Judi Kingry

This is the 2024 edition; mine is entitled BALL Complete Book, etc., because Ball and Bernardin are (if not identical) closely entangled. It contains the recipe for black currant jam, which is a great find, but of course requires Bernardin powdered pectin. Disregarding the free-association babble of AI, the jam makers on Reddit say that Bernardin and Certo are not interchangeable, so that's a thing to know while using this book.

This book contains 448 reliable pages, including index and glossary.

This is my least favorite canning book. There is a lack of charts in many areas. Many of the canning recipes are bland and unpalatable. It is a good source for basic canning, but the special recipes are putzy and too much work for a good outcome. Although all recipes are "safe" recipes, I rather have safe and delicious.

There are a lot of great recipes in this book that I can't wait to try... once fresh fruit is in season in New England again. I've already made the jalapeno salsa and it was so delicious that I ate an entire half pint with one meal! This would be a great reference book to have around, but I'm not sure if I'd be willing to pay full price for it.

This weekend a group of friends and I tried canning together and used a salsa recipe from this book. We had a crapload of stuff and altogether it was really successful. This book definitely has more recipes I'd like to try.

My one complaint is that it sometimes skips past more common recipes and leans toward unexpected ones. I'm sure I'll appreciate that eventually but for now I'm a beginner and would like to learn some basics.