Home Canning – Book Reviews by the Reluctant Retiree

Are you one of the many people who took up canning last summer as we were all home due to Pandemic? I noticed that there was an absolute run on all the canning supplies in every store that I checked. Now luckily I bought my equipment back in 2017 after Hurricane Irma knocked power down and I didn’t get it back for a week!

Folks, I’m Pennsylvania German and was raised to can with a Water Bath, that’s what my mom used. But if you are trying to can vegetables or soup, you need a Pressure Canner. My oldest daughter called me last year trying to find one for sale. At that time, they were selling for several hundred dollars!

So if you are planning to continue canning, now is a good time to start gathering your supplies. Besides the obvious jars, you will want/need:

Water Bath Canner – I found out the hard way that you can’t pressure can jelly and a pressure canner isn’t deep enough to do water bath with quart jars!
Pressure Canner – Note that I said canner, not Cooker. The USDA warns against trying to use a Pressure Cooker due to variations in pressure. This may not be a problem for cooking, but you need the consistency to kill all the toxins.
New lids – This is something else that can’t be stressed enough. When you opened that jar, you bend the rim to break the seal.

Recipe Books

The most trusted resource in home canning for over 100 years, the 2015 release of the Ball Blue Book is its largest update since the first edition in 1909. Expanding 56% from the previous edition, the 37th edition of the Ball Blue Book includes 75 new recipes, pictorial step by step guides for beginners, a special section for Meal Creations and unique “You Choose” and “Our Tip” recommendations where creative variations and helpful techniques are listed for creating your own signature foods

Canning Essentials is a go-to beginner’s guide that will take you step-by-step through the different processes of canning fruit and produce. From canning vegetables, like tomatoes and squashes, to preparing homemade jam, salsas, relishes, and so much more, this book simplifies food preservation so that even today’s busiest people can find time to do it themselves. Emphasizing cost-saving and sustainable food safety, you’ll learn methods for both freezing, canning, pressure canning, and water-bath canning, then discover over 60 delicious recipes for homemade jelly, chutneys, pickles, and more. With helpful charts throughout to detail methods with specific timings, temperatures, and required equipment, this book will teach you everything you need to know about preserving and canning fruits and vegetables.

Canning perfected the America’s Test Kitchen way.

The art of preserving produce by canning and preserving has come full circle from grandmother’s kitchen to a whole new generation now eager to learn it. This detailed guide to home preserving is perfect for novice canners and experts alike and offers more than 100 foolproof recipes across a wide range of categories, from sweet jams and jellies to savory jams, vegetables, condiments, pickles, whole fruits, and more. Let the experts at America’s Test Kitchen show you how to do it right with detailed tutorials, troubleshooting tips, equipment information, and insight into the science behind canning.

From the author of The Homestyle Amish Kitchen Cookbook comes a great new collection of recipes, hints, and Plain wisdom for everyone who loves the idea of preserving fresh, wholesome foods. Whether instructing a beginning canner or helping a seasoned cook hone her skills, certified Master Food Preserver Georgia Varozza shows people how to get the very best out of their food.

These are just a few of the books available to you. I should warn you, they will all cover the basic principles of canning safely .

As this pandemic drags on, more people are struggling just to get by from day to day. My heart truly goes out to all those folks who worked at a small business that either was dependent on tourism or even the Sports teams. I include those folks who owned or worked at the small bars and cafes that are shutdown right now. These folks are out of work through no fault of their own. They might not have been getting rich, but they made enough to pay their bills.

All that has changed now. People who would have never thought about cooking at home, or even preserving food for later use, now have the time to do that. It was funny, right after the pandemic became real to everyone, there wasn’t a bag of All Purpose Flour on the shelves to be found. Families were now learning to bake. At this point in time, it’s canning supplies that are short supply! My daughter called me a few month ago looking for a pressure canner. They aren’t hard to use, just hard to find! Take a look at this page on Amazon, Pressure Canners. After Hurricane Irma in 2017, I bought both a water bath canner and a pressure canner from Walmart’s, neither one cost more than $100. Take a look at those prices today. And for those of us who already had the jars, the new problem is canning lids!

So when I saw this article on MSN the other day, I just had to copy the URL. We could all use a few money-savings tips from Grandma’s time! Enjoy Folks!