Salt, Sugar, Smoke: The Definitive Guide to Conserving

by Diana Henry

This comprehensive book takes a fresh look at preserving, offering all the basic information you need, but also featuring inspirational recipes from the store cupboards of the world. It covers everything from jams to cures, and shows you that you don't have to have lots of kit and produce to make delicious preserves - or wait forever before eating them.

There are sections filled with expert advice on choosing ingredients and cooking every type of preserve, from marmalades to jellies to relishes to foods preserved in oil. All the classic recipes are included and Diana often gives tips for how to make a version of a classic that suits your palette. For example, she includes a sweet and sticky strawberry jam, a more-fruity and less sweet version, and a Swedish 'nearly' strawberry jam (which is more like a conserve and keeps in the fridge for only a couple of weeks).

But this is also a treasure trove of recipes taken from the world's store cupboards. And most of them are luxuries that can be made from cheap ingredients - such as Thai spiced rhubarb relish, Alsace pear and Riesling jam and tea-smoked trout. Many recipes will also offer alternative ingredients - for example, make sloe gin with cranberries or plums.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Food and Drink, Food Preservation, Nonfiction, Culinary

272 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2012

Reviews

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once I picked up this book by Diana Henry, I couldn't put it down and had to buy it. It is gorgeous to look at and the recipes inventive mostly small batch preserving, making it great for me. There are recipes for jams and jellies, pickled veggies, spice mixes, smoked fish, flavored cheeses, olives, condiments, etc. So many different cultures and ingredients, it is very inspiring to read and to cook from.

Having spent the last six months cooking weekly Diana Henry recipes through I Heart Cooking Clubs for my blog (Kahakai Kitchen), it isn't the book I cooked from the most but the four recipes I did make were all delicious and easy to do. I have included the html links for the recipes I posted on the blog below.

My very favorites (I paired them for a party platter) were the Spiced Feta in Oil and the Persian Marinated Olives. Both had great flavors and the right touch of spice. http://kahakaikitchen.blogspot.com/20...

The Anchoïade (a kind of garlicky anchovy dip/spread) was pungent and rich. I used it as a dip for raw and grilled veggies and spooned it over the top of some seared local ahi (tuna). Yum! http://kahakaikitchen.blogspot.com/20...

"New York Sweet Cranberry Mustard" is a good combination of sweet and tangy and pretty for holiday gifting. It would go well with meat--ham or turkey, but since I don't eat meat, I slathered some on a grilled cheese with smoked Gouda and avocado and it was fabulous. http://kahakaikitchen.blogspot.com/20...

I am confident that I will continue to cook from this book and it would also be a lovely gift for a foodie friend interesting in preserving and conserving and who likes unique flavors.

[Mrs. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book on preserving food by British author Diana Henry. The book is heavy on the "sugar" section, namely jams and jellies, while the other sections, particularly the smoking section, are a lot smaller. The recipes are interesting and unique. This is an exciting addition to a preserving library.

[Sabriel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book about home-preserving for normal people. The recipes are inspirational and exciting and will require normal ingredients and mostly normal tools. I've tried a variety of recipes from the book and all turned out as promised and were very tasty.

[Lili · Rating 5 out of 5]

I discovered this book in the “Cookbook Directory” section of Chef's Library: Favorite Cookbooks from the World's Great Kitchens by Jenny Linford. Although the author’s write-up of the book was too short to give much more information than the publisher’s blurb on Goodreads, the description of the book motivated me to look it up on Barnes & Noble in order to read a sample. Just the Table of Contents alone hooked me: topics ranged from jams and jellies to cured meats, and included syrups and alcohols. And the writing in the Introduction was lovely. So I waited for a good sale, ordered the book, and started reading it almost immediately on the day it arrived in the mail.

Overall, this is an excellent cookbook. The recipe headnotes are very informative, offering additional tidbits about the pedigree of the recipe, hints on how to prepare the recipe, or serving suggestions. The ingredients are clearly listed in order of use and measured in American measurements. The recipe steps are in numbered paragraph format, with several steps sometimes required within the same numbered paragraph. But the style of recipe steps is a very casual one, in which the author offers “taste and feel” type guidance to preparing the recipe in addition to the basic instructions and timing. The recipe steps are very thorough, starting from preheating the oven or preparing the water bath canner or the very first logical step in the recipe and ending with labeling the jars. Storage instructions and “expiration” advice is given in the recipes; the last line is almost always about how long something will keep and where it should be kept (usually a cool dark place or the refrigerator). Most recipes are followed by a “How to Use” paragraph that details serving suggestions for the preserved food. Some recipes are followed by variations on the recipe, which may be as simple as substituting the produce used (i.e. substituting crab apples for quinces) or switching up some of the spices.

The cookbook is a little odd because it was originally written for the United Kingdom market. The produce used in several of the fruit preserves is somewhat difficult to find in the New England region. Things like greengages, damsons, sloes, crab apples, quinces, white currants, red currants, and elderflowers each seem to appear in more than one recipe. Some of those I had to look up to know what they were because I had never heard of them before. The author’s personality comes through in the cookbook through the chapter introductions, the informative interludes, and the recipe headnotes. She reminisces about her childhood and discusses her current life in the United Kingdom, refers to how the British do things and like things, and treats the United States as a very foreign country. Some very British terminology has been retained throughout the book, such as “potted” seafood and meats, but all of the spelling has been Americanized. All the measurements are the same between the two countries, and all the oven temperatures have been translated from gas marks to Fahrenheit. The water process canning advice and timing has been adapted to align with United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) guidelines and to account for the elevation changes that may occur in the United States. These guidelines appear at the end of the book (pages 268 to 269 NOT pages 368 to 369) and are rather thorough.

The photography in the book is exquisite. The full color photographs are most often stylized food photography of the preserves being served, which align with the “How to Use” paragraphs following the recipes. Some of the food photography is simply the preserved food in a jar, which is useful because that gives an idea of the final color and texture. To the best of my recollection, there are no photographs that show the recipes in progress. Not every recipe has an accompanying photograph, and sometimes more than one recipe is shown in a photograph. To me, the book as a whole seemed to strike a nice balance between black and white text and full color photography.

I am happy that I added this cookbook to my overflowing culinary library. Even though I already own one almost encyclopedic canning and preserving book (Canning for a New Generation: Updated and Expanded Edition: Bold, Fresh Flavors for the Modern Pantry by Liana Krissoff), the addition of Salt Sugar Smoke: How to preserve fruit, vegetables, meat and fish does fill several other gaps in my collection. I own nothing that details creating aperitifs and flavored alcohol. Although I have been making liqueurs over the past five years, all my instruction came from the Internet. I also own nothing that details smoking, salting, brining, and otherwise curing meat and seafood. I have always been a little afraid of the investment of time and money that needs to be made into those types of projects, but this book offers several small-scale projects that can fit into my schedule and budget.

Although there are several jam recipes, alcohol recipes, and curing projects that I would like to attempt, I have yet to prepare any of the recipes from this cookbook. When I do, I will update this review.

[Angela Rae · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspirational

An absolute delight. Made me want to run out straightaway to start cooking. I was given my first Diane Henry book 10 years ago, and she never disappoints. Evocative writing and wonderful recipes.

[Aleksei Borges · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good recipes, very interested in trying quite a few. The definitions of some types of recipe are confusing and there isn't much in terms of explaining why the author chooses one technique in place of others a lot of the time, but otherwise a great read.

[Annette McIntyre · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book goes into the history of various types of food preservation and gives you a variety of recipes to try

[Justine Reeves · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic! For anyone looking to avoid food waste, this offers great tips on preserving foods. Particularly good are the oven dried tomatoes and the jams.

[Jen Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightfully refreshing, unique recipes in manageable sizes.

[Neon Snake · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fantastic book - beautiful photographs, and written so well with interspersed history of preserving and observations that I could read just for the sheer pleasure of it.

But the recipes are amazing; I've not read a more inspirational cookbook for years upon years. I've tried many of them already - which considering that almost none of them are them can be eaten right away, and most need weeks if not months to mature before being edible (or drinkable. I'm looking forward to my rhubarb schnapps), is pretty impressive. Nothing that I've seen or read in here looks difficult or requires outlandish equipment. And if any of ingredients are a little difficult to find (95% aren't), then take these few recipes as guides for what to do if you are lucky enough to find them.

I can't recommend this highly enough; it's good enough to make you think about food in a completely different way.

[Renata Weissinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

oh I love this book, especially the range of preserving styles. Its a pleasure just to read and be inspired but I've already used a range of the the recipes already - far more than from any of my other preserving books.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book that I will probably have to own. (I borrowed it from the library.) it's difficult to justify the purchase since I don't eat sweets at all, but some of the recipes are compelling, like the vinegars and pickles especially. Oh well...

[Maggie]

Captivating, pretty and inspirational.

[Kathely · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most of these recipes I would never eat, even if I could find all the ingredients.

[Juli Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

beautiful eye-candy, with all kinds of unusual recipes. some ingredients will be difficult to find, but some are more usual.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

How do I not own this book?

[Thanaa Khawaja · Rating 4 out of 5]

A piece of heaven !