Book Review: Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving

When I wanted to get a book on canning, I decided to get the Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving. Bernardin is the brand of canning supplies and jars that is the most widely available in Canada, so I figured it was a name I could trust. It's a thick book too, at 448 pages.

This book is a good one for beginners, because it has a fairly large section at the back called "The Art and Science of Food Preservation," which explains everything a person would need to know about home canning. For those who want to jump right into canning without reading too much, the first section of the book has recipes for five popular foods (Strawberry Jam, Mint Jelly, House Salsa, Traditional Corn Relish, and Dill Pickles) that are heavy on the detail. I found this strawberry jam recipe to be helpful the first time I made jam, because I was a bit nervous and the recipe gave easier and more detailed instructions than most recipes do.

Also within this cookbook are a troubleshooting section and an extensive glossary, that are helpful to a novice canner such as myself.

Another nice feature of this book is the sheer variety of recipes. Flipping through the pages, I see so many interesting recipes that I'd like to try some time in the future, and lots of recipes that would be excellent for gift giving. The book includes sections on jams and jellies, canned fruit, salsa, relish and chutney, condiments, pickles, and tomatoes. After all this is a small section on pressure canning with a handful of recipes. 

Overall, I like this book and I can definitely see myself using some of the more creative recipes in the future for holiday gift-giving. However, my one complaint is that the variety of unique recipes means that some basic recipes have been left out. For example, when I wanted to make raspberry jam a few days ago, I was surprised to find no recipe for plain raspberry jam in this book. There was a natural jam recipe using tart apples instead of pectin that requires a long boiling time, but not a regular jam recipe. This wasn't a tragedy, since the sheet that comes inside the box of pectin has recipes for all the basic jams and jellies, but I did think it was strange that a book with the word "complete" in the title didn't have a recipe for raspberry jam! 

I would recommend this book to novice and experienced canners alike for the easy instructions, and for the large number of interesting recipes--but I don't think it's really a complete resource for canning. In the future, I'd like to get a few more canning books to ensure I have easy access to all the basic and traditional recipes I would like. Although perhaps I'm just making up an excuse to buy more books...something which I'm good at. :)

Comments

[Kathy in KY]

Hey Laura - this looks just like the American version Ball Book of Home Preserving. The site that I mentioned in your previous post uses just about the same recipes, I think, or close to them. Even the cover is the same as far as I can tell on your book and the book I have, and the recipe printing is the same. Cool! I'm glad you've got that book, it's awesome for learning to can, and also, like you say, it has a ton of different, and very interesting recipes. It's my go-to book when I want to can something. I also belong to a Yahoo group on home canning, and have gotten some good advice and recipes from that group, and they only will allow US Dept of Agriculture approved recipes so there will be no doubt of the safety of the final product. Thanks for your email this morning, it was great to hear from you. I hope you find a place to rent in the country. I did order a used copy of Finding and Buying Your Place in the Country. I found it on Amazon, an acceptable copy, for $8.01 plus $3.99 for shipping. I'm looking forward to reading it when it gets here. Hope you and your family are all well, and I hope you have a good weekend. Take care, from KY.

[Laura Jeanne]

I think that Bernardin is the Canadian extension of the Ball company, so that would explain the similarities in the two cookbooks. :)

[Kathy in KY]

OK - that makes total sense since I see that they seem to be the exact same book, even giving the two sets of measurements in their recipes. It is a good book, and the one I used when I first canned low acid foods and meat meals in my pressure canner. Thanks for your reply. Take care, Miss Laura, from KY.

[alex]

Hi Laura!
I have a similar book by Bernardin, but much thinner (only 148 pages). It is called "Bernardin Guide to Home Preserving) and has a lot of basic recipes.
Here is a link for amazon, but I had found mine with the canning supplies in WalMart, or some big store like that: http://www.amazon.ca/Bernardin-Guide-Home-Preserving/dp/B000FVWN2W
We went raspberry picking today, thanks for your post about it, I didn't realize the season had started here yet for raspberries!!

[Laura Jeanne]

Hi Alex,
I've seen the book you speak of at Zellers--maybe I'll have a look at it next time I'm there. I'm glad you were able to get some raspberries! :)