Canning Essentials

Your complete beginner's guide to canning!

• Over 60 recipes for homemade jam, jelly, salsa, pickles, relishes, and more
• Learn different methods for canning and freezing produce, including high- and low-acid canning, and discover the differences between water-bath and pressure canning
• Helpful reference charts thoroughly detail methods, timings, temperatures, and equipment
• Step-by-step details to walk you through every process you need to know about home food preservation

Canning Essentials is a go-to beginner's guide that will take you step-by-step through the various processes of canning fruit and produce, whether homegrown or store-bought. 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 with your busy schedule, you can find time to do it yourself!

With an emphasis on cost-saving and sustainable food safety, this detailed guide will teach you methods for freezing, canning, pressure canning, and water-bath canning. Once you understand the basics, you'll then discover more than 60 delicious recipes for homemade jellies, jams, chutneys, pickles, relishes, salsas, conserves, fruit butters, marmalades, and more.

Inside this book, you'll find freezer recipes for berries, beans, peaches, and pumpkins, canning recipes for apple juice, grape juice, tomatoes, and beets, and even a chapter featuring classic Amish and Mennonite recipes like red cinnamon pickles, gooseberry ketchup, and dandelion jelly.

Find the method that works best for you to preserve your harvest, then explore all the delicious foods you can make:

• Apricot Jam
• Bread and Butter Pickles
• Mint Jelly
• Chow Chow
• Black Current Preserves
• Sauerkraut
• Plum Chutney
• Chocolate Red-Raspberry Jam
• Beet Relish
• Peach Butter
• Cherry Marmalade
• Stewed Tomatoes
• Blueberry Freezer Jam
• Brandied Pears
• ...and dozens more!

With over 60 recipes, step-by-step instructions for processes and methods, helpful charts to detail specific timings, temperatures, and required equipment, troubleshooting advice, and more, this book will teach you everything you need to know about preserving and canning fruits and vegetables, so you can start preserving the flavors of the harvest. Yes, you can—with Canning Essentials!

"Offers readers an opportunity to take 'ownership of home food preservation.' It's a master class in the necessary techniques and tools required for gathering, freezing, canning, drying, pickling, and fermenting ingredients."
—Mary Bilyeu, food editor, The Toledo Blade

"The essential step-by-step guide to preserve local flavor."
—Angela Covo, editor-in-chief, Edible San Antonio & adjunct faculty, Culinary Institute of America

"Jackie Callahan Parente teaches the 'whys' and 'hows' of preserving foods so that you can experience the flavors of summer any time of the year!"
—Chris Chamberlain, author of The Southern Foodie

"A beautiful tome that is exactly what its title claims: essential. ...The book is thorough but not ponderous and includes easy-to-read charts and guidelines for preserving the harvest. Photographs are both inspiring and informative. Canning Essentials should be in every food lover's kitchen library."
—Michele Anna Jordan, author of Vinaigrettes & Other Dressings

Jackie Callahan Parente is a freelance writer living in a suburb outside Hartford, Connecticut. She's worked with words as writer, editor, tech writer, and food writer for more years than she'd care to admit. Food writing blends her love of words with her passion and pleasure in gardening, cooking, home food preservation, and eating locally and sustainably. A member of Slow Food USA and Canning Across America, she brings to Can It! experience garnered over several decades of preserving food at home.

In addition to this book, she authors a popular food blog (Raspberries, Rabbits, and Rutabagas), and offers classes in home food preservation. Jackie has owned her own freelance writing company—Editorial Services, LLC—since 1996.