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A Comprehensive Home Preserving Guide for
the Creative Cook
Sherri Brooks Vinton
Storey Publishing
June 2, 2010/ ISBN 978-1603425469
Cookbook - Canning and Preserving
Amazon
Reviewed
by Beth E. McKenzie
I have an extensive cookbook collection, including first edition
printings from the canning people, Kerr, Ball and Mason, that have
been well-used by me and my forbearers. The techniques offered by
Vinton are not different from these standards. There have been no
major technological breakthroughs that make the procedures required
for home canning any more magical than those which the grandparents
of my grandparents used in the 1930's. A pressure cooker is basically
the same (except maybe safer to use), the time in a boiling water
bath is still crucial to your health, and salt and vinegar are still
the staples of the art. If anything, the advances we've made in
the kitchen have shackled the latest generations because of their
lack of familiarity with the fundamentals of food preparation and
preservation. Put’em Up makes learning easy with
useful sketches and well-structured sections. The index system is
very clever. It is color coded in both directions on the outer edge
of the pages. If you fan the pages from left to right you get one
set of colors and titles, if you fan from right to left you get
a second, more general, index.
There are nearly 100 pages concerned with of how to prepare the
food and with preservation methods, and twice that many for the
recipes, from Apples to Watermelon. I remember reading the most
intriguing of the 33 subsections to my husband that first day “Carrots!
Chilis! Garlic! Herbs! Peaches! Ramps and Scapes? Sweet Peppers!”
You will also find the old reliables, like Apples, Grapes, Tomatoes,
Cabbage, Corn, Cucumbers, along with an explanation for Ramps and
Scapes. Mixed in with the anticipated pickles, relishes and jams,
there are granitas, salsa, pesto, ketchup, and comfits. The pages
are typically formatted with one or two recipes, and include suggestions
for the preserved food; for example, on the page next to the Mushroom
Comfit there is a simple recipe for a Mushroom Comfit and Goat Cheese
Tart (and it was very tasty indeed!)
When I read in the April 2011 issue of Bon
Appétit
magazine that the “BA Foodist” columnist, Andrew
Knowlton, believes that cookbooks are "...non-fiction, reference
guides and coffeetable books all rolled into one," I knew exactly
what he meant. It is a perfect description for Put’em
Up!
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