Need recommendations for a new canning book

[afptl]

HI All!
First time posting here. Been canning for about 20 years, but just basic stuff like beans, tomatoes, relish, etc. With all the high fructose corn syrup in everything, I have to can lots more this year. I am constantly reading labels in the store and putting it back on the shelf. Not to mention the costs of the items seems to make lots of them out of reach with our budget!
I have a Ball blue book and an older Kerr book. I am looking for another canning book to get. I am thinking one that has directions for stuff you usually don't find in the ball blue book. Like barbecue sauce, pickled eggs, anything a little "different." It's time to try something new. Like this year, I canned some venison. First time I ever canned any meat at all. Need to do more of that. Any suggestions on your favorite canning books? thanks and God Bless, Ann from KY

[NotSoFast]

I like Jackie Clay's book, Growing and Canning Your Own Food, on sale here in the Store. It covers fruit, pickles, vegetables, and meats as well as meals in a jar and dairy products. The meat chapter not only covers animals you would raise on a farm or ranch, but also wild game like deer, elk. moose, bear, and seafood.

http://www.backwoodshome.com/store/files/jc01.html

My other canning book is Preserving Summer's Bounty by Rodale Press. It doesn't cover meat, but it does cover alternatives to canning, like drying, pickling, root cellaring and juicing.

http://www.amazon.com/Preserving-Summers-Bounty-Freezing-Canning/dp/0875969798

I hope you find what you're looking for.



Chuck

[sbemt456]

Hi Ann and welcome to the forum. I have an old book that came with an old presto pressure canner, the first one my mom ever got and it has tons of recipes for different things in it. Sometimes ya have to read the ingredients in a given recipe and look up each thing that goes in it and process it according to the ingredient that takes longest to process. This is how I do baked beans, chili beans, and lots of stuff I can. You might be able to look around at yard sales and such and find old canning or cook books even that have canning recipes in them.

Have a great day!

stella

[NCLee]

HI All!
First time posting here. Been canning for about 20 years, but just basic stuff like beans, tomatoes, relish, etc. With all the high fructose corn syrup in everything, I have to can lots more this year. I am constantly reading labels in the store and putting it back on the shelf. Not to mention the costs of the items seems to make lots of them out of reach with our budget!
I have a Ball blue book and an older Kerr book. I am looking for another canning book to get. I am thinking one that has directions for stuff you usually don't find in the ball blue book. Like barbecue sauce, pickled eggs, anything a little "different." It's time to try something new. Like this year, I canned some venison. First time I ever canned any meat at all. Need to do more of that. Any suggestions on your favorite canning books? thanks and God Bless, Ann from KY

First, Ann, Welcome! It's great to have another home canner in our group!

Next, make sure you have a current Ball Blue Book. Some of the older versions have outdated information, in terms of safety. Sometime in the early 90's there were some changes made after research by extension services found problems with older processes. The change in the guidelines for canning tomatoes is the best example.

My recommendation, FWIW, is to put this book on your list to get first.
Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0778801314/?tag=badosaep Read the description and the customer reviews. They say it better than I can as to why this one is at the top of my list. :)

For canning and other preserving methods, don't forget this site.
National Center for Home Food Preservation http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/publications_usda.html For example, they have instructions for pickled eggs.

For more information on other ways to preserve food, take a look at this book. (It covers canning, too.) Canning isn't the best way to preserve some foods. And, some foods can be preserved in multiple ways. Bought my first copy many years ago. When canning guidelines were changed, bought the updated version. http://www.amazon.com/Putting-Food-Plume-Janet-Greene/dp/0452268990 Again, please take the time to read the reviews to get a good idea of the value of this book.

In closing, I have canning books that go back to World War I. Have my Mom's Ball Blue Book printed in 1953. And a host of other food preserving books. You can still some some of the information in those old books. Just cross reference to current guidelines. Some methods are no longer deemed to be safe. In other cases, it's a matter of changing the processing time.

Thus, I encourage you to get the 2 Ball books and use the link referenced above. Then, you can cross-reference older canning books, info gleened from the web, and even neighbor's recommendations. Then, make an informed decision about the risk you're willing to take with regards to when using older or non-tested methods of canning.

BTW, congrats on canning venison! Every fall, I can every ounce that I can get my hands on! :) There's some mighty fine eating stored away in those jars.

Hope this helps.
Lee

[ScrubbieLady]

I recommend Jackie Clay's book. It has great information about growing and canning and includes a lot of things that are not in the usual dry canning book. That being said, I also have the recent Ball Blue Book.

[BackyardHerbals]

I recently bought The Farmer's Wife Canning and Preserving Book. I have their last book which is a cookbook and since I really liked it I wanted to buy the canning book. It has a lot of old recipes but updated to be in compliance with modern guidelines. You can see it here (http://www.amazon.com/Farmers-Wife-Canning-Preserving-Cookbook/dp/0760335257/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274475366&sr=1-1). I am happy to say that it did not disappoint and I do love it!

[pcrowder]

I also like Carla Emery's Encyclopedia of Country Living and her Old Fashioned Recipe Book. You can oftentimes find them inexpensively used on EBay.

[sewserious]

I recently bought The Farmer's Wife Canning and Preserving Book. I have their last book which is a cookbook and since I really liked it I wanted to buy the canning book. It has a lot of old recipes but updated to be in compliance with modern guidelines. You can see it here (http://www.amazon.com/Farmers-Wife-Canning-Preserving-Cookbook/dp/0760335257/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274475366&sr=1-1). I am happy to say that it did not disappoint and I do love it!

I just found this book the other day at TSC! I love it. I love the old-fashioned recipes; it has a few things in there I haven't seen in other books. It also lists resources for other canning guides, many of which are available for download free or to purchase if you don't want to print them yourself.

[cartershan]

I have the most recent Ball Blue Book and use it for a base for canning. I have a few others that I use some. My most favorite is Jackie Clay's book. Of course, I always check the BALL for reference, but she has great recipes for meals in a jar that have been so helpful for my family. I'm going to check into some of the others mentioned on this thread as well.
The must haves for me are the Ball Blue Book and Jackie Clay's Growing and Canning your Own Food.
Hope all is well with everyone, Shannon