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You say you want a Canvolution?
A few months ago, the ridiculous yet continuously inspiring thing that is Twitter sprouted yet another movement: The Canvolution. Essentially, one person asked if others were interested in learning more about canning and the art of “putting food by.” The response from all corners was resoundingly positive, and the result was a summer and fall full of classes, events and blogging on canning and preserving. The Canning Across America homepage has more details, and mastermind Kim O’Donnel has blogged about the Canvolution’s full history.
I got involved because I was also curious to learn more. I know little about canning myself, so my paltry contribution to the effort was to organize the group email list. I have canned before, though — when I was about 8, I went over to my aunt Maureen’s house and we spent several hours canning peaches and tomatoes. So this summer, when I wanted to revisit canning, I cornered Maureen and told her I wanted to learn at the feet of the master.
“Sure!” she said. “What do you want to do? Blackberry jam? Peaches? Pears? Tomatoes?” I lost track at that point. Suffice to say, the Canvolution was in full swing.
Millions of peaches, peaches for me
On a rainy Sunday about a week ago, we finally made it over to her house in Ballard. While Maureen and her husband Don grow some fruit and vegetables in their garden, to get enough peaches for canning they bought a few boxes worth. We decided to make some regular canned peaches and some with Cognac and schnapps. Maureen said my newfound enthusiasm inspired her to “get creative” and raid the liquor cabinet.
While my teenage cousin Mariah provided adolescent commentary (“Mom, why do you always take the jars out of the oven without mitts? What is wrong with you?”) Maureen walked us through the process. First, she sterilized the jars in the dishwasher and then kept them in a hot oven while preparing the fruit. She had three kettles boiling, one for processing the cans, one for scalding the peaches, and one of sugar water for the syrup.
Jeremy's a pro at this already
We dunked the peaches in the boiling water for a minute or two, then dunked them in an ice bath. That helped the skin slide right off. We cut the peaches in halves or quarters, depending on the type, and then put them into the syrup.
After they had cooked in the syrup, we grabbed the sterilized jar and slipped the peaches into it. Then we filled them to the brim with the rest of the syrup, put the lids on, and popped them into the canning kettle to process. About 15 minutes later, we had gleaming jars of golden fruit, just waiting to be opened months later on a dark Seattle winter evening.
We also made some smaller jars for the alcohol-soaked peaches, and then Mariah cranked out some peach jam and Maureen cooked down the scraps of skin to make a thick peach syrup for pancakes. It was a lot of work, but it was fun work, the sort that only gets better the more people are involved.
We came away impressed with the ease of it and itching to try making our own red pepper jelly. I’m also looking forward to trying some of those Cognac peaches on top of pound cake or ice cream in a few months…
A sampling of cookbooks
If you grew up cooking or in a family of people who cook, like I did, I bet you have That Cookbook. The one you always grabbed when you needed to make something special for dinner, or needed to check the best way to make a certain dish, or wanted to flip to the old standby recipe that was guaranteed to produce that one familiar meal.
For me, or at least how I remember it, that cookbook was The Silver Palate Cookbook. Sheila Lukins, one of the authors, died this week. Reading about her life and the way her cookbook expanded the culinary horizons for so many American home cooks in the 1980s made me think about just how significant a cookbook can be. Reading Twitter, you would have thought everyone owned this book! It was either their first, or the one that taught them to “cook like a grown-up”. Seeing this, it’s logical why it was so popular in my house growing up in the 1980s and 1990s.
Thinking about cookbooks got me thinking about the ones I use regularly. We don’t own too many, as I try to resist the urge to buy every cookbook that catches my fancy and because the Internet is such a wealth of resources what with Epicurious and all the numerous food blogs I am addicting to reading.
But we do have a few favorites, and as I was thinking about our little cooking library I realized that each one has some special significance for me. Here are a few selections of what we’re cooking from, and why.
How to Cook Everything, by Mark Bittman
This is my Joy of Cooking and my non-Internet encyclopedia. It was one of the first cookbooks I got when I moved out on my own (Silver Palate was the other) and it is battered and worn after just a few years of service. This cookbook is great because it doesn’t make me feel stupid when I realize I don’t know how to soft-boil an egg or cook beets. Plus, it’s really entertaining reading material in its own right.
One Pot Spanish, by Penelope Casas
We got this at our favorite cooking store, The Spanish Table, and are smitten with it. Anything Spanish is a win for us, and everything we’ve made from this so far has been delicious. The favorite is the Tomato, Chorizo and Homemade Pasta Stew.
Classic Rachael Ray 30 Minute Meals and Rachael Ray Express Lane Meals
I know what you’re thinking: R-squared? Seriously? But one thing Rachael Ray does, for all her annoying perkiness, is give you confidence in the kitchen, and when we were just venturing into cooking for ourselves she was the perfect launching pad. Plus, Jeremy gave me the Classic 30 Min. Meals as a Hannukah gift the first year we were together, so I will always think of it as particularly special.
Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America, by Jose Andres
Have you been to Washington, DC? Have you eaten at Jaleo’s? If not, go do that, and then come back and finish reading. Jose Andres is the chef at this tapas destination, which Jeremy introduced me to when we visited DC and where we’ve had some of the most perfect tapas ever. Getting his cookbook was a no-brainer, and the recipes are surprisingly easy and practical for home cooking.
Seven Fires: Grilling the Argentine Way, by Francis Mallman & Peter Kaminsky
We’ve mentioned this book before, but we’re really pretty infatuated with it right now. Gorgeous photos, lyrical writing, and compelling recipes based off simple ingredients. Not sure we’ll venture to cook the whole cow any time soon (yes, that’s a recipe in there) but the delectable Pork Loin with Peaches will tide us over. It makes me want to go to Argentina and build a massive wood firepit on our tiny patio.
That isn’t everything, as you can see from the picture, but those are the ones that resonate for me right now. What are your favorite cookbooks? Which ones mean the most to you?
Lisa
Jeremy
