The Best Books on Canning and Preserving (Must Haves!)
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Looking for some of the best books on canning and preserving so that you can better know how to keep the harvest for as long as possible? This list should help you decide what to get!
There are plenty of books on canning and preserving out there, but which ones should you pick when you are looking to grow your home library?
The Best Books on Canning and Preserving
I asked my mom (who has been canning for a few decades now!) and other Little House Living readers what their favorite books about canning and preserving are. I hope this is helpful for the new generation of home cooks and food preservers but also those of you that have been at this for a long time too!
This is such a fun list because we can all glean so much info from each other! I even had the chance to check out some new books while I was putting this list together and added them to my Amazon cart.
I’ve categorized this post into a few different sections to help you better find which type of book you are looking for. From books that only focus on pressure canning to recipe books that also include canning, I’ve rounded up the best books on canning that I could find!
All of these canning cookbooks are personally recommended by our family or by a Little House Living reader and are not part of a random list generated from the internet like many of the other lists out there. 🙂
Why We Can and How Much We Can
My mom and I are both heavy canners. Each year, we typically do between 500-800 jars with water-bath canning and pressure canning, most of those in the summer months. In the winter months, we also preserve whatever comes our way and do things like meals in a jar or canned beans.
This means that any pickles, jams, salsa, vegetables, broth, jellies, stews, and more that our family eats during the year is all home canned. We haven’t had to buy jelly in many years!
While we don’t quite preserve all of the foods that our family will eat in a year, we probably preserve about 75% of it between canning, freezing, and storing in the root cellar. It’s something that is very important to us!
We can food for several different reasons, the main ones being:
- We can control the ingredients in all of our canned food recipes. That’s a great help for allergies and to limit things like sugar. (Personally, I only can low-sugar or no-sugar or with maple syrup or honey.)
- Canned foods help with fast preparation of meals. Yes, we can store dried beans, but canned beans are already cooked and ready to go!
- We can save money when we grow or find a bargain. We often get deals on bulk seasonal fruits that we cannot grow. Canning them helps us save money by getting the initial product for cheap and then not having to buy it all year.
- Canning helps us make delicious dishes for our family, even when we are short on time or fridge ingredients.
We love canning and preserving in a variety of ways, and I hope that you will gather some inspiration from this blog post on what you can preserve for your family to save time and money as well.
Consider this your sit down chat with a friend about the newest books that you should add to your Amazon cart or wishlist. 🙂
All In One Books on Canning and Preserving
The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
This is a new one for me but since I love the Ball Blue Book by Jarden Home Brands so much, I figured I’d like this one too. It has many more recipes than the regular Ball Book so it’s a good extension of the basics also put out by the makers of Ball Canning Jars. – Merissa
Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving
If I had to only have one book about canning, this would be it. I don’t use the sections on freezing but the recipes are easy to look up and reference when you just need to know times/temps/pressure on what you are making. I recommend getting the most recent edition. My copy is worn ragged. This book also contains lists of canning supplies which can be helpful for the beginner. – Merissa
This is one of my favorites and one of the canning books that I’ve had the longest. I always seem to get new inspiration from this book but it covers all the much-loved classics as well. The recipes are nice and normal…nothing crazy that my family wouldn’t eat. – Merissa
This is my least used Ball Canning book but is still a good resource for more tested recipes. – Julie
This book is filled with step by step recipes and instructions. It’s a good book with basics for the best recipes for canning put out by the University of Georgia. – Merissa
The Homestead Canning Cookbook
This is another great one because the recipes are by a certified master food preserver. This one is great for step by step instructions for both low-acid foods and high-acid foods for today’s home cooks. – Merissa
Extra… Although not a book, I also use the website of the National Center for Home Food Preservation for more recipes that have been through lab testing. I also like their recipe formulas when it comes to things like canning soups.
Their recipe for Chili is one of our favorites. They also have topics like how to can meats, including wild game. I also appreciate their handy charts for quick time and pressure guidelines.
Books about Pressure Canning
The Complete Guide to Pressure Canning
Complete directions for by far the most canned items. The best source for variety, color photographs, and step-by-step photos. – Julie
Pressure Canning for Beginners and Beyond
These pressure cookbooks I like because they are for pressure canning only and are full of so many recipes for complete meals in canned form. I’ve found lots of new dishes and fresh flavors in this cookbook that I didn’t make before. – Julie
Books About Preserving
This is been a hugely inspirational book for our family and inspired us to build our root cellar after wanting one for over a decade. If you plan on making any kind of root cellar or cold storage, you need this book. – Merissa
Preserving Food Without Freezing Or Canning
If you are looking for alternative methods to food preservation such as smoking, making jerkies, preserving in honey, and other advanced methods, this is the book to get. – Merissa
Books that Contain Canning Recipes
Mennonite Country-Style Recipes and Kitchen Secrets
This contains a section of canning and preserving recipes near the back of the book. They are fun because they aren’t your typical recipes but still contain some how-tos. The rest of this cookbook is also amazing! – Merissa
I put this book in this category because it contains recipes on what to make with your home canned goods, versus how to make them. It’s a good resource when you need inspiration on what to make with what’s in your pantry! – Merissa
Our family loves canning and it will be something that we will continue to do for a long time. I always appreciate books like these to give myself more inspiration and more ideas on what I can preserve for my family and for new recipes to try.
While I love finding and using recipes online for canning and preserving, I also love having paper copies of books just in case a day should come that I will be canning and I don’t have internet or electricity. With these books on my shelves, I know I will always have the recipes that I need when I need them.
Find more blog posts on Canning and Preserving here.
What are some of your favorite books on canning or preserving? Which one of these do you use the most?
Merissa has been blogging about and living the simple life since 2009 and has internationally published 2 books on the topic. You can read about Merissa’s journey from penniless to contentedness on the About Page. You can send her a message any time from the Contact Page.
