Marisa McClellan is a food writer and canning teacher. Her fourth book, The Food in Jars Kitchen, follows Naturally Sweet Food in Jars, which cleverly showcased natural alternatives to refined sugar.
The Food in Jars Kitchen focuses on the full lifecycle of jams, jellies, chutneys and pickles. It matters not whether your jar of preserves is homemade, a present or bought from a store or farmers market; the only thing McClellan wants to know is: What do you plan to do with it? Here she offers a bounty of ideas that will inspire creativity in the kitchen, including recipes for brunch, breads, snacks, soups, braises and roasts, as well as an abundance of desserts, drinks and frozen treats. Each recipe highlights a recommended preserve along with innovative alternatives and little tips to adapt the formula for different tastes.
McClellan (Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year-Round) is partial to tangy flavors and crunchy textures. Her famous potato salad is a pickle-lover's dream, as is the robust Russian dressing from the McClellan family's 20th-century Russian tearoom in Philadelphia. Pizza toppings include sweet and savory combinations such as peach jam with goat cheese and Concord grape butter with Camembert. A deceptively simple jam vinaigrette is delicious on salads.
For newcomers to the Food in Jars universe, it's reassuring to learn that the recipes featured here were cross-tested by a panel of home cooks and canners to render them as foolproof as possible. A Meyer lemon and marmalade martini, anyone? --Shahina Piyarali, writer and reviewer