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
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!