Reddit reviews Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
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Comprehensive guide to home canning and preservingManufacturer warranty: 1-year warranty448 pages totalAuthors: Judi Kingry and Lauren DevineCan be used by rookies and pros
If you move the decimal over. This is about 1,000 in books...
(If I had to pick a few for 100 bucks: encyclopedia of country living, survival medicine, wilderness medicine, ball preservation, art of fermentation, a few mushroom and foraging books.)
Medical:
Where there is no doctor
Where there is no dentist
Emergency War Surgery
The survival medicine handbook
Auerbach’s Wilderness Medicine
Special Operations Medical Handbook
Food Production
Mini Farming
encyclopedia of country living
square foot gardening
Seed Saving
Storey’s Raising Rabbits
Meat Rabbits
Aquaponics Gardening: Step By Step
Storey’s Chicken Book
Storey Dairy Goat
Storey Meat Goat
Storey Ducks
Storey’s Bees
Beekeepers Bible
bio-integrated farm
soil and water engineering
Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation
Food Preservation and Cooking
Steve Rinella’s Large Game Processing
Steve Rinella’s Small Game
Ball Home Preservation
Charcuterie
Root Cellaring
Art of Natural Cheesemaking
Mastering Artesian Cheese Making
American Farmstead Cheesemaking
Joe Beef: Surviving Apocalypse
Wild Fermentation
Art of Fermentation
Nose to Tail
Artisan Sourdough
Designing Great Beers
The Joy of Home Distilling
Foraging
Southeast Foraging
Boletes
Mushrooms of Carolinas
Mushrooms of Southeastern United States
Mushrooms of the Gulf Coast
Tech
farm and workshop Welding
ultimate guide: plumbing
ultimate guide: wiring
ultimate guide: home repair
off grid solar
Woodworking
Timberframe Construction
Basic Lathework
How to Run A Lathe
Backyard Foundry
Sand Casting
Practical Casting
The Complete Metalsmith
Gears and Cutting Gears
Hardening Tempering and Heat Treatment
Machinery’s Handbook
How to Diagnose and Fix Everything Electronic
Electronics For Inventors
Basic Science
Chemistry
Organic Chem
Understanding Basic Chemistry Through Problem Solving
Ham Radio
AARL Antenna Book
General Class Manual
Tech Class Manual
MISC
Ray Mears Essential Bushcraft
Contact!
Nuclear War Survival Skills
The Knowledge: How to rebuild civilization in the aftermath of a cataclysm
There are a lot of good books out there.
This is a really good one.
There are a lot of rules to make sure that you don't make yourself or others very ill, though. Make sure to know these rules and only use approved recipes that follow USDA and NCHFP guidelines. These are both great free resources to help you get started.
The biggest thing is that only high-acid foods (like fruit, pickles, and jams) can be safely canned in a water bath canner. Low-acid foods (like vegetables, broth, meat, beans, and soups) must be processed in a pressure canner (not a pressure cooker - they are different). Additionally, not all recipes are appropriate or safe for home canning.
That being said, it's a very rewarding hobby, and, done right and depending on your existing eating habits, can save you money on your monthly grocery bill.
Check out /r/canning for more. It's easy to get started, and you really don't need a lot of extra equipment to get started with water-bath canning. :)
EDIT: This book is also currently free on Amazon. I haven't read it yet, so I can't confirm the content. However, in combination with the other resources that I mentioned, this could be another good one.
Depends on the food item and your infrastructure.
Drying is good for a lot of fruits and for herbs and such.
Cold storage. We have multiple freezers. A stand up 23 cu ft, a 19 cu ft chest plus the regular fridge freezer and the freezer on the back/beer fridge in basement. We have been buying half pigs and half or 1/4 cows for the freezers and we freeze a lot of vegetables. Sweet corn does really well frozen, so do a lot of the squashes and green beans.
Canning. Canning does quite a lot of foods. There are two types, pressure canning and water bath canning. The water bath canning is for high acid, high sugar, low risk foods like jellies and most tomato sauces if prepared correctly. Pickling is also usually water bath. All the low acid, higher risk stuff goes in a pressure canning systems.
Root cellar storage. Cool/cold room storage. If you have access to the right conditions, this is a great way to store lots of stuff like potatoes, carrots, beets, etc.
Some sources to get you started:
The starter book that is indispensable for canners: Ball blue book
The more advanced Ball full book
You can find either one at a book store, online, or at most used book stores.
USDA site has a lot of info. You want tried and tested recipes and methods. Botulism sucks. https://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/publications_usda.html
Purdue University has a really good set of links and add ons to the USDA guides as well. https://www.extension.purdue.edu/usdacanning/
You can also search the (food item, canning, extension) and there is probably a state agricultural extension that has some guide for it.
NDSU has a good guide for freezing stuff. It will get you started. Each food item will have specifics to getting a good freeze. Some things need blanched and some don't. Some need to be pre-frozen spread out on cookie sheets then dumped in a bag and some don't, etc.
Interesting root cellar idea that can be done fairly cheap. https://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/root-cellaring/a-precast-septic-tank-root-cellar-zbcz1503
Root cellar list of what to store and what conditions. https://extension2.missouri.edu/mp562
Best way to get started: get a big ass boiler and a couple of dozens of pint mason jars and a couple of dozens of 1/2 pint mason jars. Start with a couple of batches of different pickles/pickled vegetables. Make a batch or two of jams and jellies. If you get a couple dozen wide mouth jars you can practice a little freezing as well. The idea is to build up your equipment.
For a full canning rig you need all kinds of stuff and if you really get into it usually large stuff. Like the ginormous pressure cooker that holds a goodly number of quarts or two full courses of pint jars in it. something like this guy. But you can start with whatever you have available. If you do the water bath stuff and start to get into it and want to get into pressure canning you should get a larger pressure canner that will do at least 6 quarts at a time. We have a medium one that we can do a limited batch of stuff in, or one round of jars and then a huge one like I linked to. Just slowly build up your equipment as you can and get the best quality you can when you buy stuff. If you try and do the I will buy the cheap one, and see if I like it, it costs you more. Usually the cheap one is crappy and wont do a good job. And you will either decide it is not worth the trouble or will eventually realize the quality one is worth the money and buy it anyway.
Get a good set of tools. You can can without them, but shouldn't. Decent set with the basic pieces.
I also find that a pair of the latex coated gloves are helpful. We have one person pull jars form the hiow water bath (keeping them sterile) and the second person will put the funnel in and spoon the food into the jar. You have to wipe the top of the jar and place a heated lid on it and screw the top onto the jar. The jar will be close to 200F. I will be the jar person and wear the heavy latex coated glove on my left hand to hold the jar stable and to screw the lid on so I don't get burned. Never have seen anyone give the tip before, but it works really well and I have less burnt fingers and fewer spills or dropped jars that way. Something like this.
IF you already have a bug-in kit covering serious first aid, not just bandaids and Tums, water filtration, fire and cooking without power, etc......
The first two titles assume that you have at least some yard with reasonable sun access, or the potential for access to a community garden. (Could presently be a community park, a church lot, neighbor's land, whatever.) Books are presently roughly in the order that I'd replace them if my copies were lost. Buy used when you can. Some of these are available used for not much more than standard shipping.
The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It
Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times
Where There Is No Doctor
Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
If you have no comprehensive cookbooks that cover a wide range of garden veggies and game recipes, something like Joy of Cooking is probably in order. The point being that one way or another you may have to get used to enjoying whatever can be had, from an abundance of zuchinnis to rabbit, to acorn meal.
If you are not (yet) handy, find an old copy of something like Reader's Digest How to Fix Everything in a used bookshop for maybe $4.
A regionally appropriate guide to edible and medicinal plants such as A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs: Of Eastern and Central North America
Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning: Traditional Techniques Using Salt, Oil, Sugar, Alcohol, Vinegar, Drying, Cold Storage, and Lactic Fermentation
optional, but cheap, Emergency Food Storage & Survival Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Keep Your Family Safe in a Crisis
I like this website: https://www.freshpreserving.com/recipes/
And this book: Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
Get this book. It will take you through all the equipment, safety, and steps to can just about anything. It also includes hundreds of safe, tested recipes.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0778801314?pc_redir=1411311131&robot_redir=1
I'd highly recommend a canning book from a reputable source, for instance the Ball Blue Book or Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving are some very, very good places to start. I'd also recommend starting with water bath canning, and after you're comfortable with the mechanics venturing into pressure canning if you feel like it. Until you are very confident, don't deviate from the recipes at all. No extra ingredients, no halving or doubling recipes (especially jam, pectin's a finicky thing), and no subbing different sized jars. Once you get the hang of it, you can start to fudge a little bit, but at first I'd definitely play it safe and stick straight to the recipe; this is more fussy than regular cooking. Water bath canning is only for high-acid foods, and even tomato sauce recipes for canning require extra lemon juice, so definitely follow your recipe.
As far as equipment, technically all you really need are a pot to hold the jars as they boil, something to pull the hot jars out of the water with, and some kind of rack to keep them off the bottom of the pot (extra canning rings placed along the bottom, a cake rack, whatever works). Nothing else is technically needed, though I tried this method with just the extra rings and with spring-loaded tongs and made quite a mess, then immediately sprung for some toys.
I'd recommend this kit, the polypropolene basket doesn't melt even during long canning sessions and it's small enough to use in an eight or ten quart pot, which a lot of people already have at home. To make sure your pot's big enough, put a jar in the pot and make sure it could be covered with at least an inch or two of water. Taller pots are obviously more helpful than lower, wider ones. The kit comes with three jars, which is okay, and the recipe book it comes with scales down a lot of their most popular recipes so you can just make a few jars to test them out.
I'd also recommend a canning funnel, and a jar lifter. Something to measure headspace is also handy, there's a little plastic doohickey for that (looks like this) but if you don't mind keeping a plastic ruler around, it's not required. A set like this would definitely cover all your bases.
Keep in mind that while the jars and rings are reusable, the lids with the sealing compounds are not. If you feel a canning binge come on, be sure to buy an extra little box of just the lids because you'll be upset if you run out!
Good luck!! I'm still a novice canner myself, and I've only ever done water bath canning, but I've already got taco sauce, jams, jellies, pickles and canned fruit (I love canning pears!) under my belt so I've got at least a little bit of a clue!
I started with the basics from the book Blue Ribbon Preserves. It goes through the terminology in the introduction and then explains why certain things must be done.
Any of the books by the Ball Company (the Blue Book, or The Complete Book of Home Preserving) are also great places to start. I would stick with these until you really get a handle on things. There are tons of websites and blogs out there but if you don't know the basics, you won't know when someone inadvertently tells you to do something dangerous.
What are Missouri Wonders?
In terms of canning books, you should get the Ball Blue Book or Ball Complete Book of Preserving to start. Canning is pretty much an exact science and can have serious not-good results if done without following exact recipes.
There are tons of websites out there, and Canning Across America has a great resource list on their site.
I've had rave reviews using the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving and the recipes in there for salsa. I don't have it on hand, but I gotta say, everything in there is a winner. To be fair, I also boost the cilantro, and sub half the white vinegar for cider vinegar. That gives is a very unique sort of bite.
Also, there's Cowboy Candy that was recommended in another thread?
My wife and I started two years ago. Buy a basic canning book, or even better, check the library. We bought this one from Ball as a starter, and has served us well. Now we're pretty comfortable with the basics and looking to branch out. People are always giving away jars on Craigslist or Freecycle. Lids are pretty cheap and you're not supposed to reuse them, but you can get new ones at most grocery stores. The rings you can reuse. I would start with a water bath canner, and if you dig the process, then get a pressure-canner. I don't know about anyone else here, but it gets pretty hot in our kitchen on canning days at the end of summer, so have a plan for that.
My favourite book is:
https://www.amazon.com/Ball-Complete-Book-Home-Preserving/dp/0778801314
I initially just borrowed it from our local library then went out and bought it for myself since I used so many of the recipes! :)
When I first started I spent a lot of time on YouTube watching other people canning. Some good stations to check out would be:
Linda's Pantry,
our half acre homestead,
living traditions homestead,
homesteading family....and lots of others really.
I would usually decide what I wanted to try canning and search for that...I'd watch a few different videos to give me the confidence to try it.
A website I like is: https://www.healthycanning.com/
I find the material is written in a really approachable format. I really appreciate their explanations in what is safe and what isn't...and some of the reasons behind it.
Sometimes it's hard to trust website recipes, so I tried to stick with safer, known sources rather than some blogger with a great looking product but no info into the safety.
Anyhow, welcome to club!! It can be a lot of work but I find it oh so rewarding!!
Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving https://www.amazon.com/dp/0778801314/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_Gg5bzbXZHQGP2
This is a great book for getting started canning. My mom bought it for me when I started. It gives very detailed instructions and lots of recipes.
Just get this.
https://www.amazon.com/Ball-Complete-Book-Home-Preserving/dp/0778801314
Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving https://www.amazon.com/dp/0778801314/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_ElnuDbYWHSYHR
I highly recommend this book.
According to the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving you don't need to pressure can tomatillo salsa, just water bath can it with enough vinegar for acidity. If you wanted to pressure can it you certainly can, but it just isn't necessary for safety.
Recipe is on p. 212, makes about four half pint jars or two pint jars:
> 5.5 c chopped cored husked tomatillos
> 1 c chopped onion
> 1 c chopped seeded green chili peppers
> 0.5 c white vinegar
> 4 tbsp lime juice
> 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
> 1 tbsp finely chopped cilantro
> 2 tsp ground cumin
> 0.5 tsp salt
> 0.5 tsp hot pepper flakes
If you don't have this book I would HIGHLY recommend picking it up :) It's about $13 on Amazon.
Buy this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Ball-Complete-Book-Home-Preserving/dp/0778801314/ref=pd_sim_b_1
Absolutely! We got ours from Amazon after a bunch of research. I can't recommend the one we got more. They are not cheap, but this is a tool that you will buy once and it will be inherited by your next generation.
Called All American pressure cooker. We got the 21 1/2 pint unit. Was just under $250.00 Again, they are not cheap, but this is a unit you will buy once.
I just opened a can of salmon that I had on the shelf for 4.5 years, and it was as good as the day I made it. Pressure cooking for canning and long term storage is the way to go, and something that our grandparents used to do. It is really neat to see it coming back into the public eye again.
I also highly recommend the Ball Complete Book of Home Canning. This is the bible on how to preserve all kinds of foods. It is my one and only go-to book for knowing how to get things done right.
Hope you get into it! I scour thrift stores and yard sales for canning jars you can never have enough glass. And the glass is reusable! I have jars that were handed down to me that are from the 70s, and still are great.
Once you get into canning and preserving you will never go back and wonder "why didn't I do this sooner?"
Best of luck, let me know how it goes. I love sharing the information and insight.
PS: I would not go under the 21 1/2 pint size pressure cooker. Pressure cooking takes time (the fish I do takes 90 minutes per batch at 10LB of pressure), so you want to do as many cans as you can at one time. If you can go bigger, do! You can never have too much space to can in, but it is easy to not have enough. But bang-for-buck I found the 21 is really the best overall size and deal going.
It's not hard. All the learning I got came from Good Eats' Jam episode:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlIVZax10iw
And Balls' "Complete Book of Home Preserving" (from which I got the recipes for the salsa, peach butter, and blackberry jam):
http://www.amazon.com/Ball-Complete-Book-Home-Preserving/dp/0778801314
Here are a couple of books along those lines:
The FDA states that inversion canning is not safe and should not be practiced. I get the appeal of not having to water bath process jars because it is a pain, but personally I would never do it, why risk it? If you don't want to fully process your jars you can do refrigerator recipes, most will last in the frig for several weeks. Please practice safe and approved canning methods!
If you need help with proper canning and approved recipes, this book is fantastic!
https://www.amazon.com/Ball-Complete-Book-Home-Preserving/dp/0778801314/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1537971010&sr=8-6&keywords=ball+canning
This: http://www.amazon.com/Ball-Complete-Book-Home-Preserving/dp/0778801314
Lots of good info here: https://nchfp.uga.edu
And this is my favorite canning book (has approved recipes)
Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving https://www.amazon.com/dp/0778801314/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_tS-BDb6WYXYMM
As ShannonOh says, you'll need a pressure cooker. I use mine to can stews, chili, pork curry, basil chicken, and tom kah gai soup. If you end up getting a pressure cooker, work up small batches until you get the flavoring right. The pressure cooking process bleeds a lot of the flavor out.
I bought this pressure cooker, this kit, and this book. I like the book and the cooker, but the kit was somewhat low quality and is already in need of replacing.
You can also use a pressure cooker for just regular cooking too. The book talks about taking completely frozen roasts and cooking them in a couple hours! I haven't tried it yet, but I will.
Sure! I got my recipes from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
The syrup and blueberry butter recipes you make from the same set of blueberries. It is called "Blueberry Bonanza" and luckily, it's been copied word-for-word online here.
The blueberry-lime jam is also available online here. I included 2 oz. of orange liqueur (I used Cointreau) which I stirred in just after removing the jam from the heat.
The Ball Blue Book doesn't, but the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving does have a chipotle salsa recipe.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0778801314
Canning for a New Generation $17.76, Ball Preserving $15.39 The Homemade Pantry $18.20 as someone who makes homemade poptarts she needs this book. Adoption Book $11.33, And some tea to round it off.
Edited because I messed it up. :D
The only thing I wish my little Presto had was a pressure gauge. Make sure it can hit 15 psi, since that's what most recipes are calibrated for. Everyone raves about the All Americans, so I'm sure you're making a good choice there. I don't know how cooking times are affected by trying to do large quantities of meat at once. I'd think it'd be basically the same as long as you're at pressure/temperature.
My 8 qt Presto is sufficient for an 8 lb bone-in butt. I could probably get a little more in there but I don't feel like playing fast and loose with it, and that's a lot of food for me and my roommate.
Some resources:
/r/canning
/r/pressurecooking
I've been getting a lot of cooking times for things from Fagor's website.
Kenji at Serious Eats (a great cooking website) has been doing a lot of pressure cooking stuff. The ragu bolognese is insanely good.
The Ball book is basically the canning Bible. The USDA also has a canning guide.
I recommend the Ball Home Preserving book. It gave me a lot of ideas I hadn't thought of before, and it has really useful trouble shooting sections, that really saved a couple of batches of pickles for me.
Edit: And apparently they're releasing a new spiral bound version. I may need to get that...
Both if you can. Chickens as they are omnivores and will eat almost everything. For plants you can pick and choose what will do best for you. In the case you are presenting I would suggest getting plants that people in dryer or hotter climates grow. Start growing them now along with other plants for diversity.
Some books I suggest
I used the recipie from the Ball book... similar to this.
At the step when I strained through the jelly-bag I saved the garlic-mash (I didn't use the pepper corns) and mixed that with melted butter and froze it.
My recommendations depend on what you consider "pickling."
There's the notion of canning-type pickling, where you put the vegetable (typically) in a brine, often flavored with spices, and preserve them by canning; sterilizing the jars and contents so that it's shelf-stable. Most "pickles" you buy in the store fall under this definition. Additionally, these recipes are pretty standard, and have gone through exhaustive formulating and testing to ensure safety. I personally would not trust online resources for canning unless you are 100% certain of their validity. (Whereas my next distinction is far more forgiving and open to experimentation.)
For this, I can think of no better book than the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving.
On the other hand, most non-Western cultures, including ours until the Cold War or so, consider pickling to involve some sort of preserving involving selecting and managing bacteria to preserve the food. Usually via some form of fermentation, though not exclusively so. Think kimchi or (non-canned) sauerkraut. Cucumber pickles are a paradox, common and popular in both canned and fermented categories. A common non-fermented, non-canned preserved item would be preserved lemons, say. Or honey-preserved garlic.
The best book for fermentation (and other non-canned preservations) is Sandor Ellix-Katz's The Art of Fermentation.
I would definitely second following approved recipes. My most used canning book is The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, as they test all the recipes. I'm also very careful to follow the recipes exactly as written. It also has a pretty good section on food safety, and talks about what is safe to water-bath, and what needs a pressure canner.
I would recommend either Putting Food By, or Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. These government publications are not famous for subtlety or flavor.
Check out the sidebar, it has all kinds of info! This is the go to website for all things canning, I only trust tested recipes (meaning I don't do some mashed potato recipe I found on someone's blog).
I have only water bath canned before, but I have heard that All Americans are the way to go for pressure canners though there are cheaper options depending on how much you plan to do.
There are a couple things I always suggest for people who show an interest in canning.
Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
A small tool set
Here on Amazon
I love this book, and the pickled carrots are awesome
I would never say it's complicated but it is more involved. First off all jellies are made using the boiling water bath method (which can be as simple as having a pot large enough to have at least 1" of water covering the top of your jars at all times). Where the science comes in is when to determine if pectin is needed, what ratio of fruit to sugar is needed, and what jar sizes are safe (you can always process in a smaller jar but never a larger jar). If you have yet to purchase a Ball book of canning I strongly recommend it.
The first two books I bought were (http://amzn.to/2uyqAYA) and (http://amzn.to/2uIsZ33) however Ball just released a brand new Basics book (http://amzn.to/2tfdw6l) that discusses jams, jellies, butters and pickles.
I know this may not have been the answer you were looking for but I would gladly help you walk through the process of making a jam
Get a canning book/guide. Much better to have a reference on hand to thumb back through rather than reading a web site and trying to remember everything at first.
Ball Complete Canning Guide
Ball Blue Book
The other Ball book (Home Preserving) has an entire section on pie fillings, not just apple. Every fruit! Clear Gel! Wooooo.
http://www.amazon.com/Ball-Complete-Book-Home-Preserving/dp/0778801314
Recipes from where? Unless it's tested as safe for canning - don't try to can it.
https://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/publications_usda.html
https://www.amazon.com/Ball-Complete-Book-Home-Preserving/dp/0778801314
Ball Blue Book or Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
Hi! The easiest way to get started canning is to read over the National Center for Home Food Preservation's site (they even offer a self-study program you can do at home!) or the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving . It's VERY important to know what you are doing when you are canning, as while canning is easy, you can also improperly can items, which can lead to botulism, which can make you very sick and can kill you.
Water bath canning is a great for getting your feet wet in the canning world (ha ha! Feet wet. Water bath. I slay me). Water baths are for items like fruit and tomato products. All you need for this is a pot tall enough to cover the canning jars that sit on a towel or some kind of rack with 2 inches of water and a lid for the pot. I use a stock pot, and when I went to buy it I took along a jar and measured it in the pot to make sure I was getting the right size. Then you need jars, lids, and rings. If you get the jars new in a box, they come with the lids and rings.
If your budget can swing it, or if someone else would like to go in on it with you, a canning kit is really nice to have. It makes canning a lot easier and less frustrating.
When your sister has gotten the swing of water bath canning, and if she wants to try canning meat or vegetables, your family might be interested in getting her a pressure canner for the holidays. The nice thing about a pressure canner is that it can also be used as a water bath canner.
If you get her the Presto canner linked above, get the three piece weight to replace the mushroom looking weight. This way she won't have to relay on the dial gauge (which can be unreliable), all she has to do is listen for the steam escaping and the rocking.
To get her started, I would get her a book like this one, and depending on her stove top a water bath canner for gas/electric or flat top, also this set, and don't forget the jars. There are probably other stores than Amazon to buy these things, I usually get great deals at Ace hardware. There are some other great books out there, and depending on what she is interested in, a pressure canner is a big one too.
Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving https://www.amazon.com/dp/0778801314/ref=cm_sw_r_em_awd_89o4wb58R7ZCF
I am such a sucker for books on canning. I highly recommend "So Easy to Preserve by National Center for Home Food Preservation you can buy the bound book OR get the PDF for free. The recipes are all scientifically tested. Another one with tested recipes is Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. I also like these...Preserving in Today's Kitchen, The Glass Pantry, The Complete Book of Small Batch Canning and Mes Confitures: The Jams and Jellies of Christine Ferber. Check out /r/canning too.
I wouldn't say too many but I have a lot of cookbooks. :)
Edit: fixed typos
> Where do you suggest learning this? What do you think of my idea of hiring a culinary student to give me private lessons?
In nearly 10 years of professional cooking I have never met a culinary student with hands. Unfortunately, I cannot explain it more than having the right attitude, with there "always being room for improvement" and "oh he's asian." My first chef and cooking job told me I had "heritage knife skills." You are on the right track with Shun and simply wanting it. I can post some demo videos eventually, when I sober up and have more in my pantry than onions (I work ~80 a week between two kitchens, I don't eat much at home).
> I don't have any friends who work in the food industry, where would you suggest meeting such a person (similar question as above)? I would buy a whetstone, but I have no idea how to use it properly. Also, most of my knives are from Shun, and I know they have a service where you can send them off to get them sharpened for free. I haven't done this yet (knife set is pretty new). Would you suggest this?
Shun is good people, but I resharpen my knifes everyday for use in a professional kitchen, with volume ranging from cutting three bunches of celery to 100 lbs of onions on top of service--I don't like to play with dull knives. And it is a skill you never really lose, though I wore a hole in my finger the last time I sharpened knives, but I sharpened knives for the entire staff and was fairly drunk at the time--maybe you shouldn't be friends with us, unless you like waking up to a pile of dishes and beer cans in the morning... Once again, I would be willing to sharpening technique on youtube, but I'm certain there are videos of it there, "Japanese knife sharpening."
> I enjoy cooking and I absolutely find it cathartic and meditative. However, I have time constraints. I have a job, hobbies, chores, occasional medical problems that sap my energy, and I have to cook ALL my meals. I feel like I spend too long prepping vegetables as it is now. I realize for some recipes that getting perfect cuts is important, but 90% of the time, I would like to just go faster. Do you have any tips for this?
For me, speed come with knife sharpness and monopolizing a single cut. So if you have to julienne a ton of onions, do not try to do one at a time, cut them in half, clean/peel them all, then focus on the julienne so you are repeating the same motions over and over vs attempting different angles and having to move finished product into a container or off the cutting board.
> One major thing I have going for me is that I have great resources in terms of grocery and kitchen options.
>I'm not sure if you are familiar with the Seattle area, but we have an amazing variety of grocery stores/markets here. There is a farmers market every day, Pike Place market, Amazon Fresh (delivery), multiple organic co-ops, Costco, multiple Asian grocery stores, specialty international food stores, Cost Plus World Market, Whole Foods, upscale grocery stores, regular grocery stores, etc. etc. I can get pretty much any ingredient. The problem with most of the produce is that it might be sprayed with the pesticide that I am allergic to. CSAs only work if the produce comes exclusively from certain farmers that don't use this pesticide. When that stuff is in season, I buy huge quantities directly from the farmer and load up my chest freezer.
This makes me happy, but I was happy anyways since I had a few after work. In terms of recommended reading, I suggest looking into pickling assuming you are not allergic to citrus, even so you can probably still use refined vitamin C. Here are three pickling Amazon links: Balls. Can. Ferment, sorry, couldn't resist the urge.
Something else I borrowed off one of my ECs: On food and cooking, Harold McGee.
Another to add to your library: Food lover's Companion
Food is great in that it is a kinesthetic science, a lot of great cooks are also great "scientists" they just don't know it, they are just doing it by "feel, taste and smell." This is where organization and precision come in--know your objective/hypothesis and continue with experiment procedure from there, speed is a measurement: how long, how fast, etc, etc. "If you don't measure you cannot improve." I feel like recipes are more or less, just successful lab reports.
Since you mentioned vegetarianism I feel like I can discuss my on and off relationship with veganity. I do try to build muscle from time to time and so it is hard for me to ignore the nutrient/protein density of tasty decaying animal flesh. But generally in terms of vegetables and fruit there are few exceptions to them having more benefits apart from them being consumed raw: namely Goitrogens.
So this may lead you, as well as it lead me for a time to a "raw/vegan" diet. I dunno though, I get stuck between it and "Paleo" and sometimes just eating raw meat--I cannot tell if I am just becoming lazier as a cook or if I am making strides my personal health.
Back onto topic of sorts:
> My kitchen is already pretty good. I have a nice gas stove, which I feel makes a big difference. We are planning a remodel to enlarge the kitchen.
Hrmm, I am at odds with enlarging for the sake of "bettering," I feel like you can get away with great results with little space and a little ingenuity, but with great precision. I have a portable induction cook-top, a juicer, a blender and a shitty built-in electric range/stove, just missing a dehydrator, PID temperature controlled water bath, a blow torch, vacuum sealer and I wouldn't be too far from a NY test kitchen--I feel like I could feed a hundred people, no problem without using the electric ranges: it comes down to organization. You are one person, trying to feed yourself and your family at any given time, make prep easier for yourself by doing much of it at once or at least eliminating a step or two, prep for half the week or prep for the next step, for example: celery--strip all of it away from the root, throw it in water and save it for later, this keeps it springy and passively washes it; I was taught a long time ago to not drain root vegetables but rather pull them from a bath of water, in that the dirt sinks and stays at the bottom rather than being agitated and back on the vegetables after straining; then you can come back to cut it in any variety you wish. I've kind of made a habit out of bathing veggies vs spraying/rinsing, of course there are exceptions, things that you will peel anyways, that spot of dirt that needs scrubbed and that we need "RIGHT NOW."
The problem I have with recipes is the objectivity in creating "the dish," most of the time, my creations or "specials" come from leftovers or something that is on the verge of being completely useless. Simplicity is king. At my one restaurant we had some black beans that were starting to smell fruity (which is normal, but no one had a planned use for them), a few onions and peppers, some spices, a quick roast then blend with some lemon juice/vinegar and we had a black bean salsa, which I tried to pair with some fish and roasted tomatoes but everyone just wanted the salsa with chips--whatever, I'm Asian, I don't know.
So rather than filling your refrigerator with a dozen half eaten dishes, fill your refrigerator with an endless possibility of dishes: prepped greens for salads; portioned meats for cooking; pickled items for accoutrements, garnishments or just adding that extra acidity; gutted/peeled veggies or fruit--you picking up what I'm laying down?
From there you can experiment with single servings: a celery leaf salad--balsamic vinegar, pickled radish, mustard greens, olive oil, crushed red, salt, julienned carrots, diced red onion and toss in a soft boiled duck egg if you feel the urge. Professional cooking is just a hodgepodge of "stone soup" that everyone has grown to like and accept, everyone has something to add and or learn from.
Restaurant dishes are designed to sell. Try to keep in mind the overt commercialization and not take the small successes you have in just enjoying a simple salad with some boiled eggs, while not getting sick, for granted. Good health tastes great, don't let anyone tell you hard boiled eggs and some celery sticks isn't a meal--"It is until I eat again!"
Speed is just an increase in efficiency in carrying out the procedure. You'll get it, just know what you want and are doing first, then be deliberate. I'll help out best I can.