums!
So hard to pick a favorite…grandma’s pickled beets? My mom’s strawberry jam? My sister’s spicy applesauce? Or the peach and honey lavendar jam I made last year? Every year there’s a new recipe that’s tops. I love your blog for inspiration on finding those!
We love our homemade applesauce made with fresh picked apples, honey and cinnamon to taste. YUMMM!
I love blueberry jam and my mom’s recipe for Italian hot peppers most!
pickles! the sweet and sour kind…
I am not entering because I have my very own copy…and I LOVE it! Thank you soooo much!!!
Jam for sure! And congrats; the book is beautiful!
Ooooh. Jam is my favorite food to put in jars, but I think applesauce is my favorite to eat from jars. 🙂 🙂
My favorites are dill pickles and strawberry jelly.
now that I’m making my own jam, THAT’s my favorite food in jars!!
My favorite is peach butter.
My favorite is jam!
Popping the top off a jar of local Washington strawberry jam and spreading it on a nice slice of bread and butter is the best. The color and the smell brings back those first hot days of June. Yummm.
There are so many, but my most favorite is a tie between blueberry and strawberry jam. So tasty on homemade toast in the morning.
MANGO CHUTNEY! – it’s sweet, SpIcY, and delicious!
marisa, my cookbook club is excited to work through your book and meet you in august!
if water is a food, I choose that, because I am almost never without a jar of water; if we’re talking real food, however, it is applesauce because I try to live as local as possible and fruit seems to be about half my food intake. In the temperate midwest that calls for lots of applesauce to get me through the winter without too much added sugar in my fruit!
I love homemade jams and jellies – especially crab apple jelly!
Bread and Butter Pickles, Strawberry Vanilla Jam, Jalapeno Jelly. Slowly but surely venturing into more and more preserves every year.
Salsa for sure.
mmmm, pumpkin butter or apple butter! y
I have really enjoyed your posts. I think my favorite thing my husband has canned so far is the syrups, apple cider and ginger.
Congratulations! It looks beautiful and delicious. My all-time favorite to can are pickles – sweet, sour, fruit, it does not matter. Pickles are heaven!
I love everything in jars! Canned tomatoes are my ultimate favorite if I had to say one. 🙂
Pickled beets are the best!
My favorite thing to can is jam so far, but I’m looking forward to getting into pickling this year! As for jars, I love keeping grains and beans in jars – they look so pretty and are so functional.
My favorite food in jars is homemade raspberry jam. I did purchase your book already and am so happy with it! I have only been a subscriber to your web site for a few months, and enjoy your posts equally as well. I have lived in Iowa all of my life, am 61 years old, and have been preserving food from the time I was old enough to learn how it was done. We are so fortunate to live where we can easily grow and raise almost 100% of our own food…and we do. I love your “small batch” theory. It is a new way of thinking for me in terms of food preservation. Just received the book this week, and am so anxious to try some of the recipes. I already know it is going to become my “go to” source for jam recipes. Congratulations to you for a great accomplishment!
I have taken to using glass jars for everything once they’ve been emptied of their contents. My favorite use is iced tea or iced chai.
My favorite is refrigerator oatmeal. And black raspberry jam. And apple butter. . .
I’ve been following and enjoying your blog for some time now. My favourite food in jars is pickles, I think. And jam – peach jam, or then again maybe plum jam (with ginger!). Congratulations on your book!
Homemade roasted tomato sauce! Whether it’s on pasta, pizza, or served as a creamy tomato soup, it’s literally summer in a jar.
Ah, apple butter in a jar, my fav. And thanks for the opportunity to win a book. Hoping to see you at Odyssey.
Ooh, so excited for your book! Even if I don’t win one of the copies, I’m buying a few copies for friends who are just getting into the canning thing.
We’ve put up a number of things in the last few years and while tomatoes tend to get regular and enthusiastic use, there are two things that we have to ration carefully or else we’d eat them all up in a week: canned peaches, and freezer strawberry jam. So much better than any cooked strawberry ham I’ve ever had.
And thanks for opening this to Canadian residents too!
Pickles. Any shape, any size, any flavor
Spiced peaches (with cinnamon and cloves — yummmmmm).
I feel so lucky to have found your blog. We had a tough year financially and you rekindled my love of canning (which luckily coincided with a bumper crop from our garden). To be honest, the financial problems didn’t go away, but I felt like I had power over something, which made those financial problems seem less dire. Thanks from someone you will probably never meet! And congratulations on your book! I hope I win!
Last year I put up peach butter. It looks beautiful in jars, and it’s yummy!
Pickles yummy and just about anything else!
My favourite food in jars are pickles! I love pickling all kinda of veg…cucumbers, green beans, peppers, beets, garlic…
I love to give jars of pickles away as gifts because people are soo happy to receive them. 🙂
I love our dry good storage in old blue glass ball jars on open shelving in our kitchen. Everything from nuts to rice to dried fruit and beans look lovely in those jars! I really enjoy making jams and would like to make more of my own yogurt. My husband has been using our quart jars lately to experiment with kombucha and kimchee : )
I love making jam. Last fall I made jam from almost 40 pounds of plums, and it reminded me so much of my grandma’s steamy kitchen and her plum jam.
My favorite food in jars is still the basic: jams. Pickles and salsas run a close second, though.
I am a jar hoarder. I love to put all my dehydrated food in jars. I also put individual desserts in jars.
Corn relish is a winner at my house–I am hoarding the last few jars til corn comes round again….
love your blog!
anything pickled in a jar I will eat.
My absolute favorite food in a jar is Marionberry jam. It doesn’t get any better than that!
Spicy salsa is my all time favorite!
my fave food in a jar has always been jam, but your blog introduced me to homemade pickles…and that I can pickle other foods besides cucumbers. I’m anxious to try pickling lots of different veggies this year! congrats on the book it looks amazing.
I love making marmalade (and eating it) – the strangest thing so far I have tried has been pickled turnip.
I really think my favorite food in jars is sweet tea. with jam and pickles tied at a very close second!
I love everything in jars! Iced coffee is a definite. Sweet tea. Cupcakes. Monkey Bread. Jelly (mayhaw is my fav). Jam (blackberry is my fav). My Mamaw’s canned peaches. Canned pears. Homemade sweet pickles. Salad dressings. Salads. I love jars and everything that can be forced in them.