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Preserving food at home is a cheap and healthy hobby to pick up. You’ll have fresh fruit & meat that can last much longer and save you money in the process.

But canning & preserving are so deep, where do you even get started?

This post curates the absolute best books on home canning from beginner topics to more expert advice. Whether you’ve never canned in your life or just want to get some new ideas for your home life there’s bound to be a book in this collection that can help you.

Canning and Preserving for Beginners

This detailed step-by-step book covers everything you need to know as a novice canner. In the book Canning and Preserving for Beginners you’ll learn how to create flavorful recipes that last forever and do well at parties.

In the early chapters you’ll learn which tools are best to use and how to properly handle canned foods. Then you’ll delve into cooking and serving with over 70 recipes made for home canners.

You’ll learn how to work with jellies, jams, relishes, and pickles in a wide assortment of dishes. During each recipe you’ll learn about safety guidelines and best practices to keep your food preserved and long-lasting.

With only 166 pages you might be surprised how much is crammed into this title. It’s absolutely fantastic for anyone just getting into canning who wants to learn more about this detailed process at work.

BHG Complete Canning Guide

Absolutely everything you’ll ever need to know about canning is covered in Better Home & Garden’s Complete Canning Guide.

This book is humongous with over 480 pages and some very detailed photos. This can take a complete novice and teach them how food preservation works from the ground up.

You’ll learn about freezing, dehydrating, storing, fermenting, and of course adding foods into certain dishes.

Note this book is not a cookbook. It is a detailed guide to the process of canning on your own at home. Each chapter covers a different type of fruit/vegetable including more detailed things like preserving stocks & soups.

I’ve seen a lot of great content from BHG but this book takes the cake. It is by far the best I’ve seen on the topic of canning and it should be a staple for any beginner.

Not Your Mama’s Canning Book

Rebecca Lindamood has been running her own food blog for years and she’s one of the more well-known bloggers in the canning space. Not Your Mama’s Canning Book is perhaps the definitive cookbook on canning.

You’ll learn how to make dozens of unique dishes from breakfast items to soups and desserts. Each recipe has breathtaking photography which makes this book easy to browse from a distance.

So many recipes rely on fruit and delicious veggies mixed together that you’ll also get a health boost from these dishes. I simply cannot recommend this book enough times over. It is beyond fantastic and it’s perfect for canning enthusiasts who want to put their food to good use.

Note it does help to already have some experience in the kitchen. Rebecca can walk you through a few simple recipes but I’d say this cookbook is more for people who already know how to cook.

The All New Ball Book Of Canning And Preserving

From jerkies to salsas and everything in between, The All New Ball Book Of Canning And Preserving is perfect for learning to cook delicious recipes from your canned foods.

Early chapters cover the science behind canning and what it does to foods. You’ll learn about pressure canning, pickling, and fermenting along with other processes that accompany the canning style.

And recipes come from all over the world with smoked dishes from down south to delectable asian stir fry of the east. The photos are almost better than the meals and everything you learn can be replicated with food you grow yourself.

If you’re looking for a resource to learn canning & cooking this is great. It’s well organized and shares details about the canning process so you’ll learn more than just the basics.

Canning for a New Generation

If you’ve got a DIY attitude and like cooking on the cheap then you’ll adore Canning for a New Generation.

In this book author Liana Krissoff shares the latest tips on canning your foods for the longest shelf life and the freshest taste. Liana has authored 5 cookbooks covering various topics like slow cooking and stews.

But this book covers much more about canning. Liana uses careful writing with an easy-to-read style that’s super easy to understand. Not to mention she also shares advice for anyone new to canning who wants to get started on the right foot.

Later in the book you’ll find 50 different recipes made from quality canned foods. These recipes are easy for beginners and they’ll build your confidence as someone just getting into the world of canning.

The Canning Kitchen

Right from the first page this book covers canning in a common sense manner that anyone would appreciate. The Canning Kitchen by Amy Bronee is a surefire resource to help anyone new to the canning game.

Early chapters cover all the basic tools you’ll need for canning. Most of these can be bought on the cheap and you might even have some of them lying around your house!

Amy digs deep into these 101 recipes for dishes that’ll please the whole family. Spicy chili, BBQ sauce, marmalades, and pretty much any slathery liquid you can think of is covered in this book.

The best part is the first chapter covering Q&As that most people have with canning. You’ll learn how canning works, how to clean your jars, and how to store food so that it lasts the longest on your shelves.

Incredible book for beginners and well worth the price.

DIY Canning

DIY Canning is one part canning book, one part recipe book. It’s a brilliant guide for anyone diving into canning for the first time.

You’ll learn the differences between pressure canning and water bath canning to decide which recipes work best for you. This book mixes a bunch of recipes together including classic dishes with international items from around the world.

Diabetics can also find plenty of low-sugar recipes for apple sauces, jams, and other sweets made from fruits. This guide really can work for everyone but if you have no prior experience it can take a little more effort to get moving.

I still think this book is a great choice for beginners just from the sheer volume of content and the guided introduction to canning.

A Guide to Canning, Freezing, Curing & Smoking Meat

Veggies and fruits are one thing, but meat is a whole different beast. A Guide to Canning, Freezing, Curing & Smoking Meat teaches you how to properly store and preserve meat that you buy or hunt yourself.

This book covers all the basic meat preserving techniques and how to implement them into your cooking schedule. Smoked sausages, cured turkey, and fresh homemade bacon are just a few examples of what you’ll learn from these recipes.

Each type of meat has its own chapter with details for fish, lamb, pork, poultry, and of course beef. It’s a pretty long read with 200+ pages and plenty of great recipes to get you excited about your next BBQ.

And this works well as a reference guide if you need to check specs or conversion charts for storage.

The Amish Canning Cookbook

The title of this book may be surprising but The Amish Canning Cookbook is absolutely glorious. It starts with a short history on canning followed by an intro covering the basic supplies you need to get moving.

The author Georgia Varozza has written a few other very popular cookbooks and knows her way around a kitchen. She teaches you how to properly can foods and how to store them safely. There is no single right way to can since these methods do change based on what you’re canning.

But the recipes in here are delicious and the guidelines can help even complete novices work through these recipes from scratch.

You’ll learn to prepare custom soups, salads, sauces, smoked meats, and how to add extra seasonings that cater to individual tastes.

Foolproof Preserving

Some people prefer smaller servings to smaller families and fewer mouths. Foolproof Preserving offers 300+ pages of guided advice and recipes for the best smaller batches of food preservation.

Every recipe has clear instructions with a pre-defined checklist of items and the final output. Most recipes are indeed quite small with maybe a pint’s worth of content(jams, jellies, etc).

Surprisingly this is also an awesome book for newbies who have never canned before. Since it covers recipes in smaller batches you can get away with canning food for one if you’re living life as a bachelor(or bachelorette).

With over 100 recipes, tons of HD photos, and a clear step-by-step process this book has everything an aspiring home canner could ask for.

Preserving by the Pint

Another small-batch canning book is Preserving by the Pint. This guide focuses more on produce purchased from a farm stand that you can bring home and can yourself. But it works just as well for anyone who has a garden at home.

The author Marisa McClellan teaches canning from the perspective of someone who needs to save space at all costs. She works more with smaller recipes to feed herself and found this method as a better way to experiment with new ideas.

In this book you’ll find dozens of canning guides targeting all 4 seasons of the year. This way you can organize your goals based on what’s available and what you’ll be storing.

Marisa has decades of experience with canning and she knows exactly how to teach it to a novice. If you’re looking to can in smaller batches then I absolutely recommend this book as an affordable intro guide.

Simply Canning

For the simplest introduction to canning you might grab a copy of Simply Canning by Sharon Peterson. In this 170 page resource Sharon teaches you how to can absolutely anything from fruit & veggies to fresh meat from the grocery.

She covers both pressure canning and water bath canning along with recipes you can use for each. What good is canning if you can’t eat the food?

Home canning is incredibly rewarding but difficult to pick up from scratch. This guide can help you get started by learning the routines that most professional canners follow. Plus each chapter has bits of advice and suggestions for pitfalls to avoid during your work.

Q&A sections litter all of these chapters and they’re perfect for complete beginners who want a genuinely simple guide to home canning.

Preserving Italy

So many modern cuisines come from Italy and this book offers glimpse into all the best canning recipes Italy has to offer.

Preserving Italy written by Domenica Marchetti is a true Italian canning book. It does cover a few American traditions made by Italian immigrants, but most of these recipes hail from beautiful Mediterranean Italian dishes.

Domenica shares her journey through Italy along with her advice for those learning canning on a dime. She talks about her experience testing these recipes and what she’s learned in the process(including extra seasonings for her favorites).

You’ll find plenty of advice on the basics of canning, pickling and fermenting. But other chapters get into cheese making, curing meats, and infusing liquor all with homemade materials.

If you love Italian food then this canning book is a must-have for your kitchen.

Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year-Round

Learning to preserve is one of the best skills you can master. But this come with many other skills you can build like preserving smaller batches and planning your foods ahead of time.

Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year-Round is the definitive guide to preparing tomatoes, fruits, jellies, salsas, seasonings, and pretty much anything else you can imagine. Each project focuses on the smaller batches making them a whole lot easier to complete.

Newbies can learn a lot about infusing flavors and working with exotics like vanilla beans. The author Marisa McClellan is a notable food blogger with years of experience canning her own foods from scratch.

These recipes aren’t anything spectacular and they’re probably a little tame for advanced readers. But complete beginners can learn a lot and will pick up some great ideas from these smaller-batch recipes.

Beyond Canning

If you are somewhat advanced and looking for more tips then check out Beyond Canning by Autumn Giles. This book touches upon simple concepts that everyone can understand while presenting canning in a whole new light.

Autumn is a food photographer & blogger who frequently contributes to Serious Eats. In this book she goes deeper into canning with more creative ideas for preserving at home. Some of these are full-blown recipes while others are just cool techniques you never would’ve considered before.

In total you’ll find 70 incredible recipes with tips for sealing air-tight jars and the science of maceration. Everything in this book is made for the serious canner so it’s good to already have some experience working through recipes on your own.

But if you’re looking for a book to take your canning skills to the next level I absolutely recommend Beyond Canning as your go-to guide.

Every book in this post offers something unique and they all target different audiences. If you’re a complete beginner with absolutely no idea what canning is then BHG’s Complete Canning Guide might be a solid place to start.

But most of these books can work for beginners & experts alike so you really won’t find a bad one in the bunch.