The New Homemade Kitchen: 250 Recipes and Ideas for Reinventing the Art of Preserving, Canning....

I give this book 7 out of 10 acorns!




The New Homemade Kitchen: 250 Recipes and Ideas for Reinventing the Art of Preserving, Canning, Fermenting, Dehydrating, and More by Joseph Shuldiner and the  Institute of Domestic Technology, published in 2020, is a book I will be actually purchasing to add to my food resource library. I typically check out new books from the library to see if they add enough value for the real estate they  claim on my shelves, and I think this one makes the cut. The idea is a bit of an early era Home Ec for adults, with a broad range of topics and info.

As someone who likes to tinker with the basics of my food, to understand the processes and ground rules so that I can improvise with confidence (and safety), I like a book that gives me more informational equipment than recipes to follow. While there are more targeted books on the topics included in this one, I appreciate that there is information on a number of food prep and preservation topics, including coffee roasting, condiment making, dehydrating and fermenting equipment explanations and troubleshooting, dairy, and both recipes and "create your own adventure" guidelines. It encourages experimentation with help when things go wrong, like your best home Ec teacher should have been.

Chapters include:
Pantry Department
Department of Caffeine
Department of Pickles & Preserves
Department of Grains
Department of Dairy
Department of Meat & Fish
Department of Spirits
Department of Fermentation
Department of Dehydration

There are profiles of experts on each topic as well, fodder for more detailed research and book buying.

It is nicely laid out, photographed, and printed, so it is a pleasant reading experience as well as being informative. It is available on the big websites as well as used, or do a preview at your local library.