Canning and Preserving for Dummies

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 264 pages
• Published by: For Dummies
• Edition: 1st Edition April 1, 2003
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0764524712
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0764524714
• Book Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.9 x 0.7 inches
• Weighs: 9.6 ounces

Product Description
Thought about canning and preserving your own food? Maybe you haven’t given it a try because you believed it would be too involved. The truth is, today’s methods and procedures for home-canning, freezing, and drying food are simpler and easier than ever. And now, with this easy-to-follow book, you’ll get the information you need to can and preserve food safely.

Canning and Preserving For Dummies makes putting up fruits and vegetables in your home as easy as pie. Featuring up-to-date safety guidelines and simple, fun techniques, this practical, friendly guide is for anyone who wants to enjoy delicious, do-it-yourself treats year-round—or even give them as gifts! You get all the juicy details on:

• Water-bath canning
• Pressure canning
• Freezing
• Drying
• Finding the right supplies and equipment

Canning and Preserving For Dummies also features yummy, eas y-to-do recipes that include preparation times, cooking times, processing times, and the yield you should expect from your efforts. You’ll see how to make everything from apple butter, pear-raspberry jam, and bread and butter pickles to chicken stock, tomatillo salsa, and white chili. You’ll also discover how to:

• Know the acidity level of your food
• Pick and prepare fresh fruit
• Line your jars with liquid
• Create jams, jellies, and marmalades
• Preserve chutneys, relishes, and sauces
• Pickle vegetables
• Combine foods for convenience
• Select food for freezing
• Protect the life of your dried food

Providing troubleshooting tips for home-canned creations, sources for locating equipment suppliers, a metric conversion guide, and definitions of preserving terms, Canning and Preserving For Dummies has just what you need to fill your pantry with savory homemade fare.

Back Cover Copy
Juicy details on making your own jams and jellies, canned veggies, and dried snacks

Enjoy delicious, do-it-yourself treats year-round – and they make great gifts!

Putting up fruits and vegetables in your home is as easy as pie with this step-by-step guide to canning and preserving. With easy-to-follow recipes, up-to-date safety guidelines, and simple, fun techniques, youll find everything you need to fill your pantry with savory, homemade fare.

The Dummies Way

• Explanations in plain English
• "Get in, get out" information
• Icons and other navigational aids
• Tear-out cheat sheet
• Top ten lists
• A dash of humor and fun

Reader Reviews
Being a former research scientist, it is perhaps unfair to critique a book for beginners. The recipes, trouble shooting and sources chapters are great. You will never get sick following this book. Corections: One piece caps designed for home canning of jams are fine. All jars designed for canning may not be used. Those manufactured prior to WWII will break if used for pressure canning due to internal stress created by movement of the high soda glass over time. Used tomato sauce jars that use a standard cap are fine. Regular green beans (formerly called string beans) have not required destringing for forty years. The jar lifter is gripping the jar where it will slip. Do not use wet dishtowels to wipe the lids. Your toilet bowl contains less bacteria. Use a paper towel. 2 piece (dome) lids on higher silica jars were used throughout WWII in Victory Gardens. I still use my mother's made in May, 1943. Do not bury your spoiled low acid food in deep soil or go through the detoxification process. Your sewer authority will probably tell you to dump it down the drain. If you do not trust their advice, take the food to your toxic waste drop off. If you have followed the directions as to pressure and time (you may not cheat), you do not need to boil all your canned low acid foods. Eat your food before canning the same veggies next year (a problem in WWII). Always can with a friend(s), especially the first time. It's more fun that way and safer should there ever be a rare problem (like a sticking valve in the MIRRO canner - tap with a wooden spoon and get your husband to fix it later). Botulism bacteria are killed at 212 degrees (actually ten min. @ 80C according to the CDC). It's the spores that require 240F for the times indicated. In nearly forty years of canning and raising three children from our large garden and orchard, we have never had food poisoning. Just remember, cleanliness is next to godlineness.