Sherri Brooks Vinton

So many ideas for avoiding food waste!

These range from using otherwise-discarded parts of vegetables- carrot tops, asparagus stalks, broccoli stems, and the like- through uses for the fat and giblets of chickens, things to do with bones from a roast, what to do with the other part of a separated egg, and things to do with stale bread. And much more! The various stocks are interesting, especially the vegetable ones- I am still working out what would make my ideal vegetable stock.

It's not just that the recipes show interesting ways to use things like cauliflower leaves- the whole approach helps me think of how to use various foodstuffs that might otherwise go to waste- usually in easy ways. I think it would be especially handy for people in CSAs, based in veg or meat or both.

Recommended for people who figure there MUST be a use for that, and who hate throwing weird bits of food away!… (mehr)

I previously reviewed Vinton's other canning book, Put 'em Up food preservation, which I loved, and this one was no exception.

This book is exactly what it says it is - it's a question and answer book on common food preservation topics, from freezing, drying/dehydrating, to canning. There's a few recipes and introductory text, but it's mostly a q & a/ quick reference book.

It's definitely aimed at beginner canners - which I definitely am (having canned exactly 2 different recipes last year, albeit multiple batches of both) and beginner preservation techniques (which I am not, having been heavily relying on freezing / dehydrating for years). There were some interesting dehydration tips that were new, though I didn't really learn anything from the freezer sections.

That being said, this is definitely a book I'll buy and add to my canning cookbook library… (mehr)

I've been obsessing over the idea of canning - preserving - freezing - dehydrating - you know, anything to save all my goodies from the garden this year. Freezing's great, and fast, and easy, and simple, but... even with an extra freezer, my freezer is so jam packed right now, as fast as we're trying to empty it, it's just full full full.

I actually borrowed this book from the library twice, but didn't write a review the first time, and when I started reading this book for the second time, it dawned on me why I felt deju vu. So this time, I'm actually writing it up.

It's a canning book (duh) and I'm still not quite sure how to review cook books. I've been reading a LOT of canning books, like I said, and I don't know what I'm supposed to say about it. Since I haven't actually canned - yet - or followed any of the recipes - yet - I can't really attest to how well written the recipes or the book is, though it seems to be a straight forward enough book.

The book is broken up into different parts - getting started, the recipes (divided up further by fruit), and resources. It's handy because if you have 6 quarts of blueberries in your freezer (oh, that's me, that's right) you can look up blueberries and see you can make blueberry syrup, or use that blueberry syrup and make blueberry lemonade (doesn't that sound like Heaven!) or blueberry ketchup (ok, sounds good, but when would I actually use it?), blueberry vinegar (ditto) or blueberry shrug (double ditto). Then there's the classic blueberry jam recipe (in every canning book or site I've found), and a chicken recipe that uses the jam (which I can't eat).… (mehr)

A good beginners guide to canning and preserving food. This is set up in a question and answer format that goes through the processes and methods, tools and prep work that you will need to learn in order to begin canning.

I did not really like the layout and organization of the questions and answers. It seems like some questions you would want answered first, like the actual process of canning are a quarter of the way into the book, and recipes are mixed in with the questions and answer sections before you are even introduced to how to can things. However, everything you need to know before canning, preserving or drying is in here if you want to sit down and read the whole book before actually making anything.

The drying, fermenting and infusion sections were set up better and are usually things left out of other food preservation methods, so that was nice to see.

This is a good how-to book for someone new to canning and food preservation methods, not a recipe book. There are several recipes interspersed throughout that are easy and go along with the questions and answer section before it.

This book was provided for free in return for an honest review.… (mehr)