Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving

This is an essential reference book for home food preservers. There are myriad recipes to try with clear and concise directions for both beginning and experienced canners.

Five stars for technical, two stars for creativity. Very clear, no nonsense, no frills guide to canning pretty much everything that is cannable.(not the same as cannibal)

Extremely useful, with step by step directions. Got recipes for practically everything.

CMB

It has a pint and a half jar on the cover. On the last page of the book they offer a recipe for “How to Preserve a Husband.” This shows women still ruled the kitchen back in the 70's.

I know, I know, that's not really the author, but the author of this book (unlike the Kerr Canning Book) was always anonymous. Currently, the owner of both Kerr and Ball brands is Jarden. There may be one or two other makers of glass jars out there.

I always preferred (and still do) the Kerr canning book recipes, and bought these only because there are some recipes in them that are different. Like the Kerr books, the recipes are basically unchanged from one edition to the next.

This book is essential to any complete cookbook collection. Knowing how to safely and quickly preserve quality leftovers is nearly a lost art. Homemade sauces, condiments jams and such also make great gifts all year long.

Oh, Jarden, this is very wicked of you. This "100th" anniversary edition, which does differ slightly from the one published in 2004/2006, has the exact same ISBN. Not very nice.