Best of Bridge Home Preserving: 120 Recipes for Jams, Jellies, Marmalades, Pickles and More

Preserving can be so much more than just strawberry jam, as the eight women who created the Best of Bridge brand (The Complete Best of Bridge Cookbooks Volume 2) show. They've included both dependable classics and imaginative reinventions of jams, marmalades, jellies, conserves, fruit butter, chutneys, relishes, pickles, sauces, and salsas, as well as recipes that use them. If you can't tell your jellies from your conserves, the explanation at the beginning of each chapter should prove helpful. The introduction, with canning directions, equipment lists and definitions of terminology, guides even complete canning beginners to preservation success. The recipes are authentically home-style, rarely using granulated sugar and pectin. The book has an old-fashioned feel, partly due to its ring binding, which is convenient when working from a recipe while up to your knuckles in fruit juice. The font adds to the book's homey feel but detracts from readability. The authors provide detailed, easy-to-follow directions and a well-referenced index. Although there are relatively few photos, the names of the recipes alone%E2%80%94Autumn Harvest Chutney and Pineapple, Mango and Papaya Conserve%E2%80%94excite the taste buds. Solid, extensive and without frills, this is a collection any canner could rely on. (June)