Favorite Food Preservation Books for Beginners 2023

Whether you have a large garden or have a great place locally to find fresh produce that is in season, you may want to find some delicious recipes to preserve the fresh flavors that accompany abundant harvests for the entire year.  Traditional techniques for food preservation need not be intimidating with the right canning equipment, tools and resources for beginners to experts.  There are many books and online resources that cover food safety and techniques including pressure canning, hot water bath canning and more.  

While I may have grown up in a family where home food preservation was just simply something we did, I certainly wasn’t paying attention enough to learn how to become a home canner myself.  So as an adult I had to relearn and seek out step-by-step instructions for the canning process to safely preserve fresh produce from our backyard garden or local farms and farmer’s markets.  Naturally I began searching for good books with simple recipes for first-time canners (or those who have not done it alone).   I asked friends and searched online for their recommendations and I am so excited to share my findings with you in this article.  

What Do You Need to Preserve Food?

Growing a garden or shopping at your favorite farm stand or market in the spring and summer is such a rewarding experience, but wanting to save those fresh flavors for year round consumption can seem like a big task.  Canning equipment, jars and accessories are pretty easy to find online or in big box stores.  If you’re a thrifter, second hand stores often have many options for even better pricing. Just remember that while canning jars and rings can be reused as long as in good condition, canning lids need to be replaced for every new batch of canned food.  I prefer Ball jars, lids and rings because I’ve always had good results with them and they’ve been around for many years.  But Kerr, Golden Harvest and Atlas are brands I’ve used successfully as well. Do some searching locally and see what you can find, keeping in mind that not all glass jars are suitable for canning.  Make sure to buy those that notate that they are somewhere on their packaging.

Water Bath Canning

Water bath canning is basically submerging your canned goods in a sealed jar in boiling water for a specific time frame. The heat expands the food and pushes the air out of the jar and when it cools back down you get that sought after ping of a sealed jar that is safe for at least a year, or more, depending on the recipe.   The pots used for this process need not be fancy or expensive and simply need a rack to hold the jars and tight fitting lid.  This method is pretty popular with beginners since it doesn’t involve the concerns some have with pressure cooker methods needed for low acid foods to be preserved safely.  I highly recommend starting with water bath canning because it’s super easy and produces great results without a lot of effort or skill.  

Pressure Canning

Pressure canning takes lower acid foods like meat, seafood and poultry as well as vegetables like green beans, okra and carrots and gets them heated up to safely kill any spores present that could turn into toxins that are not safe to eat.  Heating to the required pressure for a certain length of time based on altitude is the only way to safely preserve these items and need not cause concern of pressure canners of the past as they have many safety measures that were not available in those early years of canning.  Pressure canners are affordable and easy to find and a necessary tool in your food preservation arsenal.  YouTube is also a great resource for learning how to use the pressure canner confidently – it’s the way I learned and I highly recommend it!

Freezing

Freezing is also a great way to preserve food and enjoy it for months to come.  Using a vacuum sealer to remove as much air as possible for higher quality results is preferred but not absolutely required.  Freezer safe bags will help reduce burn and improve the length of time your food will remain tasty, but know that most foods do lose their best texture by freezing but are great for many applications like soups, stews and baked good after being frozen.  I freeze most of my fruits here in our home for using in bread and pancake recipes as well as for smoothies and ice cream in the future.  The use of deep freezer helps extend the life of frozen foods, but you can certainly achieve long term storage in your kitchen refrigerator/freezer.  

Drying

Drying is one of the oldest methods of preserving food for later use.  Drying removes the moisture from foods that prohibit the growth of bacteria and molds that would spoil foods.  You can use a dehydrator or drying racks indoors or outdoors to achieve long term storage that is more condensed and lighter than canning or freezing.  I have not included any resources in this article about drying food, but there are some great books that have sections on drying including “So Easy to Preserve” released by the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Office.

The very best food preservation books offer detailed instructions but also provide canning recipes that beginners can successfully execute.  I have four books that I am confident are up to the task for everything from delectable preserves and dill pickles to high-acid foods like tomatoes to line the kitchen shelves with home-canned goods that will taste as good as the day they were processed.  All of the suggestions I have are affiliate links to Amazon and I will earn a commission on any purchases made through my links shown.  

1. The Complete Guide to Home Canning

The first one is the U.S. Department of Agriculture “The Complete Guide to Home Canning” and is the print version (with a different name) of the National Center for Home Food Preservation website which is a trusted source for great recipes that are safe.  This book offers some of the science behind the canning process, the basic principles to understand how to select equipment, pick the best recipes for the food you want to preserve and how to recognize items that didn’t seal properly before consuming them.  It offers great diagrams for beginners to see exactly how to follow safe canning procedures for delicious food year round.  There are sections on how to preserve  fruit, tomatoes, vegetables, red meat, poultry, seafood, fermented and pickled food as well as jams and jellies, including a low sugar section for those as well.  Each section includes elevation and cook time charts to make the process super simple to follow.  If you have never touched a water bath canner or pressure canner before, fear not, this book will have you canning foods like a pro.  It’s an easy reference source for those who need a reminder and it’s one of my favorite books to use without having to have the website pulled up and I’ve made notes in the margins of some of my often used recipes of things I like (or didn’t) about them.  Click on the photo to check it out.

2. The Homestead Canning Cookbook

The second one is “The Homestead Canning Cookbook” by certified master food preserver Georgia Varozza.  This book took me from someone with little know-how to feeling much more confident in my homestead kitchen to preserve food for my family.  I love the sections on Canning is a Way of Life and How to Fit Canning into Your Busy Life in the introduction by the author – I knew right away this book would be a favorite. There are chapters with step by step guides to water bath canning and pressure canning that I would consider a comprehensive guide to the basics that offer everything you need to know to safely preserve food.  Varozza offers plenty of recipes including sections on jams, pickles and fermented foods, tomatoes, fruit and pie filling, vegetables, meat, poultry and fish and soups and stews.   The final chapter offers troubleshooting tips to help get to the root of problems if you run into them and easy tips for how to avoid the recurrence of them in future canning batches and is a great tool that you don’t often see in preservation books that makes this one even more valuable.  Click on the photo to check it out.

3. Naturally Sweet Food in Jars

Next up I’m adding to the stack “Naturally Sweet Food in Jars” by Marisa McClellan which uses natural sweeteners to preserve fruits and vegetables safely.  The introduction has a pretty extensive overview of canning procedures and safe techniques for processing the recipes within the book.  The author covers food preservation with the use of honey, maple syrup, agave, coconut sugar, fruit juice and dried fruit as sweeteners as alternative for preserves normally high in sugar.  I found this book when trying to find recipes that I was happy feeding my young daughter without unnecessary sugar and I’m so glad I did.  The pizza sauce is hands down my favorite canning recipe that I’ve processed for the past two years and it alone is worth the cost of the book.  I also made the gingery fig butter and bread-and-butter pickles and both were huge wins in our house.  This book is a new favorite in my kitchen and I can’t wait to try out more of the recipes next year – I may even plant some different items in my garden to make sure I have what I need to try them out!  This author also has a previous booked called “Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year-Round” that has rave reviews and is in my to be read pile! Click on the photo to check it out!

4. Ball Canning Basics – A Foolproof Guide to Canning Jams, Jellies, Pickles & More

Finally, you can’t have a Favorite Food Preservation Book list without one of the Ball-Published canning books on it.  My selection to recommend is “Ball Canning Back to Basics – A Foolproof Guide to Canning Jams, Jellies, Pickles & More”.  The books centers around water bath canning and includes an entire section on the basic rules to safe canning using boiling water.  It also includes a guide to basic gear and how to get started with the recipes in the book.  Recipe sections include jams, preserves and marmalades, jellies, fruit, fruit butters & sauces, tomatoes and pickles and has so much beautiful photography that inspires you to want to try all of the delicious offerings!  I absolutely love the Mixed Berry Jam recipe in this book that is an excellent way to use up random bags of berries in your freezer.  I made it with the low sugar option which makes it a bit softer set and perfect for topping pancakes and waffles. Click on the photo to check it out.

These four books are barely the tip of the iceberg on available resources for safe food preservation.  Do your research though, because you want to make sure you’ve selected safe recipes for preserving.  Reading through some of the resources above is a great way to discern whether the method in recipes you’ve found is safe or not.  The National Center for Home Food Preservation website is a great way to double check as well.  While it’s fine to find random recipes online or on Pinterest – taking the risk of unsafe food is not worth it.  Stick to the tested recipes for best results that won’t accidently make you or your family sick.  There are SO many to choose from that it won’t be hard to find a favorite or two.  Once you have safely preserved your foods, store them in cool, dark place to provide the best conditions for the longest storage for your canned goods.  Do not store jars with rings on, as it can mask failed seals and do not stack jars on top of each other for the same reason – you want to be alerted to failed seals and spoiled food without takings any chances. 

Extra Notes for Beginner Food Preservation Success

Also, look for certified master food preservers close to you offering classes through your local extension offices.  These folks have have a certification that people can earn designating that they have undergone and passed training and courses in modern, up-to-date methods of food preservation and they are a super valuable resource for learning how to preserve food safely.  If you can find classes near you – take them!  

Food preservation at home doesn’t have to be complicated or intimidating, but having trusted resources backed with scientifically proven methods is necessary.  Let the suggestions in this article be a jumping off point in your research for beginning your journey to safe food preservation.  Get the whole family involved in turning home grown or store bought food into long term storage pantry items to feed them for the future.  Ask your friends to join in and learn to preserve food together – these processes have been around for a long time and carrying on this tradition (and sharing with the next generation) is a great way to have fun with a purpose.  

Check out this FREE resource!

I have also created a fun digital resource with some of this information on food preservation techniques as well as some of my family’s favorite recipes using garden produce that we love! I would love to share it with you!  Please click on the link here to access the file.