Whether you’re new to food preservation or just want to try some new canning recipes, picking up a few pickling books can be beneficial. The right books should cover how to make brine from salt and vinegar, as well as how to marinate your produce in this solution. It will be easier for you to follow the instructions if the book has very simple instructions and colorful pictures of each step.
You can use cucumbers to make traditional pickles, or you can experiment with other fruits or vegetables. Okra, cabbage, and watermelon rinds are examples of crops that can be pickled. Each of these items must be pickled in a unique way, so pickling books must be able to distinguish between them. It’s even better if the manuals tell you which varieties are best for home canning and how to distinguish between them at the grocery store.
When doing any type of food preservation, you’ll need your hands free for the majority of the time. This means that putting pickling books on a stand so you can look at them while preparing your vegetables can be beneficial. As a result, you may want to avoid choosing very thick books, as they may not stay open when standing up. Spiral-bound books are easier to turn than sewn or glued-together books.
It’s a good idea to look through pickling books before you buy them to see what kind of recipes they have. You might want to read through a few of these recipes to see if any of them use ingredients you’re not familiar with. If this is the case, you may not be able to locate these items easily, or if you do, they may be expensive. Instead of exotic spices, stick to cookbooks with recipes that call for common pickling ingredients like dill, tumeric, or mustard seed.
You don’t have to spend a lot of money to find pickling books that you enjoy. These items are frequently found at flea markets or secondhand book stores. You might be able to find some gently used canning books to add to your collection at a fraction of the cost of new books by shopping at one of these locations.