Ball Canning Back to Basics: A Foolproof Guide to Canning Jams, Jellies, Pickles, and More Paperback – Illustrated, July 4, 2017

The Ball Canning book is a good resource for canning, with recipes for sauces, jelly, and jams, a list of supplies you need for canning, tools, and much more information. It is a good source for beginners and more experienced canners. That want new recipes.

Love my Ball Canning Cookbook

I grew up in a canning family and then didn't can for years. This is the best book I've seen for beginning canning. The reason for this, is the recipes are simple to understand and do, plus ALL the recipes in this book are water bath, perfect for the beginner.

Ball Back To Basics is definitely that.The book covers the basic items you will need to get started in water bath canning. The recipes are very simple and seldom give you any options for substitutions. In the fruit butters section it does give you a variety of options for ingredients you might want to use. For instance you use a sweetener when making butters. So it gives you the option to use different sweeteners like sugar, honey, brown sugar, Et cetera. However for the most part the Ball company is using the book to sell their products, like companies who put out pamphlets or books usually do. For instance making dill pickles it doesn't give you any real options for spices. Instead it says to use (pickling spice). Since in the recipe it says to use Ball salt and Ball pickle crisp, I'm amazed it didn't say to use Ball pickle spice also. There are a lot of different spices that can be used in making dill pickles but the book doesn't provide that information. It would be nice if the recipe actually had the spices needed written down, rather than saying use pickle spice.The book also says make sure you follow the ingredients exactly, otherwise you risk your canning going bad or rancid. But in all honesty you can add different spices without affecting the PH of your recipe. Unless one of the spices is actually a acid neutralize. So that's why it would be nice if they gave more information in the recipes and using actual spices rather than a mix sold by Ball. For instance instead of using pickle crisp which is a chemical found naturally but still finds uses in ice melt for roads and pool shock for swimming pools. They could have given the option that's natural such as grape leaves. Using a few grape leaves in pickles will give the same affect so I've heard.Here's the real question. Is this book worth getting? It really depends on you. Even though I would recommend this book for actual beginners. Just remember the recipes are pointing you toward buying Ball canning products. But let's face it there's not a whole lot of good canning companies out there to choose from. So we would buy their products any ways. Also you can go to the Ball site and look up pretty much any recipe for canning you would want. Again they would point you in the direction of their products. So if you're wanting a book that tells you the basics the real basics, this is a good book. But the recipes can be a little confusing the way they word things. Also remember the cooking times in the book are usually for any jar size they recommend you use. For instance one recipe calls for pint jars or quart jars but the boiling time is the same for both jars, it just doesn't say it out right. It would be nice if they gave other options for smaller jars. Sometimes you only want a 4oz jar or 8oz jar. However so far I have not seen the recipes give more than 2 jar options within the recipe.Overall it's a decent book with a lot of recipes and enough information to get you started especially if you don't like reading a lot.

I absolutely love this book! It's my go to! I love how it has info on how to actually can step by step. So many great recipes!!! If your looking for a great way to start canning or your a long time canner this is what your looking for.

I am not new to canning, but I bought this book as a gift for someone who is. I ended up liking the book so much, I bought one for myself. This book is by far the most comprehensive and easy canning book I've ever gotten. Good for beginners and people who are more advanced.

After I read a copy at my local library I had to buy my own copy. I have now made my first jelly and some pickled vegetables. I grew up watching ym mother can, but never really canned more than a couple of times, and never by myself. Since I now have a digestive disorder and live in a rural area, where its hard to get good produce (its grown here but not sold here - all shipped elsewhere from big farming conglomerates), I recently found a good source for produce but it only available once a month. I decided to try canning by myself and it much easier than I thought, following some basic science and care, even at the 5000ft altitude I live at. Troubleshooting in back would only be more helpful if it included pictures.The only note, is that USDA put out a warning to not use pickling salt/pickle crisp as as there have been several recent botulism cases...and it note necessary anyway. I never saw anyone in my family use it or talk of using it and they really lived out in the middle of nowhere even for rural areas. So any and all canning books will have this problem.

Canning books are always great.