Bite this Book: The Canning Kitchen

My preserves pantry is beginning to look a little sparse as we’ve been finishing up all the pickles, jams and canned tomatoes from last summer.

It’s time for another exciting season of canning, and there’s a brand new cookbook from PRH Canada to motivate us all to get our act together.

The Canning Kitchen: 101 Simple Small Batch Recipes is newly released by my friend and fellow food blogger Amy Bronee. She’s a West Coast mother of two who has long been addicted to preserving the harvest and shares over one hundred of her favourite recipes in a beautiful debut cookbook.

Both nostalgic favourites and new creations shine in this warm and helpful guide to canning at home. Through Amy’s careful tutelage and vibrant photography, novice and experience canners alike will find inspiration for every season in this cookbook.

Read on for a fun interview with Amy and a chance to win one of two copies of The Canning Kitchen: 101 Simple Small Batch Recipes!

The Canning Kitchen cover

Q & A with Amy Bronee of Family Feedbag.

SB: There are so many canning cookbooks already out there, why did you decide to write yours and what’s different about it from any other preserving book on the shelf?

Amy: I wish I could tell you I daydreamed about writing The Canning Kitchen for months and describe for you the dramatic moment I finally decided to forge ahead, but the story of how it came to be is really quite simple: I got an email from Penguin Canada asking me if I’d like to write a book. They were wanting to publish a book of preserving recipes and I had already been writing about canning on my blog, so they approached me. I said yes right away, of course. It was a wonderful, once-in-a-lifetime surprise!

It’s true there are already many canning books out there, but the same could be said for bake books and general cookbooks. Just like fiction or biography, I think there is always room for a new voice on the bookshelf. Plus, canning is something home cooks are likely to seek out information on, so it’s an honour, really, to bring my canning classes to people in the form of a book.

I had a strong sense of wanting the recipes to be preserves people will use regularly. There are some much-loved classics like Strawberry Jam (page 25) and Tart Green Apple Jelly (page 61), but I also wanted to create recipes that home cooks would not just spread on toast but actually use in their cooking. With two flavourful mustard recipes and four fantastic barbecue sauces, I think the book goes well beyond jams and jellies to stock the pantry with a variety of other truly useful preserves.

Simplicity is also a main focus of the book since I believe that simple food with well-balanced flavours is often the tastiest.

SB: Where did you get your inspiration for the recipes in this book? Can you share your top five ‘must haves’ for the pantry shelf?

Amy: I get a lot of preserving inspiration from my own garden. I think there is this added importance (or is it self-imposed pressure?) to get it right when you grow it yourself. I adore all those home-grown strawberries, rhubarb, apples, pears and more. I spend time in the garden putting a lot of hope into them, and once harvested they are precious in a way that is different from fresh food I buy at the store. I want to make the very best-tasting preserves with them, and I find that motivating when it comes to writing recipes.

Usually for me a recipe idea starts with a certain flavour combination. I will get it in my head that juicy peaches would dance wonderfully on the tongue with garam masala, or that pickled green beans should be spicy. The idea rolls around in my head, for days or even weeks, until eventually I have to explore it. If only to stop thinking about it. Just to know – Am I right? Do those flavours really work? What is the right balance? I wish I was more methodical about it, but it’s really that simple.

Choosing favourites is of course hard to do, but I do have some recipes in the book that get me in all the right places. When I taste something I absolutely love, my eyes close, my head tilts back and I feel spoiled in the very best way. For me, Pear Amaretto Sauce (page 209) does exactly that when spooned over a wedge of cool, creamy cheesecake. It’s a dream-worthy flavour combination. On the savoury side, there’s nothing better with crackers and cheese than Garlic Rosemary Apple Jelly (page 62). It is tart, herby and fruity all at once.

Based on feedback from my taste-testers (neighbours, family and friends) the Raspberry Cocoa Jam (page 53) is a popular favourite, plus the Blueberry Lime Jam (page 33), the Bing Cherry Barbecue Sauce (page 162), as well as the whole marmalade section. There is a lot to love about preserving!

LemonRaspberryJamalade

SB: What is your take on the cultural shift among young people that embraces DIY projects like canning and urban homesteading? Why is it gaining popularity so fast?

Amy: This is something I have pondered a lot, and I think it stems from our heavy use of technology. I, like most people these days, spend a lot of time online or writing at my computer. I love feeling connected to other home cooks, regardless of how close or far their kitchen is to mine, and my blog lets me do that in a really wonderful way. But when I take time away from that, I crave something tactile and tangible; something that will give me a useful end product and that will let me spend more than 30 seconds focused on the same thing.

I’m an avid knitter too, and over the last few years I have seen a lot of new people interested in picking up needles and yarn for the first time in their lives. Growing a garden, knitting, canning – it’s all simple, back to basics stuff. We love our technology, but we want to truly live life too and experience the satisfaction of making something useful with our own hands.

SB: Here on Simple Bites, we like to welcome kids in the kitchen, even for canning projects. Can you recommend a handful of recipes from The Canning Kitchen that we could make with little helpers?

Amy: I love that you make that such a focus on Simple Bites. Cooking is love, culture and memories, and we give our families and communities a wonderful gift when we hand it down from one generation to the next. Not everyone is going to love cooking, but everyone loves to eat, so we might as well find at least one person in the family who enjoys being in the kitchen, even if they are 8 years old.

There are a lot of opportunities to get kids involved in canning, from growing your own pickling cucumbers to visiting a u-pick orchard or berry field together. In the kitchen, cold pack pickles are a great place to get little ones involved. Have them place a garlic clove and a handful of fresh dill in each jar for Crunchy Dill Pickles (page 105), then get them stuffing jars with those gorgeous cukes. Same goes for Doubly Dilly Beans (page 106) and filling jars with garlic cloves and fennel seeds for Pickled Asparagus Spears (page 113).

Kids also love applesauce, and there are two applesauce recipes in the book, one of which has three variations to blend with other fruits. Making something they can’t wait to dig a spoon into is always a good place to start with kids.

Giveaway!

Thanks to publishers Penguin Random House, I have two copies of The Canning Kitchen to give away!

UPDATE: This giveaway has ended and here are the winners!

1. Noreen! Who said “My favorite preserve is the Strawberry Vanilla jam from “Food in Jars”…it was the first recipe that I tried, and the one that my kids like the most!”

2. Pascale! Who said: “My favorites to make are a peach lavender butter as well as a chili pepper chutney from Jamie Oliver’s At Home book. This book looks amazing!”

Congratulations, Noreen and Pascale! A big thank you to all who entered the giveaway. Now add the cookbook to your wishlist or buy it before the canning season is over!

Tell me your favourite summer preserve! Is it a jam or a chutney? Perhaps something pickled or a spicy salsa. Share in the comments below.

Giveaway ends June 19, 2015**ENDED**. Winner will be announced here on this post. Good luck to all!

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257 Comments

  1. My favorite summer preserve is pepper jam. I am excited this year because I am growing 4 different kinds of jalapeños in my garden and in my earth boxes. Regular jalapeño, red jalapeño, purple jalapeño and the fresno chili pepper. I would love a new canning book to add to my library and to explore for new ideas for my garden produce, not just my peppers.

  2. My favorite thing to can is my mother-in-law’s pickled pears. She passed away many years ago, and with her went the pears that I loved, perhaps even more than my husband did. We now have the family property, along with the one pear tree that remains, though we aren’t living there full time yet, and it’s about 1,000 miles from me. So one year my husband brought me about 60 pounds of pears, and I swore I was going to learn to make the pears. They were wonderful, brought back amazing memories, and inspired me to really learn to can things. I had never canned before, but now really love it, inspired by those pears and my mother-in-law’s recipe.

  3. My favourite preserve to make is low sugar Plum Vanilla Jam, made with the plums from the trees in my back yard. Excellent on toast and for making crostata!

  4. We have a garlic dill refrigerator pickle recipe that we love. I also discovered okra pickles last year and they are amazing too!

  5. Peach salsa is one of my favorites. I make at least four batches of it every summer and we eat it all year long.

  6. Love all things put up in mason & weck jars. Everything homemade taste 100% better than anything the grocery stores have to offer.

  7. My favorite preserve has been blackberry balsamic jam. I got it from a food swap and can’t wait to make my own this year. I also love having a huge supply of salsa to get me through the winter until the first tomatoes start popping up in my garden.

  8. Gotta love that Strawberry Jam. When I take out a jar in the middle of Winter, it gets me thinking of Summer and a wonderful morning of picking strawberries with my kids and grandkids. I have introduced many of my niecies and nephews to the pleasure of picking their own berries to enjoy. So many wonderful memories made in the local berry picking patch!

  9. I absolutely love Strawberry Rhubarb Jam. I have used it with cake mixes for a quick dessert or in crisps. The tangy rhubarb gets me every time.

  10. Strawberry jam is always a winner, but we love making small batches of whatever is hanging out in the fridge before it gets over-ripe. It’s fun to experiment!

  11. Sweet Pickle Relish – Since the cukes get chopped up small, I use my too-big, overgrown cukes for relish making.

  12. I cannot live without raspberry jam, enough to make it through the long Qc winter too.

  13. My mother is a great cook, but pickling, fermenting, canning, knitting or sewing (she could never mend socks!) was not her thing. The TWO things she DID make herself that wasn’t breakfast/lunch/supper fair was homemade applesauce and strawberry/rhubarb compote. Both of these make my mouth water and bring back memories of running around apple orchards and pressing the skin and seeds through a chinoise with a wooden pestle to yield that delightfully pink applesauce once the whole apples melted in the boiling pot. I have kept the tradition with my daughter and we go apple picking every fall. I would love this book so as to create new traditions with my young family 🙂

  14. My favorite preserve is a strawberry balsamic jam 🙂 Perfect with cheeses or even on my ice cream!

  15. Any kind of berry jam, especially strawberry. I made my first ever batch of blackberry jam last summer. Wow, never thought I would.

  16. I have honestly only canned tomatoes, and would love to try my hand at other items (now that I am braver)!

  17. When I was younger, I made raspberry & strawberry jam and canned peaches. Now that there are grandchildren, I would love to have a copy of your book to inspire me to make some of the wonderful recipes you spoke about in the interview! Thank you for your website too.

  18. I’ve never made preserves but learning how has definitely been on my list for a while. My grandmother always served (store bought) raspberry preserves and they always make me think of her.

  19. My favorite preserve is the Strawberry Vanilla jam from “Food in Jars”…it was the first recipe that I tried, and the one that my kids like the most!

  20. In the summer it’s all about preserving tomatoes. I have made several kinds of tomato jam and last summer an amazing chutney! I would love to win this book; it looks wonderful.

  21. forgot to mention my daughter-in-law-,Aimee, does wonders with her son (our grandson) in every facet of his life….culinary, gardening, snack time, painting her car, visiting museums, aquariums, just plain spending wonderful quality time with her son . Our grandson always has a huge smile, relishing the day.

  22. Just made my new favorite-strawberry jalapeno jam. Mixture of sweet and spicy-yum!

  23. In summer my favorite dish has to be pickles! I love both a good refrigerator pickle or a quick shelf dill pickle. They’re the best if you’ve grown the cucumbers and dill yourself!

  24. Where to start? My favorite thing about preserving is the memories it provokes when you open a jar in the dead of winter. So, some days a nice jar of tomato sauce is welcome and others a nice layer of blackberry jam on some toast 🙂

  25. Love making fig jam every year from our two fig trees. I also pickle red and green jalapeno peppers each year as holiday gifts.

  26. We love slowly cooked pear butter and apple butter made from late summer apples. I’d love to try more things, but these and applesauce are almost the extent of my limited canning repertoire at the moment! Pregnancy and nursing have put a damper on my ambitions the last few years. 🙂

  27. I’m getting ready to head into my first canning season. I’m hoping to make pickles because I love crunchy bread and butter pickles, and my main goal is to can spaghetti sauce for us to use instead of buying it.

  28. I make a Hot jelly that we all love. My favourite is with a very old cheddar. This must be made in a very well ventilated kitchen. There was a warning with the recipe, I should have listen to it the first time. I even wear a scarf around my nose and mouth when I make it. Lesson learned!
    It is so worth it, tastes great and these sale for $7-12 in my area, for a small jar. They also make great gifts.

  29. I miss putting fruits up in jars…it’s been years but I want to start again. The last time was wild raspberry preserves and also peach slices from a huge haul at an orchard tucked away on the side of an Arizona mountain. I would love the inspiration from this new book!

  30. My favorite thing to preserve in the summer is Kelly’s, strawberry in particular. And I also love to can jalapeño peppers.

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