Customer Reviews

Preserves and Canning: Secrets Your Grandma Never Taught You (Quick & Easy) (Quick & Easy (Silverback))

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I have made a few recipes from this book. My favorite is the mustard vegetables, which I've made at least a couple times as a condiment. I also liked the apricot tomato chutney (though I would add the sugar at the end so it doesn't darken). I'm also excited to try the tea rose water apricots.
I guess if the canning methods are unsafe one could make the recipes and just consume them quickly rather than preserve them, or use different preserving methods if you know a lot about preserving.

It's amazing that a book with recipes this unsafe was published as recently as 2005.

Please note that many of the home canning instructions provided in this book are patently unsafe and need to be modified to meet current safety guidelines or removed. Those current guidelines are readily available at http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/

Jar inversion as a method of sealing jars has not been acceptable for many years. A minimal of a boiling water bath is required for all items. And while most fruits are acidic enough prevent or retard bacterial growth, most vegetables are not.

Further, for several years both USDA and NCHFP have recommended against the use of oils, fats, eggs, thickeners such as cornstarch, and dairy in home canning because of the risks of botulism. Yet one finds numerous recipes in this book advocating using large amounts of these items. It also calls for letting items stand at room temperature when refrigeration is clearly required to prevent the growth of listeria and other bacteria. Long term storage of many of these recipes is markedly unsafe.

If you love to can and preserve, this is a great cookbook to add to your collection!