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
Pickles. Or Pico de Gallo.
Pickles!
It’s got to be blackberry jam. Sweet and tart … mmm!
Meals in jars and jams. Yum! Almost as much as enjoying the finished product, I like to find new recipes.
Boozy cherries, preferably brandied cherries make from Royal Anne Cherries from Hood River, Oregon (May have picked 24 lbs of them last year because they are THAT good)
Second favorite: Dilly beans (my moms recipe)
the book looks beautiful! my favorite food in jars has got to be dilly beans – so much so that my last name on facebook is dilly beaner!
Pickles! Pickled asparagus! Sauces!
I love canned salsa! There’s nothing better in the winter when I need a reminder of how summer veggies taste.
my fav food in jars would be Mom’s sweet pickles 🙂
Strawberry freezer jam! Tastes like summer year-round.
Jam and pickles! I have never canned before but I’m looking forward to getting into it this summer!
As much as I love to eat jams, jellies, pickles and all of those delicious, wonderful goodies, my favourite thing to look at is pantry staples in jars – beans, lentils, oats, etc. *Swoon*
Mine is definitely iced coffee!
My mother used to make strawberry jam growing up. But hasn’t for years. I’d really like to make some for nostalgia’s sake!
I tend to favor the savory…especially my apple-pear chutney when paired with September Farm cheddar (I need another trip to PA – I’m out!).
Love your Dilly Beans and Strawberry Rhubarb recipes. Can’t wait to make them again this summer.
Pickles, always!
The thing I find I’ve enjoyed the most is savory jams and jellies. I haven’t used mayo in a sandwich in forever – it’s all red onion marmalade. I’ve also now been ordered to make more hot pepper jelly by everyone that’s tried mine.
Orange Marmalade or any other flavor
Salted butter caramel sauce!
my favorite kind of food in jars is pickled hot peppers
I love jams of all kinds! Oooh, and chutneys.
i make a pumpkin butter that is out of this world. i also like apple butter and marinara sauce.
I love to can jams most of all. But chutneys and pickles are right up there, too.
I love to make jam, tomato sauce and pickles, but the best is peaches!! I would love a copy of your book!
Apricot jam…definitely apricot jam…though I just planted a quince tree and am looking forward to processing the fruit in the years to come.
Love to make jam!!
Would also love a copy of your book. Good luck with it!
My favorite food in the jar is peaches. Makes them taste a little fresher.
It’s so hard to pick, but I really love fig preserves, curry pickle slices, candied kumquats and any type of kimchi, slaw or kraut. Hip-hip hooray for food in jars!
The book looks amazing! I love to can strawberry rhubarb jelly. Yum!
I really love pickled vegetables: beets, green beans, cucumbers, just about anything that can be pickled!
The book is beautiful, I’ll have to find a copy!
My favorite food to can? Beets! Love their goodness all year round in side dishes, on salads, etc. Ymmm!
My grandmother’s Apple Butter. OMG it was so good!
Canning has brought great joy and variety to our table, and I love having lots of things on hand. But my must-have, go-to, is simple canned tomatoes. They are so much better than store-bought, and they make a huge difference in our wintertime meals.
I’ve been making pectin-free strawberry lemon preserves that people are now asking for….but my personal favorite is pickled carrots!
Pickled okra and dilly beans. Favorite by a long shot.
I love to make marmalade and can it. Just to see the slices of oranges, lemons, and limes in jars brings me joy!
One word, a hundred variations: SALSA!
CONGRATS! I can’t wait to see you book. It is on my “to buy” list for sure. If I do win one I will keep it and buy the other for my sister!
I love jams! I think my favorite is pear and gin butter. nom nom nom!
Jam, mostly because it complements my baking habit so nicely. I’m also a sucker for pickled asparagus, though.
I have to thank Mrs. Wheelbarrow who directed me here today. I have been canning for years in order to make my garden’s bounty last throughout the cold, north Idaho winters. My favorite item to can is roasted tomatoes, pureed in the food processor, and tasting of summer in the middle of winter. Congratulations on your book!
The book looks absolutely gorgeous! Congrats! I think my favorite thing to MAKE in jars is jam. You can be so creative with spices and herbs and not have to worry over-much about safety, since they’re both high-sugar and high-acid. Plus it’s such a great give. But to EAT, I find that jam doesn’t get used up enough in my house. My current favorite thing-to-eat-in-a-jar are the Persian Tarragon Pickles from Canning for a New Generation. I can literally eat two or three or more in a sitting. YUM!
Plum jelly, specifically my mom’s plum jelly, is my favorite food in a jar. It always makes me smile.
My favorite thing to can is jam. I love how the taste of that season’s best comes through in the flavor. We are just using up our last pint from last year – a blackberry so complex I can almost smell the berries languishing on the vines in the sunshine.
(And yes! I always can jam in pints. With two jam-loving small children half-pints are kind of ridiculously small for us)
Very excited about your cookbook.
Strawberry Jam or Tomato Jam!
Pickles! They are so simple, and yummy, too!
Chutney is my favourite. I love all the creative ways of making and eating it!
My favorite canned go-to is meat. I can always come up with something good for dinner no matter how late I’m running.
Savory Jellies!
Love Lebanese refrigerator turnip pickles and look forward to making my own Boysenberry preserves from my new vines outside which are blooming as I write these words! Congratulations on the terrific sounding book. You really are amazing!