Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year-Round

I have been canning for 15 years and I love this book. Simple recipes to pack a punch and it even offered me new ideas for putting up the gardens bounty!

The subtitle to this book is, "Preserving in small batches year-round". Well for the past two years I thought I didn't want small batches, I wanted to create in volume because I was going to do the same recipes all the time. What happened was I tried a new recipe last year because I was given loads and loads of free eggplant. And so I had to try new recipes. As Oprah says, I had an "AH-HA" moment.First your definition and my definition for "small batch" may be off by a quart or more. Author Marisa McClellan likes to use one pint jars. I like to use 1/2 pint jars, so already I have double the amount she is canning in her written recipe. Marisa's small batch isn't super small as I was assuming. Also I have to give a huge shout out to the texture, color and weight of this book. I love the overall size. The actual size of the hard bound cover is 9 X 6 3/4", which makes the reading page about 8 1/2 X 6 1/2 inches which fits in your hand so comfortable. The pages are heavy in weight and feel like heavy duty journal pages. The page color background changes with each recipe, which I love. Not blaring loud colors, but soothing light greens when key limes are used. Or light orange and browns used when Oranges and cinnamon come to play on a recipe. So fun to read. The pages have good heavy texture to take notes on. And lets talk about the three empty pages at the end of the book she has titled for you and I as, "Perserving Notes" because who doesn't love to have notes to refer back to, or ideas you get later.I own pickling cookbooks, jelly and Jam making cookbooks and I own "mixes for gifts" books. I have the "blue book" for canning and I think every jelly/Jam person needs to own several books. This particular book gives great ideas to old recipes. Which is what I was looking for. This spring, summer and fall I plan on trying The strawberry with vanilla bean and Earl Grey tea Jam, Spiced Plum Jam, cantaloupe Jam, Mimosa Jelly, Mulled Cider Jelly, Pickled Brussel Sprouts, Sweet and sour pickled red onions, Lemony pickled cauliflower, spiced pickled pear halves and Shay's Chocolate Cake in a Jar.There are a few recipes that I probably won't try, like the granola recipes, but that is my personal prefrence.I should tell you that I finally submitting to buying her book only after trying out a recipe from her blog, "food in jars blog". I needed a recipe for lemon and strawberries. I found Strawberry Lemon Marmalade and printed it off and tried it out. It was a huge success. If you still unsure you want this book, check out her blog and several of her recipes there. Really awesome site.Marisa McClellan I am sorry I doubted you. I get it now. When I try a brand new canning recipe I want to try a small batch relatively speaking, because it might be that I want to make it again and again, or maybe not so much. And I do hope you write another book, I will be first in line next time.

The flavors in this book are just wonderful. I made the rhubarb jam with strawberries and oranges a couple days ago, and it is hands-down the best jam I've ever tasted. The perfect balance of sweet, tart, and spice. So far this is the only recipe I have tried from the book, but I'm eager to try many others.While I trust that the author knows a heck of a lot more about canning than I do, and I trust that she tested the recipes, and I trust that an unsafe book wouldn't have been published (well, maybe I'm naive on that one, but I'd like to think it's true)...maybe I'm just too new at canning to be relaxed about the process. I've only been canning for a year (the rhubarb jam was my tenth project), but I've read a lot of canning recipes and these are the first I've come across that don't ALWAYS use bottled lemon juice, that don't specify the headspace in EACH recipe, and that don't direct you to skim the foam from your jam before you fill the jars (I don't know what that last thing has to do with safety, but surely the other sources tell you to do it for a reason?). Also, this is the first time I've seen curd recipes that can be processed in a waterbath canner--I'm grateful for it, because I love curd and am eager to can it, but I can't help but be a little apprehensive about canning something that has eggs and butter in it. I also dislike that most of the recipes are written for pint jars...is it ok to can them in half-pint jars? Does that affect processing times? I mention this because the author discusses using different jar sizes, but only mentions how this affects the processing time if you can tomato sauce in quart jars instead of pints.I do love this book, and I appreciate that most of the recipes use produce that I can easily find at my farmer's market or co-op here in the Midwest (unlike a lot of other modern canning books that use produce I've never even heard of). Unlike another reviewer, I am not concerned that these recipes are going to make me or my loved ones sick. If the author has chosen these methods, I believe it's because she knows them to be safe. But as a beginner, I think I'd like just a little bit more hand-holding to walk me through the process.

I ordered this book along with three other small-batch canning books and I LOVE IT!!! It will be one of my go-to books for sure. I only have one little thing to point out - there are a few references in the book that suggest to go to a certain page but instead of a page number it shows "000", I am pretty sure they meant to put a page number in, but someone somewhere in editing land missed it!! It certainly doesn't effect how great this book is. Marisa's instructions are fantastic and easy to follow. One other thing that I really like is that the book is written in a very unintimidating way - like she is chatting with you in your kitchen:) I would highly recommend this book for beginners and I think more intermediate canners would enjoy the author's twist on recipes. Also, I discovered her blog after I bought the book - great blog:)

I recently became interested in canning and wanted to do small batches. I rented all the books on small batch canning from my library and LOVED this book. I immediately wanted to make over 20 of the recipes and marked many many more for future years. The other books, including the Canning for the new generation, just did not have as many recipes that I was interested in.I just got the book in the mail and cannot believe how beautiful it is. I can actually just sit here and go through the book over and over again. I LOVE this book and I cannot wait for her next one.

My partner was thrilled to receive this book. Definitely a must have reference and idea book for canning and preserving.

I'm preserving for the first time this year, and this book is one of the ones I bought to help get me started. It's a very pretty book, with lots of colourful pictures to get inspired. The author describes the process and recipes in plain, easy to understand language. I like the selection of recipes as well. The ingredients are all common, and there's a nice combination of basic recipes (blueberry jam), and ones you might not find in other books (homemade Nutella).All in all, I think a great book for beginners and the more experienced.

This is an easy to understand book that is a must have for anyone wanting to preserve the harvest.