Putting Up: A Year-Round Guide to Canning in the Southern Tradition

by Steve Dowdney, Rick McKee (Photographer)

In Putting Up, author Steve Dowdney colorfully and descriptively guides readers safely through the home canning process. In his plainspoken narrative, Dowdney explains how to put up crops harvested during each month of the year and includes 65 of the most popular and delicious recipes he produces for his successful canning business. Also included is a resource section that contains information on where all essential canning supplies can be purchased. More than just a how-to manual, Putting Up is a wonderful guide for canners and non-canners alike. It is chock full of anecdotes, stories and vignettes of a long gone agrarian south that filled the author's youth and still fills his heart and memory.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction

176 pages, Paperback

First published June 2, 2008

Reviews

[Tamara]

I was too intimidated by talk of "maximum pH" and "minimum degrees".

[Toby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not necessarily a great all-enco passing guide to canning, but unique in its emphasis on the southern style. Not all things are different but a few are! Also has the fun approach of chapters for each month and what is ostensibly available for canning at that time of year.

Good graphic design and a couple of really yummy (seeming) recipes.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seems to emphasize the unique rather than the ordinary - not the Southern tradition I'm used to.

And while I understand the science of canning and food safety requires pH testing I prefer that recipes are formulated so that I don't need to actually do the testing myself.

The anecdotes made for a fun read and the recipes and processes were explained well - just not my sort of recipes.

[Summer Sterling · Rating 1 out of 5]

Never before have I seen canning recipes that call for UP TO FOURTEEN CUPS OF SUGAR. I will not be trying any of these recipes due to the appalling amount of sugar required in so many of them.

[Allie108 · Rating 3 out of 5]

A promising start. I certainly like the story of how it came about. The canning part of the book seems more average to me, from the several that I have seen.

[Kyla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely perfect for me here in the South, as my old timetables of produce and availability have been set askew - it moves seasonally and often covers the fruits and veggies I get through my CSA. Indispensable for canning in the South! Manages to take some of the fear out of avoiding botulism too with some good techniques (I will always remember that the narrators mother (MIL?) in The Stone Diaries was killed by a tainted batch of green beans and it has put the fear of botulism in me).

[Tasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

The photography and the recipe for pickled garlic is what convinced me to buy this book. I'm not a fan of the way the directions are laid out; I had to scrounge around for info in the middle of making a recipe.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

So far this year, I have made 5 recipes from this book and they all turned out great! Especially the bread and butter pickles.

[Marlene Stiles · Rating 3 out of 5]

good