'Putting Up: A Seasonal Guide to Canning in the Southern Tradition' by Stephen Palmer Dowdney Gibbs Smith -- 2008 Buy it on Amazon
You know how your friend's cousin's boyfriend's grandma, like, totally killed a neighbor by innocently giving her a batch of her home-canned beans that oops, turned out to have a touch of the botulism? That's never going to happen to you. Not on Steve Dowdney's watch.
This can-vangelist has culled years of his own know-how, as well as the collective wisdom of generations of Southern cooks, into a rigorous, nigh-on religious canning primer. The recipes are solid -- almost a shade clinical -- but the opening chapter, packed with equipment tips, altitude and pH charts, preparation terms and step-by-step best practices, could be a stand-alone manual, not to mention the only one you'd ever need to buy.
See what we tested and find out whether the book's worth buying after the jump.
'Preserved' by Nick Sandler and Johnny Acton Kyle Books -- 2009 Buy it on Amazon
As much as the recent glut of home-canning articles, blogs, hardware and bookstore kiosks would have us believe it, man cannot actually live on darling little jams and preciously put-up pickles alone. S'OK -- Messrs Sandler and Acton are here to help you halt the march of time under blankets of aspic, tubs of salt, lashings of booze, heady wood smoke and plain old air.
But if you're like me, you go straight for the pressure-canned tongue.
See what we tested and find out whether the book's worth buying after the jump.
August may mark the end of peak cucumber season, but that's no reason to be sad -- it's also the perfect time to stock, slice and pickle the green veggies, whether they're 2-inches or 2-feet long.
These pickles, made and taken by Flickr user melsands, were jarred with dill, coriander, allspice, garlic and fennel seeds. While they were probably intended to go on a sandwich, we'd be tempted to pluck each perfectly pickled cucumber chip straight from the jar until all that's left is just enough juice left to pickle another batch.
There's a canning revolution going on and Kim O'Donnel -- former food writer for the James Beard Award-winning Washington Post -- has brought it to a boil.
Upon tremendous response to her re-Tweet of an Ethicurean post about a canning party in San Francisco and subsequent suggestion that Seattle and other cities follow suit, O'Donnel asked interested home canners to contact her. Thus Cans Across America was born. On the weekend of August 29-30, cities across the nation will host classes, can-a-thons, canning meet-ups and raise awareness of this retro-haute preservation method. More about the nation's can-do attitude after the jump.
Live-animal markets throughout the city are providing consumers with a face-to-face introduction to their dinner.
New York City is loving more than just local food. It's going international with festivals celebrating the cuisine of countries from Indonesia to Sweden.
Oprah may have made the acai berry a Superfood, but now the craze is robbing poor Brazilians of a native product critical to their health.
Like every other city, Pittsburgh is coming alive with farmers markets. Here's a list of them.
The Ball jar is celebrating its 125th anniversary, so get canning!
Hugo Chavez has seized temporary control of one of Cargill Inc.'s pasta processing plants in Venezuela for breaking regulations.
Rachel Carson Homestead is celebrating its dedication to local foods with a Sustainable Feast.
Need more rhubarb in your life? Read on to learn more about rhubarb history and the plant's role in treats like this crisp with strawberry, a spring tonic and in a pie or tart with apple.
If you're a friend of mine, I'm sorry, but I'm about to spoil your Christmas present. You're getting my homemade corncob wine. Now get that look off your face -- it's actually pretty darned tasty, and if you don't believe me, at least trust the palates of James Beard Award winning cookbook authors and Lowcountry culinary ambassadors Matt and Ted Lee. I nabbed this method from The Lee Bros. Southern Cooking, and thought the first batch turned out so well, it was worthy of a second gallon's brewing a few weeks later.
Take pity on a Yankee girl, wouldja? I thought I was being all clever about the head when I put up a batch of watermelon rind pickle and another of rind preserves during my pickling vacation* this past August. Thing is, when I recently popped open a jar for a pre-dinner relish tray, my North Carolinian husband asked me if we had any Cheez Whiz in the fridge. Huh?
It seems that in his youth, Douglas' grandmother Memama's very best girlfriend Janie, upon hearing word of his arrival in Plymouth, would pull down a Ball jar, and show up chez Memama with a platter of watermelon rind pickle, Cheez Whiz and Captain's Wafers. The best I could do this past Sunday night was accompany the pickle with some double-cream brie and store brand Ritz-ish crackers that we had on hand. Oh, he swore up and down that it was just perfect, but he's all polite like that.
So, what I'm wondering now is if any of you have a particular familiarity with watermelon rind pickles, and if so -- if I bring along a jar to Thanksgiving dinner, should I tote along the Whiz & wafers, or was that strictly a Janie thing? Might plain ol' crackers suffice, is there another standard methodology, or should we all just stop fretting and enjoy?
I first discovered Debby Bull's Blue Jelly five years ago, when a friend thrust a copy into my hands, looked me in the eye and said, "You need to read this book. You will love it." Despite receiving it with such a vigorous endorsement, the slim, blue hardback sat on my bookshelf for more than six months before I picked it up. Every time I saw the friend to whom the book belonged, I would feel a pang of guilt and apologize that I hadn't read it yet. She would just smile peacefully, tilt her head and say, "I'm not worried. You'll read it when you're ready."
It was a rainy Saturday afternoon when I finally cracked the cover. My previous resistance dropped away and I spent the rest of that day reading through Bull's tale of love lost and recover through the making of jam. It sparked my interest in jam and fruit butter making (although I did also grow up with a mother who makes at least 30 pints of jam every summer) and made me remember the power of doing something from scratch.
The book is a series of essays about Bull's process as she recovers from being dumped, and at the end of each essay is a recipe for a different jam, jelly, butter or pickle. The recipes are full of soul and character and following her instructions makes you feel like you're being guided through the cooking and canning process by an old, witty friend who you don't get to see very often.
I realize we're heading into the end of the canning season at this point, but it's never too late to be inspired for next year. This book is just the thing to make you leap off your couch and towards the kitchen to make up a nice batch of jam.
Goodbye summer -- today is the first day of fall. The warm air is is being pushed out by harsher, cold winds, and fresh produce is starting to become a little harder to come by.
As wonderful as it would be to freeze our veggies and fruit in time and eat them at our leisure, the best we have is freezing and canning. Freezing isn't the most ideal option, so that leaves canning -- the way to store and preserve vegetables and fruits for those long, dark, and cold winter nights. The above video is part of a series that details the basics of home canning -- all you need to rush out to your local produce stand or farm and buy up the last tasty bushels of summer to preserve for the months ahead.
It's a really simple process, and once you do it, you'll wonder why you haven't before.
Yesterday, for the first time ever in my entire life, I canned. I've been watching my mom can jam for years, so it wasn't a totally foreign process to me, but I had never done it on my own from start to finish before. I don't think words can express just how satisfying it was to hear the snap when the cans sealed. When they were all finished, I kept going into the kitchen to tap on the lids, just to hear the pleasing dull ring that means that they were properly sealed.
The reason I was canning is that I started a batch of apple-pear (the apples were the last of the ones that Scott and I picked for the second episode of Slashfood in the Kitchen) butter on Tuesday that took until Wednesday to finish. Sadly I was overconfident and didn't call my mom for advice. Had I touched base with her before I started, I would have been reminded that she cooks the apples for a bit and then strains them in a small-holed colander for a while to get some of the liquid out before pureeing and cooking them down. The way I did it, it took nearly 10 hours of cooking before it had simmered down to the right consistency (my stove didn't help matters as it doesn't do the long, slow simmer very well). However, it doesn't matter, as it all turned out and I now have five jars of really delicious apple-pear butter to give as gifts this holiday season.
Despite the fact that I grew up in a house in which my mom regularly canned jam, I find that most methods of canning and food storage to be mysterious and slightly intimidating. I have a fear that anything I can will end up infused with botulism and will kill my loved ones and myself. So I don't can (fears don't have to be reasonable). However, I am intrigued by the process and am in awe of people who tackle the task (especially when it includes the scary water bath portion).
It seems like these days it is becoming increasingly popular to can your own food, as it's a good way to keep some of the summer bounty available for winter, especially if you are trying to eat a local diet. The Daily Green has put up a terrific and helpful (and fear calming) post, written by Alisa Smith of the 100 Mile Diet, chock full of tips and information about canning technique. It's enough to make me put aside my fears, buy a case of jars, obtain a flat of tomatoes and start canning.
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