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
Disclosure: I wrote this book. Running Press is providing three copies at no cost to me for this giveaway.
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my favorite food in a jar is a good, tart jam, like apricot or sour cherry. heaven!
Canned green tomatoes mixed with garlic cloves and jalapeños. You can’t buy something at the store as good as these turn out!!
Blackberry jam. Really all jams, but my parents have a couple of acres of wild blackberries by their house that make the most wonderful jam!
My favourite food in jars is strawberry jam. Maybe that’s boring, but I don’t care. Nothing makes me happier first thing in the morning than opening a jar of my jam.
My favorite food on jars would definitely be pickles!
So many things you can pickle to bring out some really intense and delicious flavors.
Raspberry jalepeno jelly
Love all the jams . Now I have a passion for Pickles ! I’d love to give these a try. Hope you come to upstate NY on the book tour.
Would have to say pickels…But would love to make my own jam….
my favorite food to put in jars is probably chicken broth. Canning ensures that a food that should be so nourishing is not polluted with excess sodium or BPA in the cans.
Hot pepper jelly! I really did squeal a little as I typed that.
Thanks for the chance to win a copy of your new book! My two favorite things are jams and relish:@)
Canned apple cider because there’s nothing like drinking hot spiced cider in front of a crackling fireplace in the dead of winter. With canned cider on the shelf, all I have to do is pop open the jar, heat it up and enjoy!
This is not a comment to win the book. I wanted to let you know that I purchased it and it is beautiful. I love that it is hardback, and I know it will get much use. Good luck! If this comment gets picked please pick someone else so they can enjoy it too.
Spiced pickled peaches are my favorite right now.
My favorite food in a jar? At breakfast, it’s jam. At lunch, give me dill pickles. At dinner, I’ll take salsa. For dessert, strawberry sauce over ice cream.
squash relish and squash pickles! my favorite things to can!
Oh man. Jams and pickles are my favs. Specifically plum jam and dilly beans. Mmmmmm. Once a jar is open it doesn’t last long.
Of course I always seem to have some curds in jars in my freezer. Apricot curd is a favorite of mine.
My favorite favorite? This is tough! Right now, cauliflower salad for muffaletta sandwiches. I’m so looking forward to checking out your book!
I’ve recently discovered pickled green beans – those are the top of my list right now.
I love to can soups & stews. I love being able to just pop open a jar of ready-made HOMEMADE food on what would otherwise be a “takeout day.”
Apple Sauce! I might have picked and canned 100lbs of apples into sauce last year
jam jam jam jam jam jam jam
Usually the fruits, jams, jellies and butters, although lately curds seem to taking me over!
strawberry jam. hands down. It’s the reason that I read your blog… because I hope someday I will get the nerve to try to make my own! I gotten as far as buying jars… but not much further. I was hoping small batch canning is less daunting.
I love strawberry jam and have made it successfully. However my daughters favorite is pickles and that has been a disaster. Nothing worse than limp pickles
I really loved the apple butter I made in the fall. That was the best. No, wait. The pickled tomatillos. Hard to choose. Thanks for your wonderful blog and book.
You always ask the tough questions… right now it is hot pepper mustard. Can’t seem to find enough stuff to try it on.
I have all my loose teas in jars. That’s my favorite way to store them. So I guess tea is my favorite things in jars.
My favorite are tomatoes and I always use them up before the next growing season.
lemon curd!
strawberrry jam, it is the first thing i canned and I love it
My favorite foods in jars would have to be pickles. I like them sweet, sour, whatever. I also love to make canned dill pickles even more crisp by draining the liquid and adding a little sugar. The sugar draws liquid from the pickle and makes it extra crispy while creating a ‘sweet and sour’ pickle. Yum!
Love Strawberry Jam. Beautiful Book!
Oh my, I LOVE home canned tomatoes!! Would love to be a selected winner of this book!
Apple butter! I put in on toast, stir it into oatmeal and just eat it from the jar!
Beautiful book! I hope it inspires many to start canning. My favorite thing right now to have in a jar is chermoula sauce to dat on anything savory. I’ve got oodles of cilantro in the garden, and it always tastes so fresh and clean.
Pickles (all types) are a favorite, because they are quick and easy and everyone in the house likes them! Your book is beautiful. Thank you for the opportunity.
Cajeta, goat caramel. Love it, specially from Fat Toad Farms! Congrats on the gorgeous book dear!
Peach jam!! Actually any jam; but peach is my faorite. And green tomato mincemeat.
Dilly things! Dilly carrots, dilly beans, and dill cucumber pickles of course!
Tomatoes. As much as I love jams and jellies (black current jelly is the BEST), as much as I love pickles, as much as I love chili sauce – there is NOTHING like opening a jar of tomatoes, and tasting summer.
My favorite is definitely jam. Usually berry jam and preferably a mix of berries. Your book is gorgeous-
congratulations!
Tomatoes! I can’t wait to get my hands on this. If I don’t win one, I’ll buy one from you next week in South Hadley! See you then.
Growing up, my favorite canned good my mother made was her strawberry jam and peaches. She also canned plums, which I really didn’t like. Now that I’m canning my own food, I love my uncle’s dill pickle recipe. I think I’ll be doing two bushels of pickling cucumbers this year.
Rhubarb whether it be jam or chutney. I’d love to try the rhubarb syrup you mentioned up above!
Today my favorites are dilly beans. I can’t make to wake a cupboard full this summer.
i’m quite fond of pickled garlic scapes! your book looks lovely.
I have been reading your blog for a while now and have been so excited for the cookbook! My favorite food in a jar is your pickled asparagus. I have made it over two seasons now and it is definitely a family favorite. I also got a red ribbon at the fair for it! You can now officially call it award winning pickled asparagus!
I love your website and would love a copy of your book! Our current favorite in the house is strawberry rosemary — I only made a small batch, and it’s almost gone!
Anything really. I’m just proud that I even canned anthying.