For pickling I like The Joy of Pickling by Linda Ziedrich.

For preserving I like Small Batch Preserving. I also use Putting Food By and Stocking Up, as well as some old Farm Journal books and Pomona Pectin recipes for low-sugar preserves.

Leigh

I borrowed Small Batch Preserving from my library and haven't been too impressed with it so far. Everyone on here and other forums just rave about it. The receipes are too exotic for my tastes- at least right now. I was looking for a book of small batch receipes- but with more of a traditional "down home" country taste. Since then, I have checked out all of the canning books that were on the shelves of our library. None tickle my fancy as of yet. I do have the BBB and like it, but to make anything besides Jam- it requires a ton of produce! I have a small garden and want to can tomatoes (salsa, juice, sauce, etc.) as the tomatoes (and other things) become ripe- not having to wait to collect enough for a huge batch.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

My goals for canning is controling what goes into our bodies. My husband has indeterminate colitis and migranes. Everything he eats effects how he feels, so we try to be careful. I want to can- but with it just being the two of us (and only a small garden)- big batches aren't for us.
Thanks for your advice.
bluejean in ohio

Marie,

If you have some French ones to recommend, I'd love to hear about them.

Ellie Topp's _Small Batch Preserving_ (which I first encountered as _Put a Lid on It!_) is my personal fave.

I've also gotten a few nice canning recipes from _Canadian Living_ magazine.

Zabby

BlueJean: A small batch is defined as enough to fill a canner load.

If that's too much for you at one time, you might consider mixing and matching. That is, two jars of, say, dill pickles, a jar or three of summer squash relish, and a jar or so of tomato sauce.

It takes some coordination to prepare and process several recipes at once. But it's not as difficult as might seem at first blush.

BlueJean, it is hard for me to suggest small batch recipes since I usually tend to double or triple when I can (hummm, there is a pun in here...). Most recipes I find are small, 8 or less jars. I don't know very many people who will bother making anything unless they yield at least say four jars. One, it's addictive, two, you can give the extras as gifts and make lots of friends and family happy. For very basic stuff, I found the old Ann Seranne good. It might need a bit of updating on technique but recipes are good. Also, the Time Life book of Preserving is one I used extensively for jams, jellies and chutneys. I really like it and everything I have tried so far has been delicious.

Zabby, the one I am refering to is Le Temps des Confitures, by a gentleman whose last name is Bouchard. I did not note his first name, but I will retrieve it if you want. He has a jam store, I believe in Quebec City, or maybe Montreal, I am not sure. The same editor also printed Le Temps des Marinades, which has interesting stuff but the safety is iffy, I think. I would try some recipes however. I don't know where my dad got them but if you cannot find them, let me know and I will see if I can find them for you.

Marie

There is one left of the 2005 edition of Le Temps des Confitures on amazon.ca.

Bluejean, How small of a batch do you want to make? You could halve the larger recipes and make 4 jars at a time. If you are making less than that a time, then freezing might be alot easier than canning.

I like to make everything in pint jars, its the perfect size for my husband and I for one meal. I realize how addictive it can be, I have made 3 batches of Jam in the past 2 weeks! The batch size really comes into play when considering the amount of produce required. I never thought of just halving the receipe. I thought with canning everything had to be done exactly. My small garden (it's my first) hasn't been very productive yet. We have a ton of salsa peppers, but no bell peppers yet. A ton of green tomatoes, but none ripe yet. I am sure that once things start ripening and the weather warms back up here, I will have plenty. I just don't want to use all of my tomatoes to make one batch of salsa or tomato sauce. A few jars of salsa will be plenty for us.

Now that I realize I can make half a batch of some things, That will make things easier for me. I am also noticing that you guys do sometimes make adjustments to the receipes as far as adding or ommitting different things to adjust the flavor to suit your tastes. I guess I was always under the impression you couldn't make changes to a receipe. I will experiment some more. Thanks for the suggestions!

bluejean,

Some recipes for things like jams & jellies don't set properly if you make the batch BIGGER, but making HALF a batch shouldn't be a problem, so go for it!

You can make some kinds of of substitutions safely --- the main thing to keep in mind is that you shouldn't lower the percentage of acid in a recipe or you won't know it is safe. But if a recipe for salsa called for 1/4 cup onions and you don't like onions, you could leave them out, or put in 1/4 cup more tomatoes instead. But you couldn't put in MORE onions instead because onions are a low-acid veggie and that would mean less total acid overall.

And if the recipe called for dill you could use the same amount of some other herb instead --- that kind of thing.

Sounds like you are going to be a canning whirlwind! Enjoy.

Zabby

Merci, Marie! I'll look for it. Maybe my brother has it, even.

Zabby

My pleasure Zabby. I was looking at a cookbook I own today, about another subject entirely (my other obssession these days are baking, bread specifically (I made thirteen loaves a day all week) and under the list of other titles they had a jam and a pickle book listed, also french. Never heard of them, so I will try to find them and let you know if it is worth it.

Bluejean, the other reason you don't want to multiply recipes is because it takes longer to cook therefore the taste is not quite as nice nor the color as beautiful, but can multiply the recipe as much as you want and cook it in small batches, and that works too. I realize that is not what you want to do, but just in case. Also, green tomatoes are amazing, I make green tomato ketchup, green tomato chutney, green tomato salsa (posted somewhere here), green tomato jam, and a mean green tomato cake too, so I always freeze a bushel or two.

Marie

My husband loves green tomato pickles. That's what happens to those end of season green tomatoes that don't have time to get ripe.