Good canning book?

[shadowood]

I'm looking for a good book on canning to buy. What do you suggest?

Thanks
SWF

[gypho]

Carla Emery's Encyclopedia to Country Living.

Others recommend the Blue Ball Book, usually found where you buy your jars and lids, etc.

I really enjoy the encyclopedia, though. Chock full of information for ALL kinds of canning.

gypho

[Shamrock1121]

The Ball Blue Book (generally available wherever canning equipment is sold) is the only commercial book that has up-to-date USDA information and is recommended safe-to-use. *

If you choose books that do not follow the USDA information, you will find untested recipes with potential for improper processes and/or processing times. *It is no longer advised to use old recipes, or recipes for canning from publications before 1990.

Check out: *So Easy To Preserve
http://www.uga.edu/setp/

This is one of the best books available. *

You can find the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning on the internet:
*http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/publications_usda.html

Check with your County Extension Office. *They have all the updated information for the asking.

Here's my Kansas Extension resource: *http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/foodsafety/

Information about preserving food:
http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/extrapidresponse/ksupres.htm

-Karen

[Penny_Plinker]

I've got a Ball Blue book but i've also got a *Better Homes and Gardens Home Canning Cook Book from 1980. *Every time i can something, i check them both and they'll both have pretty much the same process time, the same poundage. *They both advise to use lemon juice in tomatoes. *If there's a recipe i like in the older book then i use it. *Exactly what important up-to-date information does the Ball book have that other books don't have?

Penny

[shadowood]

I still use canned tomatoes my mom did over 15 yrs ago. 8)

I could not find the book my mom had used, so was looking to buy one.

Thanks for the info.
SWF

[Shamrock1121]

.....Exactly what important up-to-date information does the Ball book have that other books don't have?

Penny

Home canning has changed due to scientist finding ways to make it safer through careful recipe design and testing. Ball Blue Book used that information and applied it to their publication.

You still find books/recipes canning tomatoes without adding acid - even though tomatoes are borderline on the pH chart to begin with. With the availablility of low-acid tomatoes in todays market, people are potentially canning Botulinum bacteria due to ignorance with the updated information by NOT adding an acid. "We've ALWAYS done it that way!" just doesn't cut it when it comes to food safety.

In 1989 they updated the boiling time based on altitudes - how many people even know their altitude to process for the correct times? Updated research changed processing times and pressures that were used for the size of jar, the style of pack (how it is placed in the jar), and the kind of food being canned. You need to have complete heat penetration to kill bacteria - not just jars sitting in boiling water. That's one of the reasons 1/2-gallon jars are no longer suggested for canning - other than highly acid juices - but you'll still find people canning food in them.

Many people also disregarded the head room needed for different food types in canning, which is carfully outlined in any USDA developed/TESTED recipe.

People are still using open-kettle canning methods and you'll find those recipes still in print, without regard to the dangers of using such methods. Nothing like sealing bacteria into the perfect environment to produce a toxin. People use unbelievable methods, like the sun, home ovens, steam canners..... ALL very dangerous methods.

Here's a "safe canning quiz" you may find informative: http://missvickie.com/canning/quiz.htm

I've taken classes through Kansas State University given by Dr. Karen Penner (Food Safety Professor) and Karen Blakleslee M.S (see: http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/pr_rrc/welcome.asp) on home canning and food safety in order to be a certified Master Food Volunteer. I've been trained and certified to give information and teach classes on the subject of home canning.

-Karen

[Penny_Plinker]

The better homes and gardens book mentioned is over 20 years old and it DOES have the information of using the lemon juice. It doesn't have the high altitude information, but that doesn't apply to where i live anyway and anyone who lives in high altitude would be aware of it. At least they would if they ever baked a cake, because cake boxes have special instructions for high altitude. I simply don't think that Ball is the only canning book that has up to date information about canning. Any recent canning book published by a well known publisher would have current, well researched information. If they didn't they'd be getting their a$$es sued off all the time in unlawful death suits. Now i'm not talking about your church group recipe books, but real published books like better homes and garden, they put out factual books or they wouldn't be in business.

I've heard about your degree before and i've learned a lot from your posts. But i also have a lot of faith in Jackie Clay and she said she ate canned food 10 years old and and the expiration dates the manufacturers put on canned food is a marketing gimmick. But the only thing i really don't agree with you about is that Ball is the only good canning book just like Chevy isn't the only good vehicle, etc.

Penny

[PrepLady]

I also like the Stocking Up books; they are updated every so often, too. Putting Food By is a classic. I have all of them--Carla's book, PFB, the Ball Blue Book, and Stocking Up. All contain different ideas and recipes in addition to the basic canning info.

[humbug]

I use the Big Book of Preserving The Harvest, Stocking UP and The Ball Canning Book. I am always on the lookout for new recipes though.