The Preservation Kitchen: The Craft of Making and Cooking with Pickles, Preserves, and Aigre-doux [A Cookbook] Kindle Edition

Not your Gma's preservation kitchen. An amazing range of preserved foods, all restaurant quality. The author makes the recipes easy to understand and do. This is for those who want to up their dinners or entertaining, with some simple but elegant additions to the meal.

Great book, lot's of interesting ideas and the kind of quality I have come to expect from 10-Speed Press. I have not yet made anything from the books plethora of recipes and formulae, but there are several I have marked.1. Format: The pictures are nicely done as is the art. The tables are a bit misplaced and awkward with respect to the content, and they don't seem to flow with the layout as well as they could. The graphics could use some captions. There were times when I saw a picture and was wondering what it was, the recipe before the graphic or the recipe after the graphic. A little guesswork and I was able to identify each one, but readers hate guessing.Even though the layout was a bit weird, I REALLY loved the font and font spacing. VERY readable, and this is something sourly lacking in many books, so high praise for the fonts.2. Content: The content is new and refreshing and treats the concept of 'preserves' with respect. These are not your grandmas pickles so if you are hoping for a more traditional approach to 'pickling' and 'preserves' you will be disappointed. This is a new spin with tons of interesting flavor combinations pulling together many new ideas.3. Reference: The table of contents were well done, no complaints, index seemed to be kinda jammed in there. The acknowledgements seemed a bit rushed and non-inspiring. The lack of a bibliography and a resources sections were the most disappointing parts of the book by far. So, for resources I understand the author is emphasizing local, local, local, and I'm cool with that, but not having to find my own resources for pink salt (curing salt) would be nice as would a compendium of other resources I could turn to. It's hard for me to give credibility to an author who does not have a bibliography from which he/she draws from to form their own epistemology and it seems a bit arrogant to assume we are not shaped by others. HOWEVER, to be my own devils advocate, a lot of this stuff is SO unique perhaps the chef is really, that great. I presume he is.Thanks for a great book, and I can't wait to get 5-pounds of asparagus for some pickles! Kudos!

Anyone considering this book should be aware that it takes a pre-modern, even anti-modernist approach to food preservation.For example, when it comes to getting jams, jellies, mostarda, etc to set up, he relies exclusively on a pectin stock that he urges you to make yourself from green apples. Since commercial pectin has been available for more than a century now, is made in the same way (by cooking pectin-rich fruits and vegetables), is tested for strength and thus produces reliable results, it's more than a little bizarre and atavistic that he won't even consider it in his recipes. If you want to substitute it, you're on your own. Granted, anyone interested in food preservation takes a certain pleasure and pride in making things themselves, but before I buy 5 pounds of apples and spend an hour in front of a hot stove cooking them down, I want to know that it's going to be better than what's commercially available. Just because you make it yourself doesn't necessarily make it better or more virtuous.And I found his apple pectin recipe wildly unreliable. After following it, I had to reduce it by two thirds before even this "pectin" stock would set up. Even then, it took almost three times as much as his mostarda recipe called for before it achieved a soft set. So, all in all, the pectin seemed to be off by a factor of about 9. Such inaccuracy is aggravating enough, but it also seriously affects every recipe you use it in. Since he calls for more than 5 cups of sugar in his pectin recipe, if you need to reduce it by two thirds and then use tree times as much, you are adding 9 times more sugar and thus throwing off the balance of every recipe you use it in. All that added sugar transformed his mostarda into more of an insipid jelly.This is not the only problematic recipe. A few pages later, in his recipe for Yellow Plum and Riesling Jam, you find these instructions: "bring the plums, wine, sugar, and lemon thyme to a boil. Give the mixture a good stir and cook until it reaches a boil, about 11 minutes." Huh? After coming to a boil, it's not going to take 11 minutes to reach the boil again just because you stirred it. There's some basic proofreading or editing error here, with the result that you just have to guess what you're supposed to do.And for all the inventiveness of his flavor combinations, his approach is surprisingly limited in other ways. There's a world of interesting vinegars out there, but generally he relies on only one: champagne vinegar. And processing mason jars in a hot water bath for 11 minutes is basically the only preservation technique he covers.So just know what you're getting. If you buy into the approach of classical French cuisine that just because a practice is a more traditional and laborious way of doing something it must automatically be better, if having wildly inconsistent results is part of the charm of cooking for you, then you won't be disappointed with Paul Virant's approach.

I really enjoyed the seasonal progression and the clever use of native foods. I've never seen a professional book that even mentioned black walnuts, much less hickory nuts. The menus were clever and not pretentious and I enjoyed the tips on adding a little brine to make simple sauces and vinaigrettes. I cook a lot and can a lot and I really enjoy getting a fresh take on both.

I've been making preserves & pickles since I was 21, have won blue ribbons, & thought I knew a few things, but this book taught me a tremendous amount. It has techniques & ideas I'd never even considered before. The book is beautifully photographed, too -- in fact, at first I thought it was a coffee-table book, not a real working cookbook. In addition, the second half consists of excellent suggestions, with recipes, for how to use all those things you've just put in jars (if you end up each fall with a pantry of filled jars & then must scramble for ways to use up the contents before the shelves collapse -- you know who you are -- this is invaluable). Seriously -- once you're past the Ball Blue Book, this is the book you want.

I had a hard time reading the faint print, and didn't find enough interesting recipes to merit keeping the book.Very pretty book though, and might make a nice gift for the right DIY-sort of cook.

Virant makes canning and preserving seem much more approachable. The recipes are great and given in volume, weight, and as a percentage which allows you to adjust the recipe more easily. Also great ideas and recipes about how to use your pickles and jams in dishes.

I love this book & use it often ... Excellent ...to be recommendedThank you

Already tried a couple of recipes and they worked out perfect. Also I had a question about the type of apples Chef Paul preferred in the Caramel Apple jam so emailed chef at the restaurant and he got back to me right away. The answer was honey crisp but he said any would do, a tart apple would be nice. I like how he makes the preserves and then has recipes on using how he uses the preserves, so gets you thinking about what else would it go with.

A welcome addition to my kitchen. I will be making his pickles, relishes, jams, conserves, aigre-doux and mostarda recipes for years to come. And I love the second half of the book, where he shares recipes for the preserves. A home run!

Great recipes. Thanks!

Great read and great reference book!