Complete Guide to Home Canning and Preserving

by U.S. Department of Agriculture

Book Overview

This practical, easy-to-follow-guide--newly revised and updated--offers food shoppers an attractive, high-quality alternative to high-priced, overprocessed, and undernourishing foods. Virtually everything you need to know about home canning is here: how to select, prepare, and can fruits, vegetables, poultry, red meats, and seafoods; how to preserve fruit spreads, fermented foods, and pickled vegetables; how to test jar seals, identify and handle...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486409317
• ISBN13: 9780486409313
• Release Date: May 1999
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.6" x 9.7"

Customer Reviews

a must have

As a first time canner, I needed a guide that I could trust. This book helped a great deal.

The Complete Guide to Home Canning and Preserving (Second Revised Edition)

I am happy I bought this book it has alot of useful information concerning altitudes times and temps for jarring a huge selection of specialty food items. It also has quite a nice selection of recipes. I recommend this book to anyone interested in jarring food products.

The most comprehensive canning guide ever

I am thoroughly impressed with the layout, "how-to" canning guide and all the additional information provided to both the beginner and learned home canner. A real necessity to your kitchen and 'natural' food preparation process.

reference book for beginners and committed canners

A few years ago I came across the first edition of USDA's "Complete Guide to Home Canning and Preserving" in a second-hand bookshop. At the time I had zero experience with canning or preserving -- both of which seemed, to me, to be akin to alchemy. The USDA's guide contained all the information I need to get started, and answered many of my questions about the process, the 'science' and my options (such as added pectin vs. no added pectin in jams). I recently acquired this edition of the USDA's guide. It has all the strengths of the first guide, with a few changes to better suit most modern kitchens. Most notably is the listing of measurements using cups and spoons; as opposed to the weight measurements used in the first book. The USDA's guide also provides objective, practical information about selecting jars, canners, storage, ingredients etc. I now have a few books with fancy, tasty canning recipes, but I always use the USDA's Guide as reference . . .especially when purchasing equipment or creating my own recipes.