Art of Preserving

by Rodney Weidland, Jan Berry, Appert.M.

Book Overview

Gathers recipes and instructions for making jam, fruit brandy, chutney, relish, marmalade, pickled fruit, and flavored oils. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0898158958
• ISBN13: 9780898158953
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 7.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

I love it !!!

I love it. Lots for wonderful jelly, jams and chutneys. Especially some great recipes for green tomatoes. I need another to ship to a friend in 🇬🇧

Never heard of Tomato Walnut Jam? You have no idea..

At some point after you've sealed your umpteenth jar of strawberry preserves and peach jam, you find yourself asking, Is this as exciting as it gets? Really, your sister and office mates are probably (secretly of course) just as bored with your yearly batches of apple jelly as you are. To keep motivated every harvest time, you repeat to yourself over and over, like a mantra: Made with real sugar, not high fructose corn syrup... Well imagine their eyes popping out of their heads when you triumphantly hand them your Pear and Ginger Marmalade, Green Tomato Relish, and Plum and Raisin Chutney! When the title of a cookbook claims the status of Art, expect that it contains inventive, quirky and elegant combinations in addition to the more pedestrian basics. Also, assume that it was not meant for rank beginners any more than it was written by a rank beginner. Jan Berry, the author of Art of Preserving has decades of experience with preserving a wide range of fruits and vegetables, and while she discusses the basic methods in a short preface chapter, it's barely sketched. But more on that in a moment. In the ten years that I have owned my copy of Art of Preserving, I have tried perhaps a dozen of the 300 or so recipes in this book. It's all I have the nerve, resources or the gourmet gumption, to have tried. From this book I have produced Blood Orange Pommander Brandy, Orange Wine, Lemon Oil, Candied Citrus peel, Blueberry Jam, Apple and Geranium Jelly, Figs in Brandy, Red Bell Pepper Jelly, herb-infused vinegars and sugars, Preserved Ginger, and Banana Jam. I am eager to try several more as time and ingredient availability permit, such as Pumpkin and Rosemary Jam and Melon Jelly. Ah, for an acre of garden space to grow the stuff and a few months every year to harvest and preserve it all! That would definitely be somewhere in my heaven. In a way, the Art of Preserving is like a look back to pre-industrial times. The author apparently grew up in the Outback under poor circumstances. She had to learn to make do and be very careful with her resources, so I believe that is why none of her recipes here list commercial pectin. Instead, the jams and jellies are set with the natural pectins in apples, quinces, citrus seeds, etc. Some of them require elaborate preparations of more than one day's time to draw the juices out through jelly bags, or marinate ingredients to perfection. In a nutshell, Jan Berry's preserving style is not for those looking for instant gratification. As to Jan Berry's recommended methods for sealing up jars: waxed paper and a lid. If you want to be decorative, she suggests additionally covering the tops with paper and twine or ribbon. I'm the first to admire the simple rustic charm in this style, but I can rarely use it as I like to ship my jams and jellies as gifts and enter them in fair contests now and then; the official rules prohibit anything but hot water-bath canning methods, sealing lid and screw-rings only. In order to t

Love the gourmet touch to the recipies

The pictures and the recipies are just wonderful, but I have a problem with "Blueberry Jam", page 42. She says to use 1/2 the blueberries initially, but never says when to add the other half to the jam. Anyone out there have any input. My thought would be to do so when adding the sugar, but I'm not so sure...Feedback please...Thanks

A Must-Buy for serious canners and preservers

I love this book! It is a must-have for anyone whose collection of cookbooks numbers more than ten. This is the book for you if you have been canning and preserving for a while and have started to feel either bored or limited. This book, with its intriguing and beautiful photographs, will give you new ideas. The combinations are unusual and mouth watering. I read and reread this book whenever I am feeling like trying something new and exciting.

gourmet preserves- what took so long?

For years now I have been waiting for a cookbook full of preserves- not your typical strawberry jam and apple butter type, however. I have enjoyed giving unusual preserves, jams and jellies to friends as gifts, but finding the recipes for this exotica was difficult. This cookbook, however, finally provides me with well-written recipes and beautiful pictures. My only complaint is that this book only now came out. As a collector of a few hundred cookbooks, this is a star in my collection!

Preserve fruits in unusual combinations with new book

When the book arrived I had been puréeing apricots for smoothies (even freezing some) to cope with the ample apricot crop. We had already dried three batches in our new electric dehydrator. What else could we do? Looking in the Art of Preserving, I found two choices: Apricot and Cardamom Chutney and Fresh Apricot Jam. With our pantry almost out of apricot jam, I decided to go with the jam instead of chutney. Immediately, I noticed that the recipe called for twice as much sugar as I normally use. My basic proportion is one cup of sugar to one pound of fruit. Depending on the sweetness of the fruit and personal taste, one can always add more sugar and correct with lemon juice to get the right balance. On the other hand, I liked the idea of using cardamom with apricots. I had made a quince-cardamom marmalade last fall and decided to make apricot-cardamom jam, beginning with only one-half of the prescribed sugar. The results were remarkable even with less sugar. As I looked at other recipes, I found the amount of sugar most of the time more in line with my personal taste. One other exception was Strawberry Jam although the addition of the juice and zest of three oranges was a nice touch. In the same way, many other familiar-sounding recipes contain a unique ingredient that sets them apart from the ordinary. For example, whiskey in Orange Marmalade, ginger in Grapefruit Jam, cardamom in Preserved Lemons, cayenne pepper in Gooseberry Chutney, sunflower seeds in Apricot and Cardamom Chutney, golden raisins in Plum Sauce, toasted walnuts in Apple Chutney, ripe tomatoes in Pear Chutney and nutmeg in Pickled Asparagus. The author, Jan Berry, grew up in the Australian outback, learning to cook from a mother who, in keeping with her outback lifestyle, was of necessity resourceful. Berry's first cookbook, published in 1993, is called The Proud Tradition of Australian Cooking. She also leads food tours to Italy, a country that has long been a source of inspiration for her cooking style. Given these sources, it is striking that she credits her mother directly in only two recipes (Plum Sauce and Pumpkin Chutney) and an unnamed Italian for one recipe (Mediterranean Sweet and Sour Fruits). For the rest, she has been practicing the art of preserving for decades, amassing a collection of treasured recipes along the way. As you can imagine, this combination of inspiration from Australia and Italy is perfect for Californians, especially those with a surplus of home-grown fruit. In my own decades-long experience as a home orchardist, I continually seek out new ways to enjoy fruit freshly picked right from the tree. Most years it is impossible to consume all the fruit at its peak. Now Art of Preserving, with its over 130 easy-to-prepare recipes, guides the home cook in extending the odyssey of fruit the year round. For example, one chapter includes enough ideas to stagger even the most avid grower of citrus fruits, with recipes for Blood Orange Marmalade, Orange Chut