Mrs. Wheelbarrow's practical pantry Recipes and techniques for year-round preserving

Cooks faced with a need to put up a garden's bounty for future consumption are well aware that summer's end signals a lot of kitchen activity with sterilizing jars, pureeing fruits and vegetables, and managing huge canning pots on the stove. Barrow's recipes for jams, jellies, and tomato products rely on simple but pristinely fresh, ripe fruits and vegetables. Barrow moves beyond mere garden produce to preserve all sorts of foodstuffs, including meats and cheeses. Not content with making relatively easy ricotta, she moves into the sophisticated realm of iconic Camembert, presenting the obsessive home cook a significant challenge. Drafting particularly lucid prose, Barrow is explicit and prescriptive as one must be when talking about canning and preserving's technical aspects, where missteps can lead to all sorts of mischief, from exploding jars to serious food poisoning. She manages to make all those caveats less threatening and appear simply self-evident and natural.--Knoblauch, Mark Copyright 2014 Booklist

On her blog, Mrs. Wheelbarrow's Kitchen (mrswheelbarrow.com), Barrow shares recipes, tutorials, and glimpses of her life and the way she stocks her own pantry shelves. Here, in her first book, she expands on her website's offerings with a collection of almost 140 recipes for canning and preserving. Explaining how the practices fit into everyday, busy life, Barrow takes readers through the basics of canning (both water bath and pressure), fresh cheese making, and other preserving techniques such as brining and air curing. Each chapter follows a similar format: beginning with information about safety, equipment, and techniques, and neatly finishing with a wide range of recipes for both preserved foods and dishes and meals that use preserved ingredients. Selected resources and a bibliography round out the manual. This clear, informative volume does not skimp on style; beautiful photographs and attractive design enhance the content. Recipes range in skill level from beginner to advanced. VERDICT Barrow offers a well-rounded look at home preserving and this book will appeal to those looking to expand their pantry.-Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., South Deerfield (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.