Angi Schneider - Pressure Canning for Beginners and Beyond: Safe, Easy Recipes for Preserving Tomatoes, Vegetables, Beans and Meat

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Author of The Ultimate Guide to Preserving Vegetables

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This book is dedicated to my family. You are truly the best peeps a girl could ask for.

While I was growing up, my granny had a back room where she stored all kinds of foodjams and jellies made from local foraged fruit, vegetables that she grew in her garden and put up in jars, varieties of pickles and buckets of stored onions, potatoes and pecans.

That was a magical roomone that we were not allowed to play in. Now, that could have been because I once took a bite out of several storage onions and ruined them. What can I say? I was little and looking for apples.

Some of my most comforting childhood memories are from Grannys house. It wasnt just the food, or the back room; it was also the large kitchen that seemed to always be filled with people and conversation.

Of course, foods primary function is to give us nutrients and energy. But theres another function that is just as important: Food builds community. Grannys house was where I first began to understand that food and community go hand in hand. As an adult, one of my favorite things to do is prepare meals with my kids. Theres something truly special about working in the kitchen together. Ive found that conversations flow easily when our hands are busy and we dont have to make eye contact. Some of our best conversations have happened while chopping vegetables.

Because were busy, we dont always have time for this kind of meal preparation.

There are some nights that we just need to open a can and heat something up, afternoons when I find out that my kids invited their friends to stay for dinner or mornings when my people are packing a lunch for work and want something warm. When these times come, we just open a meal in a jar and dont have to rely on takeout or premade foods from the grocery store.

To me, the driving force behind canning is not to have hundreds of jars on my shelves. The driving force is to share those jars. I get to share them with my family as we end a hectic day. I can easily take a meal to someone who is sick or just had a baby. And my kids know that their friends are always welcome to stay for meals. Just like at my grannys house, everyone is welcome because there is always plenty.

And while Ive always known that canning helped me practice hospitality, it wasnt until Hurricane Harvey hit us in 2017 that I really understood how necessary pressure canning was. Before the hurricane I went to the store to grab more coffee, because you cant be without coffee during a hurricane. While I was there, I saw people grabbing tons of dry goods and waterit was a madhouse. One that I didnt have to be a part of because I had a back room full of food.

After the hurricane, our area was without electricity for 8 days. During that time, we were able to use our home-canned meals to feed ourselves and share with neighbors who didnt have food.

This book is based on my desire to can food in ways that are safe and tasty. To that end, Ive divided it into chapters based on what is being preserved (e.g., tomatoes, vegetables, legumes, beef and pork, poultry, wild game and soup). Each of these chapters has step-by-step instructions on how to pressure can those items along with any special considerations.