Preserves: River Cottage Handbook No.2 [Hardcover]

Pam Corbin (Author), Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 4, 2008 | Series: River Cottage Handbook

Preserving is a centuries-old way to make the most out of every season, stretching the more bountiful months into the sparser ones—and what’s more, it is fun, rewarding, and easy to learn. Explaining the history, science, and basic processes of preserving, Pam Corbin guides us through a world of jams, jellies, butters, curds, pickles, chutneys, cordials, liqueurs, vinegars, and sauces that can be made from local produce throughout the year. She includes 75 recipes, covering everything from traditional favorites such as raspberry jam, lemon curd, quince cheese, and sloe gin, to fresh new combinations such as apple butter, cucumber pickle, and nettle pesto. The handbook includes seasonable tables, regional maps, flow charts of all the preserving processes, and full-color photographs throughout, and is completed by a directory of equipment and useful addresses.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Pam "The Jam" Corbin, a giant of modern fruit preserving' The Times

About the Author

Pam Corbin is the coproprietor of Thursday Cottage, a small jam factory whose products can be found in shops such as Castroni (Rome), Dean & Deluca (New York), La Grande Epicerie (Paris), Seibu (Hong Kong), Selfridges (UK), and Zingerman's (Ann Arbor). Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is the author of The River Cottage Cookbook and The River Cottage Meat Book.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury UK (August 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0747595321
• ISBN-13: 978-0747595328
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #686,331 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous & relevant!, February 15, 2009

By 

Ethan Zlomke (Madison, WI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Preserves: River Cottage Handbook No.2 (Hardcover)

I love the The River Cottage Meat Book so when I saw a recommendation for Preserves in the Guardian online (The Guardian, Saturday 10 January 2009, "Source It") I had to take a look. Pam Corbin has some excellent thoughts on growing and buying locally-sourced goods.

There are a good number of recipes for jams/jellies, pickled preserves and more. The first section runs through canning and processing in good detail, with hints on why preserves go bad and best practices to avoid it.

As this is the UK edition, most of the recipes use metric, but the last pages have direct conversion tables to Imperial (or US) measures for anything you might need.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Preserves!, June 28, 2009

By 

LuLuSews (Connecticut, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Preserves: River Cottage Handbook No.2 (Hardcover)

Most preserving books offer the same old recipes. This book has some interesting and different recipes. The recipe for the elderflower syrup is SUPERB! Had tried a couple of others and they don't come close to this one.Just wish the book were bigger and had more recipes.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful and insightful, July 18, 2011

By 

Left Overs - See all my reviews

This review is from: Preserves: River Cottage Handbook No.2 (Hardcover)

My partner gifted me this book after studying in England a few years back. I was just catching my stride in preserves and was excited at the prospect of a new book on canning.

There isn't much to say about it, it's just great. It's wonderfully written and insightful, offering alternative canning techniques than what you could find in the States. She offers conversions in the back of the book (e.g. what is gas mark 4 on my oven?! well, it's 350.) You also learn some canning techniques that you might not encounter otherwise, such as the oven method for canning blueberries (one of my favourite recipes).

However, if you are used to American publications you should take the following into consideration:

-It's metric, but the addition or use of a scale in your kitchen will make this transition easy, and if not preferable.

-Processing times aren't always found directly in the recipe, you'll have to hunt for the section on processing and probably use a table. Alternatively, I find looking up a similar recipe in the Ball Blue Book to be just as easy, then I just note in the margin what that processing time was in the future.

-Jam/Jellies often use 'sugar with added pectin' [..], something we don't really have here. But don't be discouraged. In the past, I simply weighed the pectin, then added the sugar to make up for it. This kind of worked, but I'd suggest even more so using something like Pomonas Universal Pectin, 1-Ounce Container (Pack of 6) instead.

Point is, these are some of the most delicious recipes in my canning aresenal and it'd be even better if I had my own hedge.