Blue Book Guide to Preserving

Bell is the gospel on canning. So many tips, clear pictures, and recipes for anything and everything you would ever thinknof preserving. Very helpful.

We are new to the whole process of canning even though our grandmothers and moms always canned! We never paid attention to what they did because it seem boring and useless. However, now as adults we love gardening and have a surplus of produce so decided the best way to utilize it all was to start canning. We watched several videos to get an overview of how the process worked. We then looked for recipe books. I bought two but wished I would've only bought this one. It is amazing for beginners! In additional to water bath canning and pressure canning recipes, it has tons of additional information to help you understand what you are doing and why. We've tried several of the fresh pack pickle recipes and a couple jelly/preserve recipes thus far but want to try salsa next. Lots of yummy recipes to choose from. Book is easy to lay flat on the counter while following recipes. Directions have been clear and easy for us beginners. We've only done water bath canning but next year we plan to get a pressure canner and try some of those recipes. It also has a section on freezing, dehydrating, and meal creations using some of the canned goods made from the previous chapters. Great purchase! Our go to for a long time!

This book is extremely informative and a pleasure to have in my gardening library.

A must have for all food preservers! This gives you the basics for many great recipes. Topics include canning, freezing and dehydrating throughout the book. It gives hints as to how you can alter the recipes they give you, safely. The book goes into the basics of canning and safety (pressure canning and water bath canning), as well as some science behind processing, dehydrating and freezing various foods. It gives calculations for dehydrating many different vegetables so you can determine approximately how long your foods have to be dehydrated for to reach optimum moisture content for safely storing them.I got this book about 2 months ago and it is already worn around the edges. It is my go-to before I even look things up on the internet. I have a very large garden and lots of foods to preserve. I use a water bath canner most frequently, but also use the All American Pressure Canner 21.5 for non-acidic recipes and meats. I also have a dehydrator which I use often now that the garden season is coming to an end. Therefore, I have read and used every section of this book without any problems.One thing this book does not explain is how to convert powdered pectin into liquid pectin, or how to replace powdered pectin for liquid. I do not use preservatives/additives in my cooking, and the liquid pectin does have additives. Here is a link for replacing liquid pectin with powdered:http://www.gettystewart.com/substitute-for-liquid-pectin/And here is a site for making your own home made pectin (a rainy day project?!)http://extension.oregonstate.edu/lane/sites/default/files/images/sp50778.pdfHappy Canning!

I was excited to receive this book and the recipies seem exciting. For canning purposes use at own risk as it came to my attention after purchase that ball no longer shares their testing info with the USDA. I called my extension office and they said that this is correct and that recipies may be safe but that there are some questionable recipies in there that concerned them and until Ball shares testing info and methods with the USDA, they cannot recommend them because they cannot know for sure that they were tested for safety. I cannot speak to the other preservation areas in the book as I have not ventured that far yet. For now I will hold onto this book and use the USDA book until more information is released.

I order the new book it was bad so I returned the old one is great

Got this book as a wedding gift and it is the most used book I own! So I purchased this one as a gift for a friend who wanted to learn how to can. Would highly recommend to anyone who wants to learn to preserve their food. Has lots of canning and freezing recipes to meet all your needs

This guide is exactly what I have been looking for!I have been canning my entire life. I started out working with my grandmother and mother, and for the past 5 years or so I've canned on my own. Until now I've used the tried and true recipes handed down to me by them, but this year it really started to sink in that there was so much MORE out there to explore in canning and other preserving fields! After dabbling a bit in dehydration (strawberry fruit leather and homemade beef jerky is amazing!) I decided to do some research and find out more about preserving.While researching preserving books, I learned that the Ball/Kell brands do more than just make great jars and lids. I found their preserving books, checked out the reviews, and decided to try this one first, since it looked like it had a little bit of everything. After looking through this book, I found out that I was very, very wrong. It has a lot about everything!!! I was surprised to find not only recipes, but tips and tricks about each method, what might go wrong and how to troubleshoot, and endless advice on how to get the best product!I am VERY impressed with this book, and I can't wait to apply my newfound knowledge during our next canning season!

What can I say? Ball's reputation for canning products certainly extends to their book as well. If you are a beginning canner it has all you need to explain water bathing, pressure canning, the do's and don'ts of home preserving so you can preserve food well. Worth every penny!

Order was a large format book that is thin compared to it height. The book arrived well packaged and undamaged. Well pleased. Package was 2 days late but was'nt in a hurry for it, so that did'nt matter.

All the good recipes very helpful

Excellent book packed with good information

Fantastic book explains in detail what to do. Great recipes