Liana Krissoff - Canning for a New Generation: Updated and Expanded Edition: Bold, Fresh Flavors for the Modern Pantry

The recipes in this book have been developed and tested in a home kitchen. Canning and preserving, as is true of any other kind of cooking, carry risks. Please follow the recipes and instructions carefully, and if there is any confusion about the ingredients or the process, please consult an up-to-date U.S. government source for clarification. The author and publisher assume no responsibility for damages associated with the use of this book.

Published in 2016 by Abrams
An imprint of ABRAMS

Text copyright 2010, 2016 Liana Krissoff
Photographs copyright 2010, 2016 Rinne Allen

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015949289

ISBN: 978-1-61769-185-0
eISBN: 978-1-6131-2041-5

Editors: Holly Dolce and Sarah Massey
Designers: Alissa Faden and Darilyn Lowe Carnes
Production Manager: True Sims

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For Thalia, always

CONTENTS

Preface

Alexandra often said that if her mother were cast upon a desert island, she would thank God for her deliverance, make a garden, and find something to preserve. Preserving was almost a mania with Mrs. Bergson.... When there was nothing more to preserve, she began to pickle.

from O Pioneers! (1913), by Willa Cather

Since the first edition of this book was handed in to the publisher, my family has moved three times: from the country to town in Georgia, then to Nebraska (home of the displaced fictional Mrs. Bergson), then back east, to West Virginia. The original bookwritten in a farmhouse outside Athensdrew on what Id learned from living all over the country (Montana, Arizona, Georgia, Virginia, New York, Florida, Georgia again), but I was determined to write it in such a way that it conveyed how it felt to be a person who is essentially from all over putting up preserves throughout the seasons in the rural South. When I set out to expand the selection of recipes for this new edition, I wanted them to reflect where Im living, what Im cooking and eating and reading and learning and talking with people about, right now. There are chokeberries, which I first encountered in my CSA share in Lincoln; there are ramps, because theyre everywhere you turn when you live in the Mountain State; there is a significant number of Italian-style preserves, ones Ive developed a new appreciation for since moving to northern Appalachia, with its long Italian-immigrant tradition. My hope is that the new material meshes easily with the old, while also accurately representing how Ive grown and changed as a cook in the last half decade.

consume them with a biscuit or toast or cheese that complements them. And Im still chasing down the perfect cocktail cherry (next stop: Italy, for the correct variety of cherry), which arguably isnt the most worthwhile pursuit when just getting a meal on the table more nights than not is a challenge.

).

Youll notice a few more drying and dehydrating recipes in this edition; Ive been dehydrating more in the last few years since weve lived in houses with basements (a basement being a great out-of-the-way home for a bulky heirloom Magic Aire dehydrator that makes an annoying buzzing sound as it does its magic). I dont do anything fancy in it (Ill leave that to the raw foodists); Ive simply come to appreciate the almost completely hands-off preservation technique and the way it reduces massive quantities of produce to a fraction of their original volume. The dehydrating projects here can be done in an oven at the lowest temperature setting with the oven door cracked open an inch (prop it with a wooden spoon), but in summer are best done in a dedicated machine so you dont heat up the house and use as much electricity.

In addition to including new recipes, Ive made some technical changes to the old material that Id like to point out:

is increased slightlyits safer and tastes better, and is less sweet this way; lemon juice now appears in the applesauce recipe to account for the possibility that you might be using lower-acid overripe, old, or deadfall fruit (although you shouldnt)

* I made the lemon juice language more consistent throughout

* Ive clarified and expanded on my explanations in the introduction. Some new ingredients and useful tools are described, and Ive updated my canning equipment now that smaller enameled canning pots are so widely available.

), and for simplicitys sake I upped the processing time of a couple of the acidulated foods to 10 minutes.

for more about calcium chloride). Its not essential, by any means, but in some cases it makes a small but noticeable difference in the firmness of the pickles, so you might want to give it a try. If youre in an experimental mood, make a batch of pickles, adding calcium chloride to only some of the jars, and do a taste-test.

The way I preserve and cook may have changed in the last few years, but whats really changed is you. Canning enthusiasts today, sure, could still be prepper types eager for the zombies to rise up; they could still be eccentric obsessives with food blogs and too much time on their hands (me on a good day, to be honest). But more likely, if youre reading this, youre a busy parent who wants to make the best food possible for your kid and already knows that seasonal preserving can be easily integrated into your kitchen life in small or large doses. Youre a middle-schooler in a small city in the Deep South taking a next-generation Home Ec class and becoming curious about traditional foodways. Youre a home cook who, years ago, like Cathers pioneer matriarch, caught a mania and never looked back.