Ball CorporationBesprekingen

Food Preperation

I love this book! I can't wait to get started on water bath canning and fermenting!

My copy of the Ball Blue Book, the one that I think of as "new", was actually published in 1995, so I decided it was past time to treat myself to a 21st century canning guide. This book both surpasses my expectations and falls somewhat short.

I was delighted to find recipes for two kinds of mustard! It has been very difficult to find a trustworthy recipe for mustard that does not require refrigerator storage. Also elusive has been a recipe for pickled brussels sprouts. I found one years ago in Canadian Living, but lost the recipe again (if I even ever had the chutzpah to remove the magazine from International Tires waiting room!). Here it is, or something just as good.

I was also delighted to find paired recipes for blueberry syrup and blueberry butter made from the leftover pulp. I love a twofer! (Hint: if you thaw frozen strawberries and use the dripped-off juice for making jelly, the pulp is great for making strawberry-rhubarb-sour cream pie. You're welcome.)

I was less happy with the 21st Century fancy recipe book format. One recipe per page, okay. Full page colour picture facing each recipe, increases the price of the book and doesn't really add to the usefulness because jam looks like jam, but fine, I can live with it. Recipes for using canned food interspersed with the actual recipes for canning, not so thrilled. Look at the bottom of the page to see if there are processing times given!

One of the things I liked about my 1995 Ball Blue Book was the sheer number of recipes and the crowded format that squeezed four or five recipes onto a page (I suspect that there were almost as many recipes in 120 pages as this one has in 350) so you could compare several versions of tomato sauce or salsa without a lot of page flipping. This book has a feature that does much the same thing, which I think I will come to love. Easily found by the coloured edges of the pages, green-rimmed pages contain tables of jams or pickles or fruits, giving quantities for simple and basic preserving. For example, there is a page of Fruit Butter basics with fruits, liquids, sweeteners and flavouring suggestions to mix and match, plus instructions for making the spread in a slow cooker and processing. It looks intriguing!

THIS book is a great choice for newbies. I know because I am one. Honestly, I have wanted to put up preserves for some time but was put off by the books I read. I think my sense of being in over my head came from the fact that I couldn't 'visualize' exactly what needed to be done. Ball's approach in this BACK TO BASICS book is much more my style. I LOVE the lists of equipment needed and the explanations .AND. photos of how things need to be done.

Need to know what a good set looks like? There's a photo.
Not sure exactly how to measure 'headspace'... there's a photo.

There are a variety of recipes and many of them, like the one I made --Blueberry Jam-- are simple and relatively quick. Basically, you only need your canning supplies and 4 ingredients: blueberries, pectin, sugar and lemon juice. And I really liked that there was a low sugar version and you were told ahead of time, how the low-sugar jam would be slightly different than the full sugar. (It's basically not as thick.)

Recommended to Noobs like myself.

It has a pint and a half jar on the cover. On the last page of the book they offer a recipe for “How to Preserve a Husband.” This shows women still ruled the kitchen back in the 70's.

This is an essential reference book for home food preservers. There are myriad recipes to try with clear and concise directions for both beginning and experienced canners.

Oh, Jarden, this is very wicked of you. This "100th" anniversary edition, which does differ slightly from the one published in 2004/2006, has the exact same ISBN. Not very nice.

I know, I know, that's not really the author, but the author of this book (unlike the Kerr Canning Book) was always anonymous. Currently, the owner of both Kerr and Ball brands is Jarden. There may be one or two other makers of glass jars out there.

I always preferred (and still do) the Kerr canning book recipes, and bought these only because there are some recipes in them that are different. Like the Kerr books, the recipes are basically unchanged from one edition to the next.

Honestly I have so many books on preserving now that this one seems redundant. I read the 1985 edition and it has out-of-date canning methods. The jam-packed format is great for putting in a lot of recipes but not so great for people who like a little bit more about each recipe. I like the lists of problems and solutions, which was probably the most useful part of this book.

Five stars for technical, two stars for creativity. Very clear, no nonsense, no frills guide to canning pretty much everything that is cannable.(not the same as cannibal)

This book is essential to any complete cookbook collection. Knowing how to safely and quickly preserve quality leftovers is nearly a lost art. Homemade sauces, condiments jams and such also make great gifts all year long.

A must have for home canning !

Extremely useful, with step by step directions. Got recipes for practically everything.

CMB