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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Tough decision! Do I really need to pick one? Oh, all right…. last year I made a totally awesome cinnamon fig preserves (no added pectin) that makes me swoon when I add it to plain, nonfat Greek yogurt with walnuts, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds. If my hubby was answering, he’d say the bread and butter pickles I made two years ago with lemon cucumbers (no garden last year) or any of the jams I make. He’s very diplomatic like that!
My favorite is Cowboy Candy! Great on burgers, brats, sandwiches, cheese and crackers or just out of the jar. I can’t get enough of them!
My favorite food to can would be salsa.
Hard to say – I am a recent convert to canning. I’ve been making jam for a few years now but I would only make small-batch jams that we could easily use up – but last night was my first time canning using a water bath! Success!!!!!
My favorite kind of food in jars is jam!
My grandma’s salsa!
Jalapeño jelly!
Spiced plum spoon fruit has to be my favourite food in a jar, but gooseberry jam and sour cherries in syrup are tied for a close second (really, how are we meant to pick just one?!).
So many things to choose from… If I’m making it I would have to go with salsa or apple sauce although I do get a huge jar of fresh honey from my Uncle for Christmas. It’s generally gone after a week because I make huge batches of granola out of it.
Mmm…so many. I’m going to go with what I’m eating my way thru now from last summer–blueberry jam!
Every new batch of jam gets the comment, “oh, now this is your BEST one yet!”
Peach preserves. Peaches are only tolerable, i.e. amazing, for such a short season that only yummy preserves can capture that rare taste of summer.
There’s nothing like opening your pantry and being able to choose something you have put up yourself
My five year old would say jelly, my father-in-law would say pickles, my mother would say salsa, if I had to choose, I would say apricots.
Jams are by far my favorite canned food! I would love to be able to make my own so as to not have all the added sugars.
My favorite jarred food that I’ve made myself was some blueberry marmalade I made last year—so good that I wouldn’t let my husband eat any (he’s only so-so on blueberries). I love to buy jarred chutney and India-style pickles. I wish I had more recipes for them!
my favorite kind of food in jars is pickles. no hesitation — pickles! congrats on the book.
Hard decision! Love the pickles…strawberry jam….apple butter…..pear jam…..pickled jalapenos…..pickles! Love the pickles.
So far, it’s a toss up between black bean and corn salsa AND Blueberry Jam! Yummo.
Excited for you.
Emily
I love jams and playing around with the flavors. My other half can’t get enough salsa. My mother was a huge canner, we never bought canned goods at the store. But, sadly she never passed it on to me and I’m now just trying teach myself.
Love your blog! I’m making raspberry jam today using your recipe. Your cookbook looks beautiful.
I’m a pickle sort of gal. Pickled peppers are my favorite.
It would have to be jelly, so easy to make, and use.
I am so in love with your book. It sits on my table right next to my chair in the living room. I thumb through it and place sticky notes on the recipes I plan on trying this summer. The first one with be Strawberry Jam with Vanilla…I have everything ready to go and this recipe tops my summer bucket list. Having a second book would allow me to give it to my sister for Christmas this year, she is a foodie as well.
I am looking forward to this book! I can in all categories, but this year I am really into marmalade. Yesterday I canned Cowboy Candy, pickled jalapenos is a sweet syrup. Last week I made mango chutney. I’ll be canning some hot sauce in a few days. Good luck with the book!
Anything sweet and fruity! Jelly, jam, syrup … yum! Love the blog and would love to have the cookbook! Thanks for the inspiration, Marisa.
I like the look of fruit or garden salads in a jar. Or yogurt. Although my vanilla rhubarb jam made with your recipe looks really nice too!
I love canning all kinds of things. Some of my favorite things are salsa, chicken noodle soup and lingonberry jam. Your book looks so wonderful. You are very creative and that makes canning exciting.
Hard to pick just one, but if I have to – hot peppers!
It’s all about the pickles. I LOVE them. Thanks for the chance to win!
I’m a relative newbie to canning so my favorite thing to can so far is jam/preserves. Just enough of a challenge to give me the occasional failure but when it works, it’s so good. I love pickles made by other people, though. I have many fond memories of buying handmade pickles from the farmers market in college with my best friend.
I have been big on nut butters lately
Congratulations! The book looks absolutely beautiful. I would love to have a copy
My favorite food in a jar has to be cherries.
My grandmother always had quarts of them in her root cellar, and when we were at her house and were asked what we wanted for dessert (there was nearly always cake, cookies and ice cream available), all of us cousins always asked for her cherries!
I like pickles and relishes – have never made any myself, but am anxious to learn how.
I have a lot of favorites, but I make jam the most and store bought jam just can not compare to the home made stuff.
I love ANYTHING in jars! Jars are cool…
Proud to say your cookbook is on the cookbook pile and dog-eared already! Congrats on the completion of a huge undertaking!
I love to have homemade chicken stock always on hand. My husband says I may be a little obsessive about it.
Marmalade of any fruit combos…fun to make and great to share…
Strawberry jam for sure. Not so much for me, but for my increasing number of nephews and nieces that love my jam. Love your blog.
Jam. I put in in so much, especially plain yogurt or on oatmeal. Yum =)
The strawberry jam my sis-in-law makes from her grandmother’s recipe — I think I gained 5 pounds in a week last time she shared! Congrats on the book
The best thing I ever canned was a peach and jalapeno jam using peppers I grew in my window sill. I was frankly doubtful of the recipe, but it was wonderfully sweet and spicy, and it had a great peach-meaty texture. I will be doing my best to replicate it once my jalapeno plants start fruiting and the peaches come in again this year!
I think, maybe, pears is my favorite food in jars. Or salsa. Diced tomatoes get used the most often so maybe those. That’s a harder question than I first thought.
Pickled beets!
Jams were the first things I ever canned, and are still my favorites, even as I’ve branched out and gotten more adventurous. I’ve been following your blog for ages, and I’m so thrilled that you’ve gone from a relatively small following, to a successful website and book and other projects! Many kudos to you – I’ve enjoyed following your journey!
Jam. But I’m looking to expand my repertoire!
Raspberry jam from berries in my garden…mmmmmm!
I eat everything out of jars! I use them like tupperware. Coffee, smoothies, leftovers, you name it.
definitely jam. my favorites to come out of last summer were pear ginger and a first attempt at tomato jam.
Pickles. Definitely pickles.