Erica Strauss Booklist ?

Hi Erica, thanks for spending some time with us on the forums answering questions.

I was wondering what food preservation books we would find on your bookshelf if we were to visit your house? Which ones would you recommend the most?

Michael Newby wrote:Hi Erica, thanks for spending some time with us on the forums answering questions.

I was wondering what food preservation books we would find on your bookshelf if we were to visit your house? Which ones would you recommend the most?

Hi Michael, I have quite the library of this kind of stuff. Here's a few of my favorites:

General Canning: The Ball Blue Book. Hands down, the best info-to-length ratio of any food preservation book. So if canning (WB or Pressure) is something you do, this is an essential. Runners Up: Canning For A New Generation, Food In Jars.

General Dehydration: Preserve It Naturally from the Excalibur Dehydrator people is like the Ball Blue Book, but for drying. Also magazine-length an packed with the basics.

General Fermentation: Wild Fermentation (Sandor Katz). I actually prefer Wild Fermentation to his longer opus, Art of Fermentation.

General Meat Preservation: Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages (Marianski) is dull as shit but absolutely the textbook on this kind of thing. Runner up: Anything Michael Ruhlman has written on the topic.

Homebrew: Mastering Homebrew (Mosher) Up to date, best single volume on beer-crafting at home. Realistic but not dumbed down.

I also love several vintage books on larder-building. My favorite is called Fancy Pantry by Helen Witty.

Thank you Erica. I've got the Ball Blue Book, glad to know you wholeheartedly endorse it. As for the others, looks like I've got some more books to add to my wishlist now.

Any experience with Charlie Papazian's books on homebrewing? I used his The Complete Joy of Homebrewing to launch my foray into homebrewed goodness and managed to make quite a few gallons of really good beer, and that's coming from friends and beer snobs, not just my own opinion!

Thanks again for taking the time to help us Permies out, I love the information that your spreading!