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Saving the Season

A Cook's Guide to Home Canning, Pickling, and Preserving: A Cookbook

Author Kevin West
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Hardcover
$40.00 US
7.6"W x 9.39"H x 1.37"D   | 56 oz | 8 per carton
On sale Jun 25, 2013 | 544 Pages | 9780307599483

The ultimate canning guide for cooks—from the novice to the professional—and the only book you need to save (and savor) the season throughout the entire year

"Gardening history, 18th-century American painters, poems, and practical information; it's a rich book. And unlike other books on preserving, West gives recipes that will goad you to make easy preserves.” —The Atlantic

Strawberry jam. Pickled beets. Homegrown tomatoes. These are the tastes of Kevin West’s Southern childhood, and they are the tastes that inspired him to “save the season,” as he traveled from the citrus groves of Southern California to the cranberry bogs of Massachusetts and everywhere in between, chronicling America’s rich preserving traditions.
 
Here, West presents his findings: 220 recipes for sweet and savory jams, pickles, cordials, cocktails, candies, and morefrom Classic Apricot Jam to Green Tomato Chutney; from Pickled Asparagus with Tarragon and Green Garlic to Scotch Marmalade. Includes 300 full-color photographs.
One of The Atlantic’s Best Food Books of the Year • A Los Angeles Times Holiday Gift-Giving Pick

“Contains both simple formulas and more sophisticated recipes like cocktail onions and peach-passionfruit jam. . . . Practical.”The New York Times

“West approaches his topic—home canning and preserving—with a reporter's attention to detail and a poet's sensibility; it's less a canning tutorial and cookbook than it is a collection of absorbing personal essays, literary excerpts, explications of culinary history, and friendly advice, all of which happens to be punctuated by appealing, easy-to-follow recipes.”—Saveur

“Unlike other books on preserving, West gives recipes that will goad you to make easy preserves.”The Atlantic

“As pleasurable (and useful) for the somewhat experienced canner as it is for the novice. . . . West’s instructions are clear and precise. . . . He’s got a good cook’s curiosity, always wondering why things work the way they do and constantly on the lookout for new ideas.’”Los Angeles Times

“I’ve never had the subject [of pickling] so thoroughly explored as in Kevin West’s Saving the Season, his deep dive into the world of pickling, preserving, and home canning. . . . The breadth and depth of his knowledge about preserving is impressive, and I began to feel like I was understanding some concepts for the first time.”—Amanda Cohen, chef/owner of Dirt Candy

“ If you buy only one preserving cookbook this year, or perhaps even in your lifetime, promise me you'll make it this one.”—The Kitchn

“Traditional and quirky alike, Saving the Season is an endearing, romantic, and most of all practical resource for everyone . . . I, for one, am inspired and obsessed!”—Christina Tosi, author of Momofuku Milk Bar

“Kevin West possesses a poet's mastery of language, and uses it to create vignettes that capture the essence of a fruit or vegetable's brief peak season as effectively as his recipes do. . . . [His methods work] time and time again, with little hoopla and ideal economy. . . . Little harmonies loft this book from eccentric to essential, and from my kitchen to my nightstand.”—Kat Kinsman, Eatocracy

“[West’s] bio alone made me want Saving the Season, but now that I’ve got it I’m buying a copy for everyone I know.”Edible Manhattan

“Part cookbook, part manifesto, and part crypto-memoir . . . literate and lyrical and fanatically well researched. . . . The kind of cookbook you can read for pleasure.”—John Jeremiah Sullivan, Lucky Peach

“Kevin West’s enthusiasm is infectious and his recipes seductive. Whether you are at work in the kitchen or savoring it in your armchair, great pleasures await within in the pages of Saving the Season.”—Scott Peacock, co-author of The Gift of Southern Cooking

“Because ‘nature's bounty is abundant but fleeting,’ West shows home cooks how to save the season through the tradition of canning.”Publishers Weekly

“A lot of information is packed into [Saving the Season], covering the basics of preserving along with easy to advanced recipes. The combination of recipes and musings makes this a great read both in and out of the kitchen.”Library Journal

“With the present obsession among consumers for locally grown fruits and vegetables, the practice of putting up foods has undergone a renaissance. As West points out, the real goal of home canning, pickling, and preserving is to retain for future enjoyment the special flavors of foods freshly plucked from the earth or snatched from trees and vines. . . . West’s guide will prove invaluable.”Booklist
© William Hereford
Kevin West comes from East Tennessee farmers and Smoky Mountain settlers, country people with generations of commitment to growing delicious food. He is the author of Saving the Season: A Cook’s Guide to Home Canning, Pickling, and Preserving and also coauthored The Grand Central Market Cookbook and contributed to Edna Lewis: At the Table with an American Original. He lives the Berkshires, in rural western Massachusetts. View titles by Kevin West
From Saving the Season

-

NOCINO
Yields about 5 cups

June 24 is the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, the traditional day to harvest green walnuts for making nocino, a delicious liqueur invented at a congress of witches, according to Anna Tasca Lanza, the doyenne of Sicilian cooking. Lanza’s witches were Italian, but other countries from Croatia to France to the chilly Teutonic regions equally claim greenwalnut liqueur as their own. I learned to make it at the Institute of Domestic Technology, a cooking school in Altadena, California, where I also teach. When you harvest the nuts—working barefoot, according to some folklore—they are smaller than eggs, smooth to the touch, and crisp like apples, because the shells have not yet hardened. The nutmeats, at this stage, are jelly. Like most liqueurs, nocino is easy but requires patience. You slice the nuts and cover them with strong booze, sugar, and spice, and allow the mixture to infuse for forty days, until it is nearly black. The real test of patience begins after you bottle it. Ten-year-old nocino is said to be the best, and certainly you would never drink this summer’s batch before cold weather sets in this fall. Mature nocino has a complex flavor of nutmeg, allspice, coffee, and caramel. Drink it neat as a digestif, or use it to flavor desserts. A few tablespoons of nocino lightly whisked into a cup of heavy cream will cause it to seize, as if magically transformed into cooked custard. The thickened cream is called “posset,” and can be used as a sauce alongside cakes or other desserts.

My nocino recipe is based on those from the Institute of Domestic Technology and Lanza’s Sicilian cookbook The Garden of Endangered Fruit. Its fundamentals are green walnuts, 80-proof grain spirits, and sugar. (My secret ingredient is coffee beans.)You can change the aromatics if you like, but use small quantities, because the spices can take over. Green walnuts are sometimes available at farmers’ markets, or can be ordered online at www.localharvest.org.

2 pounds green English walnuts, 1½ inches or less in diameter (about 30)
750 milliliters 80-proof vodka
3½ cups sugar
Zest of 1 lemon, in strips
Zest of 1 orange, in strips
5 cloves
¼ whole nutmeg
1 heaping teaspoon whole dark-roast coffee beans

1. Quarter the walnuts and place them in a large glass jar, at least 3-quart capacity. Add the remaining ingredients and stir. Don’t worry that the sugar won’t immediately dissolve. Seal the jar, and place it in a sunny place for 40 days. The liquid will first turn a sinister green, then black. Once every 10 days, agitate the jar by inverting it a time or two. You can taste the alcohol at any stage and add more aromatics if you like.

2. After 40 days, strain the contents of the jar through a damp jelly bag and catch the liquids in a bowl. Funnel the liqueur into scalded bottles, and seal. Store in a cool, dark place for several months; Lanza suggests opening them on All Saints’ Day. Before serving, you may want to strain the liqueur through a coffee filter to remove sediments, but it isn’t necessary to do so. The liqueur will keep indefinitely without refrigeration.

-

CUCUMBER DILL SPEARS AND CHIPS
Yields 2 quarts

On page 39, I explain that processing your pickles in a hot-water bath rather than a boiling-water bath will give you a firmer texture. It follows that if you want pickles with real snap, don’t process them at all. These dill-pickle spears—or sandwich chips, depending on how you slice them—can be processed, if you want, for long- term shelf storage, but first try making a batch to keep in the refrigerator. They will be crisp, and the flavor of raw cucumber comes through. It’s the freshest-tasting pickle in this book, and perhaps my favorite. The recipe can be scaled up.

¼ cup kosher salt
6 cups lukewarm water
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
½ teaspoon fennel seeds
3 large flowering dill heads (4 inches across)
3 pounds Kirby pickling cucumbers
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 cups white- wine vinegar

1. Dissolve the salt in the water, and add the coriander, fennel, and dill. Set aside.

2. Scrub the cucumbers well, rubbing off any spines. Cut away a thin round from the stem and blossom ends, and slice lengthwise into quarters. Put the spears in a large bowl, and cover with the brine. Weight the cucumbers with a plate, cover the bowl with a kitchen towel, and set aside for 24 hours. If the bowl won’t fit in your refrigerator, it’s fine to leave it out at room temperature.

3. The next day, pack the cucumber spears into two scalded quart jars, saving the brine. Measure out 2 cups of the brine and reserve. Strain the remaining brine through a fi ne sieve to capture the aromatics, and divide them between the jars. Tuck a dill head and two cloves of garlic into each jar.

4. Mix the vinegar and the 2 cups reserved brine, and bring to a boil. Pour it over the pickles to cover. Seal the jars, and store in the refrigerator for a week before using. For long- term shelf storage, leave ½ inch headspace when filling the jars, then seal. Process in a boiling- water bath for 10 minutes, or in a hot- water bath, between 180 and 185 degrees, for 30 minutes.

[Note] Instead of spears, you could slice your cucumbers into round coins, lengthwise “slabs,” or bias-cut ovals. Make the slices 3⁄8 inch thick and soak them in the brine for 12 hours instead of 24.

About

The ultimate canning guide for cooks—from the novice to the professional—and the only book you need to save (and savor) the season throughout the entire year

"Gardening history, 18th-century American painters, poems, and practical information; it's a rich book. And unlike other books on preserving, West gives recipes that will goad you to make easy preserves.” —The Atlantic

Strawberry jam. Pickled beets. Homegrown tomatoes. These are the tastes of Kevin West’s Southern childhood, and they are the tastes that inspired him to “save the season,” as he traveled from the citrus groves of Southern California to the cranberry bogs of Massachusetts and everywhere in between, chronicling America’s rich preserving traditions.
 
Here, West presents his findings: 220 recipes for sweet and savory jams, pickles, cordials, cocktails, candies, and morefrom Classic Apricot Jam to Green Tomato Chutney; from Pickled Asparagus with Tarragon and Green Garlic to Scotch Marmalade. Includes 300 full-color photographs.

Praise

One of The Atlantic’s Best Food Books of the Year • A Los Angeles Times Holiday Gift-Giving Pick

“Contains both simple formulas and more sophisticated recipes like cocktail onions and peach-passionfruit jam. . . . Practical.”The New York Times

“West approaches his topic—home canning and preserving—with a reporter's attention to detail and a poet's sensibility; it's less a canning tutorial and cookbook than it is a collection of absorbing personal essays, literary excerpts, explications of culinary history, and friendly advice, all of which happens to be punctuated by appealing, easy-to-follow recipes.”—Saveur

“Unlike other books on preserving, West gives recipes that will goad you to make easy preserves.”The Atlantic

“As pleasurable (and useful) for the somewhat experienced canner as it is for the novice. . . . West’s instructions are clear and precise. . . . He’s got a good cook’s curiosity, always wondering why things work the way they do and constantly on the lookout for new ideas.’”Los Angeles Times

“I’ve never had the subject [of pickling] so thoroughly explored as in Kevin West’s Saving the Season, his deep dive into the world of pickling, preserving, and home canning. . . . The breadth and depth of his knowledge about preserving is impressive, and I began to feel like I was understanding some concepts for the first time.”—Amanda Cohen, chef/owner of Dirt Candy

“ If you buy only one preserving cookbook this year, or perhaps even in your lifetime, promise me you'll make it this one.”—The Kitchn

“Traditional and quirky alike, Saving the Season is an endearing, romantic, and most of all practical resource for everyone . . . I, for one, am inspired and obsessed!”—Christina Tosi, author of Momofuku Milk Bar

“Kevin West possesses a poet's mastery of language, and uses it to create vignettes that capture the essence of a fruit or vegetable's brief peak season as effectively as his recipes do. . . . [His methods work] time and time again, with little hoopla and ideal economy. . . . Little harmonies loft this book from eccentric to essential, and from my kitchen to my nightstand.”—Kat Kinsman, Eatocracy

“[West’s] bio alone made me want Saving the Season, but now that I’ve got it I’m buying a copy for everyone I know.”Edible Manhattan

“Part cookbook, part manifesto, and part crypto-memoir . . . literate and lyrical and fanatically well researched. . . . The kind of cookbook you can read for pleasure.”—John Jeremiah Sullivan, Lucky Peach

“Kevin West’s enthusiasm is infectious and his recipes seductive. Whether you are at work in the kitchen or savoring it in your armchair, great pleasures await within in the pages of Saving the Season.”—Scott Peacock, co-author of The Gift of Southern Cooking

“Because ‘nature's bounty is abundant but fleeting,’ West shows home cooks how to save the season through the tradition of canning.”Publishers Weekly

“A lot of information is packed into [Saving the Season], covering the basics of preserving along with easy to advanced recipes. The combination of recipes and musings makes this a great read both in and out of the kitchen.”Library Journal

“With the present obsession among consumers for locally grown fruits and vegetables, the practice of putting up foods has undergone a renaissance. As West points out, the real goal of home canning, pickling, and preserving is to retain for future enjoyment the special flavors of foods freshly plucked from the earth or snatched from trees and vines. . . . West’s guide will prove invaluable.”Booklist

Author

© William Hereford
Kevin West comes from East Tennessee farmers and Smoky Mountain settlers, country people with generations of commitment to growing delicious food. He is the author of Saving the Season: A Cook’s Guide to Home Canning, Pickling, and Preserving and also coauthored The Grand Central Market Cookbook and contributed to Edna Lewis: At the Table with an American Original. He lives the Berkshires, in rural western Massachusetts. View titles by Kevin West

Excerpt

From Saving the Season

-

NOCINO
Yields about 5 cups

June 24 is the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, the traditional day to harvest green walnuts for making nocino, a delicious liqueur invented at a congress of witches, according to Anna Tasca Lanza, the doyenne of Sicilian cooking. Lanza’s witches were Italian, but other countries from Croatia to France to the chilly Teutonic regions equally claim greenwalnut liqueur as their own. I learned to make it at the Institute of Domestic Technology, a cooking school in Altadena, California, where I also teach. When you harvest the nuts—working barefoot, according to some folklore—they are smaller than eggs, smooth to the touch, and crisp like apples, because the shells have not yet hardened. The nutmeats, at this stage, are jelly. Like most liqueurs, nocino is easy but requires patience. You slice the nuts and cover them with strong booze, sugar, and spice, and allow the mixture to infuse for forty days, until it is nearly black. The real test of patience begins after you bottle it. Ten-year-old nocino is said to be the best, and certainly you would never drink this summer’s batch before cold weather sets in this fall. Mature nocino has a complex flavor of nutmeg, allspice, coffee, and caramel. Drink it neat as a digestif, or use it to flavor desserts. A few tablespoons of nocino lightly whisked into a cup of heavy cream will cause it to seize, as if magically transformed into cooked custard. The thickened cream is called “posset,” and can be used as a sauce alongside cakes or other desserts.

My nocino recipe is based on those from the Institute of Domestic Technology and Lanza’s Sicilian cookbook The Garden of Endangered Fruit. Its fundamentals are green walnuts, 80-proof grain spirits, and sugar. (My secret ingredient is coffee beans.)You can change the aromatics if you like, but use small quantities, because the spices can take over. Green walnuts are sometimes available at farmers’ markets, or can be ordered online at www.localharvest.org.

2 pounds green English walnuts, 1½ inches or less in diameter (about 30)
750 milliliters 80-proof vodka
3½ cups sugar
Zest of 1 lemon, in strips
Zest of 1 orange, in strips
5 cloves
¼ whole nutmeg
1 heaping teaspoon whole dark-roast coffee beans

1. Quarter the walnuts and place them in a large glass jar, at least 3-quart capacity. Add the remaining ingredients and stir. Don’t worry that the sugar won’t immediately dissolve. Seal the jar, and place it in a sunny place for 40 days. The liquid will first turn a sinister green, then black. Once every 10 days, agitate the jar by inverting it a time or two. You can taste the alcohol at any stage and add more aromatics if you like.

2. After 40 days, strain the contents of the jar through a damp jelly bag and catch the liquids in a bowl. Funnel the liqueur into scalded bottles, and seal. Store in a cool, dark place for several months; Lanza suggests opening them on All Saints’ Day. Before serving, you may want to strain the liqueur through a coffee filter to remove sediments, but it isn’t necessary to do so. The liqueur will keep indefinitely without refrigeration.

-

CUCUMBER DILL SPEARS AND CHIPS
Yields 2 quarts

On page 39, I explain that processing your pickles in a hot-water bath rather than a boiling-water bath will give you a firmer texture. It follows that if you want pickles with real snap, don’t process them at all. These dill-pickle spears—or sandwich chips, depending on how you slice them—can be processed, if you want, for long- term shelf storage, but first try making a batch to keep in the refrigerator. They will be crisp, and the flavor of raw cucumber comes through. It’s the freshest-tasting pickle in this book, and perhaps my favorite. The recipe can be scaled up.

¼ cup kosher salt
6 cups lukewarm water
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
½ teaspoon fennel seeds
3 large flowering dill heads (4 inches across)
3 pounds Kirby pickling cucumbers
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 cups white- wine vinegar

1. Dissolve the salt in the water, and add the coriander, fennel, and dill. Set aside.

2. Scrub the cucumbers well, rubbing off any spines. Cut away a thin round from the stem and blossom ends, and slice lengthwise into quarters. Put the spears in a large bowl, and cover with the brine. Weight the cucumbers with a plate, cover the bowl with a kitchen towel, and set aside for 24 hours. If the bowl won’t fit in your refrigerator, it’s fine to leave it out at room temperature.

3. The next day, pack the cucumber spears into two scalded quart jars, saving the brine. Measure out 2 cups of the brine and reserve. Strain the remaining brine through a fi ne sieve to capture the aromatics, and divide them between the jars. Tuck a dill head and two cloves of garlic into each jar.

4. Mix the vinegar and the 2 cups reserved brine, and bring to a boil. Pour it over the pickles to cover. Seal the jars, and store in the refrigerator for a week before using. For long- term shelf storage, leave ½ inch headspace when filling the jars, then seal. Process in a boiling- water bath for 10 minutes, or in a hot- water bath, between 180 and 185 degrees, for 30 minutes.

[Note] Instead of spears, you could slice your cucumbers into round coins, lengthwise “slabs,” or bias-cut ovals. Make the slices 3⁄8 inch thick and soak them in the brine for 12 hours instead of 24.