The 10 Food Preservation Books Every Prepper Needs

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Author of The Blackout Book and the online course Bloom Where You’re Planted

[Editorial note: As inflation wrecks the American economy and articles on homelessness become relevant, it is worth taking the time to review this piece from 2021 on food preservation during harvest time.]

As supplies become more expensive, and in many cases, more difficult to come by, it’s time to up your preparedness game. If 2020 has made anything clear, it’s that you can’t simply rely on regular shopping for your food. If you haven’t already done so, it’s time to begin preserving your own.

These new skills will pay off even if things somewhat do go back to “normal” and you’re able to find everything you want at a reasonable price at the grocery store, any time you want it.

So without further ado, here are the food preservation books that every prepper needs.

The 10 food preservation books you need in your survival and preparedness library

  1. The Prepper’s Canning Guide  – Shameless self-promotion alert: This is my book. In it, you’ll find all the basic instructions you need for water bath and pressure canning food safely, as well as detailed recipes for everything from single ingredients to full meals.
  2. Prepper’s Dehydrating Handbook –  You don’t need one of those super-expensive Cadillac dehydrators to use this book. A less expensive one will do just fine. I’ll note that the font in this book is a little bit light. As a writer myself, I realize this is through no fault of the author, but of the printer. It does not lessen the incredible value of this book – it’s a standby for me while I’m living in a place with more produce than I can possibly eat before it goes bad.
  3. Fermented Vegetables – This is a guide to preserving all sorts of veggies using the ancient art of fermentation with recipes from around the world. Make krauts, kimchis, chutneys, and relishes. Fermentation is a method of preservation that actually adds nutritional benefits.
  4. Pickled Pantry: From Apples to Zucchini – This book is a really fun read and it walks you through the art of pickling, making relishes and chutneys, and preserving foods that would normally require pressure canning safely in a water bath.
  5. Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits and Vegetables – This is a guide to an incredibly important method of food preservation – simply storing produce properly in a cool, dark environment. You can greatly extend the availability of certain items of garden-fresh produce by properly storing it.
  6. The Complete Guide to Smoking and Salt Curing – Are you looking for a way to preserve meat besides canning it? Check out this guide to smoking and curing and learn to preserve meat, fish, and game. This book is loaded with photographs and simple instructions.
  7. Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing – If you’re looking for a slightly more upscale bunch of meat preservation recipes, this is your book. It’s got some really delicious recipes for things like pancetta, prosciutto, salami, and sausages.
  8. The Jerky Bible – If you like jerky, this is the book for you. With recipes for beef, venison, fish, poultry, and more, learn how to safely preserve your meat in the form of flavorful jerky.
  9. Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning: Traditional Techniques Using Salt, Oil, Sugar, Alcohol, Vinegar, Drying, Cold Storage, and Lactic Fermentation – I love, love, love this book because the methods are so different. It describes traditional French food preservation methods that don’t rely on kitchen gadgets.
  10. Food Storage: Preserving Meat, Dairy, and Eggs – The thing that makes this book so unusual is the subject matter. It is divided up by food category and provides the reader with all sorts of alternatives for preserving these items that can be a little trickier to put back safely.

(If you’re looking on more reading material on food preservation, check out our free QUICKSTART Guide to home canning.)

Bonus: Here are some books about food storage and using the foods you’ve stashed away

Of course, many of us are still shopping at grocery stores and adding to our pantries that way as well. Here are some suggestions to help you build your pantries and how to use shelf-stable food in everyday cooking.

Prepper’s Pantry – I know, more shameless self-promotion. In the first edition of this book, I wrote about starting a pantry from scratch after moving from one country to another and not being able to bring my stockpile. In this updated version, I went into much greater detail about how I built my pantry on a budget, included healthful and unprocessed foods, and the methods I used for storing them.

A Year Without the Grocery Store – This incredible guide has a step by step plan for building a pantry that will keep a large family fed for a year. Author Karen Morris will help you get organized and stocked up in no time at all with this fantastic book. (There’s even a companion workbook you can get to go with it.)

A Cabin Full of Food – This book focuses on taking the food that you grow, then preserving it and cooking with it. It takes the reader from garden to pantry to table and is written in a friendly, approachable style. It’s jam-packed with delicious traditional Mennonite recipes to use your garden goodies.

The Prepper’s Cookbook – Wondering how to use all those shelf-stable foods in meals that your family will enjoy? This is the book for you. The Prepper’s Cookbook has more than 300 recipes that are all based on the ingredients that preppers store.

The Seasonal Kitchen Companion – This is a PDF filled with the way I use and preserve fresh food for my family, using such methods as cooking, canning, dehydrating, and freezing.

What are your favorite food preservation books?

Do you have some books that you swear by for food preservation? Please share them in the comments! (Be sure to include the author’s name so we can find them more easily.) I’ll add a reader’s choice section to this article if we get enough suggestions.

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About Daisy

Daisy Luther is a coffee-swigging, adventure-seeking, globe-trotting blogger. She is the founder and publisher of three websites.  1) The Organic Prepper, which is about current events, preparedness, self-reliance, and the pursuit of liberty; 2)  The Frugalite, a website with thrifty tips and solutions to help people get a handle on their personal finances without feeling deprived; and 3) PreppersDailyNews.com, an aggregate site where you can find links to all the most important news for those who wish to be prepared. Her work is widely republished across alternative media and she has appeared in many interviews.

Daisy is the best-selling author of 5 traditionally published books, 12 self-published books, and runs a small digital publishing company with PDF guides, printables, and courses at SelfRelianceand Survival.com You can find her on FacebookPinterest, Gab, MeWe, Parler, Instagram, and Twitter.

Daisy Luther

Daisy Luther

Daisy Luther is a coffee-swigging, globe-trotting blogger. She is the founder and publisher of three websites.  1) The Organic Prepper, which is about current events, preparedness, self-reliance, and the pursuit of liberty on her website, 2)  The Frugalite, a website with thrifty tips and solutions to help people get a handle on their personal finances without feeling deprived, and 3) PreppersDailyNews.com, an aggregate site where you can find links to all the most important news for those who wish to be prepared. She is widely republished across alternative media and  Daisy is the best-selling author of 5 traditionally published books and runs a small digital publishing company with PDF guides, printables, and courses. You can find her on FacebookPinterest, Gab, MeWe, Parler, Instagram, and Twitter.

Leave a Reply

  • I can speak to Number 7: Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing.
    It is my go to book. With it, I have cured pounds and pounds of bacon, salmon, salted cod, brined various cuts, smoked meats and cheeses.

    Another good one is Dry-Curing Pork. What I like about this book is the author (Hector Kent) has a section after the basics called What This Recipe Teaches.

  • I love Putting Food By, by Ruth Hertzberg, Beatrice Vaughn, and Janet Greene. My mom got it in the early 80s and passed it on to me. It goes into a lot of detail about how and why canning works the way it does. It’s got a lot of recipes, instructions for cutting up animals you process, root-cellaring, it’s got all kinds of things. As well as corrections for altitude, which some of us really need.

  • For beginners, The Ball Blue Book of Preserving gives a great overview of what’s needed and how it’s done, along with several recipes. It covers canning, freezing, and dehydrating. It covers making jams & jellies, meat, tomatoes, pickles, lots of common vegetables.

  • Hey Daisy, have been using your book all summer and fall to can everything in sight! It has been a god send! I saw many ideas I would have never thought, of especially trying to use 35 chickens that were culled as too old to lay eggs and make room for my new group of hens. Thanks to you absolutely nothing is going to waste this year. I also love Tess Penningtons book. My mothers old hand written cook book gave me 6 sweet and sour pickle recipes including 9 day and 11 day pickles! they are delicious but not quite as easy as it sound to just do one thing each day for 11 days. Canning cole slaw was one of my favorites from your book. Who would have thought?

  • The Preppers Pantry is my favorite book for cooking with stored food. It has so many suggestions for using basics like rice, beans, potatoes, ramen, that I never would have thought of.

  • This is one area I need to improve, learn more. Very timely, excellent article. Will try and get some of these books for sure.

    • I believe nearly all of these books are also available on Barnes and Noble. For self-published authors, unfortunately, Amazon is the only game in town.

  • These are my preservation books:
    The Book of Honey “Claude Francis & Fernande Gontier
    Publisher: Robert Hale Ltd (April 3, 1981” “Over 200 sugar free recipes and more
    Publisher: Robert Hale Ltd (April 3, 1981) ISBN-10: 0709186479 ISBN-13: 978-0709186472”
    A Guide to Canning, Freezing, Curing & Smoking Meat, Fish & Game Wilbur F. Eastman, Jr. 2011 Preserve your meat properly and enjoy unparalleled flavor when you’re ready to eat it. This no-nonsense reference book covers all the major meat preserving techniques and how to best implement them. You’ll learn how to corn beef, pickle tripe, smoke sausage, cure turkey, and much more, all without using harsh chemicals. You’ll soon be frying up delicious homemade bacon for breakfast and packing your travel bag with tender jerky for snack time. 
    Ball Blue Book (anything before 1990 is best) History “History of the Ball Blue Book
    The idea for today’s Ball Blue Book Home Canning Guide was originally developed in 1909 by George A. Ball and his wife, Frances Woodworth Ball. The earliest-known version was called “The Correct Method for Preserving Fruit.
    • Ball Blue Book Edition E – ca 1920s
    • Ball Blue Book Edition K – ca 1920s
    • Ball Blue Book Edition L – ca 1920s
    • Ball Blue Book Edition O – 1930
    • Ball Blue book Edition P – 1932
    • Ball Blue book Edition Q – 1933
    • Ball Blue book Edition R – 1934
    • Ball Blue book Edition S – 1935
    • Ball Blue book Edition T – 1936
    • Ball Blue book Edition U – 1941
    • Ball Blue Book Edition V – 1943
    • Ball Blue book Edition X – 1947
    • Ball Blue Book Edition 26 – A 1953
    • Ball Blue Book Edition 26 – B 1956
    • Ball Blue Book Edition 26 – B 1959
    • Ball Blue Book Edition 26 – C 1962
    • Ball Blue Book Edition 27 – 1963
    • Ball Blue Book Edition 28 – 1966
    • Ball Blue Book Edition 28 – 1969 reprint
    • Ball Blue Book Edition 29 – 1972
    • Ball Blue Book Edition 29 – 1974 reprint
    • Ball Blue Book Edition 30 – 1977 (dropped canning advice for broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, celery, eggplant)
    • Ball Blue Book Edition 30 – 1979 reprint
    • Ball Blue Book Edition 30 – 1982 reprint
    • Ball Blue Book Edition 30 – 1983 reprint
    • Ball Blue Book Edition 32 – 1989
    • Ball Blue Book Edition 32 – 1990
    • Ball Blue Book Edition ? – 1995
    • Ball Blue Book Edition ? – 1995 (1997 reprint)
    • Ball Blue Book Edition ? – 1995 (1998 reprint)
    • Ball Blue Book Edition ? – 1995 (1999 reprint)
    • Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving by Altrista Consumr Products 2004 100th Anniversary Edition
    • Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving by Judi Kingry and Lauren Devine 2006
    • Ball Blue Book Edition 36 – 2013
    • Ball Blue Book Edition 37 – 2014 (dated 2014 but released spring 2015.)
    • Ball Blue Book first ever metric edition was released in 2015 for the UK market
    • The All New Ball Book Of Canning And Preserving: Over 350 of the Best Canned, Jammed, Pickled, and Preserved Recipes by Jarden Home Brands 2016”
    Build a Smokehouse: Storey Country Wisdom Bulletin A-81 Ed Epstein Since 1973, Storey’s Country Wisdom Bulletins have offered practical, hands-on instructions designed to help readers master dozens of country living skills quickly and easily. There are now more than 170 titles in this series, and their remarkable popularity reflects the common desire of country and city dwellers alike to cultivate personal independence in everyday life.
    Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing (making bacon) Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn “Charcuterie exploded onto the scene in 2005 and encouraged an army of home cooks and professional chefs to start curing their own foods. This love song to animal fat and salt has blossomed into a bona fide culinary movement, throughout America and beyond, of curing meats and making sausage, pâtés, and confits. Charcuterie: Revised and Updated will remain the ultimate and authoritative guide to that movement, spreading the revival of this ancient culinary craft.
    Early in his career, food writer Michael Ruhlman had his first taste of duck confit. The experience “became a fascination that transformed into a quest” to understand the larger world of food preservation, called charcuterie, once a critical factor in human survival. He wondered why its methods and preparations, which used to keep communities alive and allowed for long-distance exploration, had been almost forgotten. Along the way he met Brian Polcyn, who had been surrounded with traditional and modern charcuterie since childhood. “My Polish grandma made kielbasa every Christmas and Easter,” he told Ruhlman. At the time, Polcyn was teaching butchery at Schoolcraft College outside Detroit.
    Ruhlman and Polcyn teamed up to share their passion for cured meats with a wider audience. The rest is culinary history. Charcuterie: Revised and Updated is organized into chapters on key practices: salt-cured meats like pancetta, dry-cured meats like salami and chorizo, forcemeats including pâtés and terrines, and smoked meats and fish. Readers will find all the classic recipes: duck confit, sausages, prosciutto, bacon, pâté de campagne, and knackwurst, among others. Ruhlman and Polcyn also expand on traditional mainstays, offering recipes for hot- and cold-smoked salmon; shrimp, lobster, and leek sausage; and grilled vegetable terrine. All these techniques make for a stunning addition to a contemporary menu.
    Thoroughly instructive and fully illustrated, this updated edition includes seventy-five detailed line drawings that guide the reader through all the techniques. With new recipes and revised sections to reflect the best equipment available today, Charcuterie: Revised and Updated remains the undisputed authority on charcuterie.
    50 line drawings”
    Cold-Smoking & Salt Curing Meat, Fish & Game A.D. Livingston Great how-to for homestead or trail. Includes construction plans for a smokehouse and fifty recipes for smoked delicacies. With this book, A. D. Livingston combines a lifetime of Southern culinary knowledge with his own love of authentic home smoking and curing techniques. He teaches how to prepare smoked and salted hams, fish, jerky, and game – adapting today’s materials to yesterday’s traditional methods. As the author writes, ‘you can smoke a better fish than you can buy, and you can cure a better ham without the use of any chemicals except ordinary salt and good hardwood smoke.’ This book shows you how, and includes complete instructions for: preparing salted, dried fish; preparing planked fish, or gravlax; building a modern walk-in smokehouse; constructing small-scale barbecue smokers; choosing woods and fuels for smoking; and salt-curing country ham and other meats, together with over 50 recipes such as Country Ham with Redeye Gravy, Canadian Bacon, Scandinavian Salt Fish, Venison Jerky, and many others.
    Keeping the Harvest: Preserving Your Fruits, Vegetables and Herbs, Canning, Jams and Jellies, Freezing, Pickling, Drying, Curing, Cold Storage (Down-To-Earth Book) Nancy Chioffi and Gretchen Mead 1991 “Illustrated step-by-step instructions explain the techniques for canning, freezing, drying, and pickling.
    Nothing says “cozy” like a rustic kitchen strung with dried garlic and herbs, while jars of handmade jelly sit on the counter waiting to be slathered onto freshly baked bread. Enjoy the bountiful produce picked straight from your backyard garden year-round with these simple yet satisfying home-preserving techniques. From canning, drying, and pickling in autumn to curing and cold storage after the frost comes, you’ll soon be a master at outwitting nature’s growing rhythms.”
    Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning: Old World Techniques and Recipes Gardeners and Farmers of Centre Terr, Deborah Madison Chelsea Green Publishing 2007 “Traditional techniques using salt, oil, sugar, alcohol, vinegar, drying, cold storage and Lactic Fermentation.
    Typical books about preserving garden produce nearly always assume that modern “”kitchen gardeners”” will boil or freeze their vegetables and fruits. Yet here is a book that goes back to the future—celebrating traditional but little-known French techniques for storing and preserving edibles in ways that maximize flavor and nutrition.
    Translated into English, and with a new foreword by Deborah Madison, this book deliberately ignores freezing and high-temperature canning in favor of methods that are superior because they are less costly and more energy-efficient.
    As Eliot Coleman says in his foreword to the first edition, “”Food preservation techniques can be divided into two categories: the modern scientific methods that remove the life from food, and the natural ‘poetic’ methods that maintain or enhance the life in food. The poetic techniques produce… foods that have been celebrated for centuries and are considered gourmet delights today.”” ”
    Preserving the Harvest Carol W. Costenbader 150 recipes for freezing, canning, drying and pickling fruits and vegetables.
    Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables Mike Bubel and Nancy Bubel Storey Publishing 1991 Anyone can learn to store fruits and vegetables safely and naturally with a cool, dark space (even a closet! ) and the step-by-step advice in this book. From the Back Cover Root cellaring, as many people remember but only a few people still practice, is a way of using the earth’s naturally cool, stable temperature to store perishable fruits and vegetables. Root cellaring, as Mike and Nancy Bubel explain here, is a no-cost, simple, low-technology, energy-saving way to keep the harvest fresh all year long. In Root Cellaring, the Bubels tell how to successfully use this natural storage approach. It’s the first book devoted entirely to the subject, and it covers the subject with a thoroughness that makes it the only book you’ll ever need on root cellaring. Root Cellaring will tell you: * How to choose vegetable and fruit varieties that will store best * Specific individual storage requirements for nearly 100 home garden crops * How to use root cellars in the country, in the city, and in any environment * How to build root cellars, indoors and out, big and small, plain and fancy * Case histories–reports on the root cellaring techniques and experiences of many households all over North America Root cellaring need not be strictly a country concept. Though it’s often thought of as an adjunct to a large garden, a root cellar can in fact considerably stretch the resources of a small garden, making it easy to grow late succession crops for storage instead of many rows for canning and freezing. Best of all, root cellars can easily fit anywhere. Not everyone can live in the country, but everyone can benefit from natural cold storage.
    Salumi: The Craft of Italian Dry Curing Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn inspired a revival of artisanal sausage making and bacon curing with their surprise hit, Charcuterie. Now they delve deep into the Italian side of the craft with Salumi, a book that explores and simplifies the recipes and techniques of dry curing meats. As the sources and methods of making our food have become a national discussion, an increasing number of cooks and professional chefs long to learn fundamental methods of preparing meats in the traditional way. Ruhlman and Polcyn give recipes for the eight basic products in Italy’s pork salumi repertoire: guanciale, coppa, spalla, lardo, lonza, pancetta, prosciutto, and salami, and they even show us how to butcher a hog in the Italian and American ways. This book provides a thorough understanding of salumi, with 100 recipes and illustrations of the art of ancient methods made modern and new. 100 illustrations; 16 pages of color photographs.
    The Beginner’s Guide to Preserving Food at Home, Enjoy Local Produce Year-Round Janet Chadwick Discover the best and quickest methods for preserving every common vegetable and fruit, arranged in a friendly food-by-food format. Readers will find freezing, drying, canning, brining, and storage instructions thorough enough to encourage complete beginners.
    The Complete Book of Butchering, Smoking, Curing, and Sausages, How to Harvest Your Livestock & Wild Game Philip Hasheider This is a must-have book for all hunters and small-scale farmers who plan to process meat of any kind. Everything you need to know about how to dress and preserve meat is right here, from slaughtering to processing to methods of preservation. Detailed step-by-step instructions and illustrations guide you through the entire process.
    “The Complete Book of Pickling
    250 Recipes from Pickles and Relishes to Chutneys and Salsas
    ” Jennifer MacKenzie Pickling is one of the oldest and most inexpensive methods of preserving foods. These wonderfully inventive recipes feature modern methods and equipment in accordance with the latest food-safety standards. This book also includes classic and unusual international ingredients.
    The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving, Over 300 Recipes to Use Year-Round Ellie Topp and Margaret Howard “The easiest and safest methods for making delectable preserves in small batches — all year long.
    Included are both traditional and new recipes. Detailed instructions provide the safest and latest processing methods. Some recipes are suitable for microwaves. A brand new chapter features freezer preserving as an alternative to the traditional methods. The more than 300 enticing recipes include:
    Jams, jellies and low-sugar spreads
    Conserves, butters and curds
    Pickles, relishes and chutneys
    Salsas, mustards and marinades
    Flavored oils
    Dessert sauces, syrups and liqueurs.
    With delectable recipes and professional tips, The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving is the ideal guide for anyone who craves home-made preserves but doesn’t want to spend all day in the kitchen. ”
    The Dehydrator Bible, Includes over 400 Recipes Jennifer MacKenzie, Jay Nutt, & Don Mercer “A new update of the bestselling book in its field — 100,000 in print.
    Whether grow-your-own, bought locally from a farmer’s market, or fresh from a regular supermarket, seasonality still affects the quality, abundance and price of good food. It just makes sense to preserve food quality for those times when it’s not as plentiful or not available at all. Dehydrating food with this terrific book is easy and creates tasty food year-round.
    Incorporating the age-old practices of food dehydration takes full advantage of what nature offers. All the wonderful recipes are still here and there is a bonus section on everything from pet treats to crafts and homemade gifts. What has changed is that the “”Everything You Need to Know About Dehydrating Foods”” section has been expanded to include even more comprehensive and complete information about dehydrating foods along with even more tips and techniques.
    There are more than 150 recipes for dehydrating everything from herbs and seasonings to fruits, vegetables, meats and fish, plus more than 250 delicious recipes that actually use the dehydrated foods as ingredients. Putting home-preserved food to work for home, RV, boat or campsite has never been easier.
    The easy-to-follow drying instructions along with time guidelines make even a novice cook feel like a seasoned professional.
    Planting a few extra rows of tomatoes or beans, picking many strawberries at their peak or buying that big basket of freshly harvested carrots can really pay off later. Loading up the dehydrator will provide personally dried foods the whole year through.”
    “The Joy of Jams, Jellies, and Other Sweet Preserves
    200 Classic and Contemporary Recipes Showcasing the Fabulous Flavors of Fresh Fruits ” Linda Ziedrich “200 Classic and Contemporary Recipes Showcasing the Fabulous Flavors of Fresh Fruits
    This comprehensive primer covers all the basics of making sweet preserves, including equipment, techniques, procedures, safety, and storage. With this authoritative volume at hand, anyone can stock a pantry with colorful, nutritious, delicious, and economical preserves of all kinds.”
    Ultimate Dehydrator Cookbook, The Tammy Gangloff, Steven Gangloff, September Ferguson “The Complete Guide to Drying Food, Plus 398 Recipes, Including Making Jerky, Fruit Leather & Just-Add-Water Meals
    The dehydrator is an incredibly useful tool for long-term food storage and making the most of your garden harvest. The Ultimate Dehydrator Cookbook contains everything you need to know to get the greatest value from a home dehydrator.
    Includes tips on selecting a dehydrator, as well as proper sanitation, storage, and rehydration techniques
    Individual entries on how to dehydrate all manner of berries, fruits, vegetables, greens, herbs, and edible flowers include information on how to prep, dehydration temperatures, and times
    Includes recipes for making your own teas, herb blends and rubs, flavored oils, instant baby food, jerky, and fruit leathers
    Includes nearly 400 recipes for cooking from your dehydrator pantry. There is an entire chapter dedicated to slow cooker recipes using dehydrated ingredients and one on dehydrated meals for backpackers and campers.”
    Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods Sandor Ellix Katz and Sally Fallon “Bread. Cheese. Wine. Beer. Coffee. Chocolate. Most people consume fermented foods and drinks every day. For thousands of years, humans have enjoyed the distinctive flavors and nutrition resulting from the transformative power of microscopic bacteria and fungi. Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods is the first cookbook to widely explore the culinary magic of fermentation.
    “”Fermentation has been an important journey of discovery for me,”” writes author Sandor Ellix Katz. “”I invite you to join me along this effervescent path, well trodden for thousands of years yet largely forgotten in our time and place, bypassed by the superhighway of industrial food production.””
    The flavors of fermentation are compelling and complex, quite literally alive. This book takes readers on a whirlwind trip through the wide world of fermentation, providing readers with basic and delicious recipes-some familiar, others exotic-that are easy to make at home.
    The book covers vegetable ferments such as sauerkraut, kimchi, and sour pickles; bean ferments including miso, tempeh, dosas, and idli; dairy ferments including yogurt, kefir, and basic cheesemaking (as well as vegan alternatives); sourdough bread-making; other grain fermentations from Cherokee, African, Japanese, and Russian traditions; extremely simple wine- and beer-making (as well as cider-, mead-, and champagne-making) techniques; and vinegar-making. With nearly 100 recipes, this is the most comprehensive and wide-ranging fermentation cookbook ever published.”

  • The Encyclopedia Of Country Living by Carla Emery, Plus she gives many of her references. If you can’t find it there….. You Know…

  • “Store this not that” is an excellent book for learning what foods store better, taste better, how long they will last, and price comparisons between different options

  • 1. Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing by Rytek Kutas

    2. The Art of Making Fermented Sausages by the Marianski brothers

    3.Meat Smoking and Smokhouse Design also by the Marianski brothers

    These three books are considered by most serious students of meat science and meat preservation aficionados absolutely mandatory due to their thoroughness in research and personal experience and the message of food safety during the processing of raw food for long term preservation.

  • Wow…lots of good info here between Daisy’s column and the comments….I need to do some reading. I used to know how to do some of these things when I was growing up and used to help out my mother and grandmother…..believe it or not, my grandmother had two huge (and I mean huge) wood burning stoves in the kitchen (which also heated the house at night in the winter). My nephew has a dehydrator he doesn’t use much, so it’s making the rounds with all the family members as we all use it from time to time.

    Recently my wife (who is an excellent cook) and I were talking about canning/preserving food….it’s something she never learned how to do…..and she’s more than happy for me to blaze a trail…..

    • Forgot to mention I’m really good at growing things…..thank goodness I remembered everything my grandparents taught me when it comes to that. If you don’t already grow your own vegetables, jump in with both feet – you’ll be surprised at how successful you can be.

  • Jackie Clay of Backwoods Home Magazine not only writes articles, but entire books on all things homesteading. She’s been homesteading for decades.

    She has several books on canning and also other food storage methods.

    Just go to Backwoods Home website.

  • Hey Daisy,

    As a farmer of 15 years, I appreciate the effort that goes into preserving food and ensuring its availability during emergencies. This article on “The Organic Prepper” provides a great list of food preservation books that can help anyone who wants to learn more about food storage and preservation.

    I completely agree with the author’s point about the importance of understanding the principles of food preservation before diving into the process. It’s essential to know how different methods work, the types of foods that are best suited for each technique, and how to ensure that the food remains safe and nutritious.

    In my experience, having a collection of resources on hand, such as the books mentioned in the article, can be invaluable. The more knowledge you have, the better equipped you will be to handle different situations.

    Also I recently discovered “The Lost SuperFoods,” a book that has transformed the way I think about food and nutrition. I was blown away by the comprehensive information on little-known superfoods that have been used for centuries to promote health and vitality. You can check it out here: https://superfoods.recensorium.com/

    Overall, this article is a great resource for anyone looking to expand their knowledge of food preservation, and I highly recommend it. Thank you for sharing and take care!

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