Keeping Food Fresh: Old World Techniques & Recipes

Rating:
Summary: Traditional Food Preserving Techniques from France
Review: "Keeping Food Fresh" is a compilation of recipes for preserving food contributed by readers of a French gardening magazine. It was originally published in French and has been translated to English with care. Recipes for frozen or canned products were omitted to allow a focus on older, more traditional methods.

The material presented is perhaps best used by the American reader as a point of reference when evaluating other recipes. It also could serve as the starting point for experimentation. It is not a cookbook in that the recipes come from many sources and do not appear to have been checked in a test kitchen. Some of the quantities betray their metric roots, since few recipes in this country would call for 11 pounds of an ingredient.

Some recipes clearly do not meet USDA safety guidelines, as is pointed out in the editorial comments.

Those who appreciate Eliot Coleman's writing should realize that his writing in this book is limited to the introductory material.

Overall, I found the book to be an interesting read, with much unique knowledge not available elsewhere. It approaches "primary source" material in that the traditional family recipes have undergone little editing, thus their historical fabric is more effectively captured.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, but not a normal cookbook
Review: "Keeping Food Fresh" is a compilation of recipes for preserving food contributed by readers of a French gardening magazine. It was originally published in French and has been translated to English with care. Recipes for frozen or canned products were omitted to allow a focus on older, more traditional methods.

The material presented is perhaps best used by the American reader as a point of reference when evaluating other recipes. It also could serve as the starting point for experimentation. It is not a cookbook in that the recipes come from many sources and do not appear to have been checked in a test kitchen. Some of the quantities betray their metric roots, since few recipes in this country would call for 11 pounds of an ingredient.

Some recipes clearly do not meet USDA safety guidelines, as is pointed out in the editorial comments.

Those who appreciate Eliot Coleman's writing should realize that his writing in this book is limited to the introductory material.

Overall, I found the book to be an interesting read, with much unique knowledge not available elsewhere. It approaches "primary source" material in that the traditional family recipes have undergone little editing, thus their historical fabric is more effectively captured.

Rating:
Summary: A Must Have Book
Review: I can't recommend this book highly enough! If you are interested in delicious, safe ways to preserve food without the need for a freezer, canner, or other equipment, this is the book for you. Written in a wonderfully personable style by gardeners and farmers who've been using these recipes all their lives.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, but not a normal cookbook
Review: The recipies in this book were submitted by French magazine readers, and cover a wide variety of traditional preservation techniques: preserving with vinegar, oil and sugar; preserving with alcohol; preserving by lactic fermentation; and several other techniques.

If you're looking for straightforward, easy, safe recipies for preserving food, you'll find this book a mixed blessing. Many recipies omit quantities, and few of them have been tried in any sort of test kitchen. Most importantly, a number of these traditional recipies involve important food-safety issues--as the book itself repeatedly makes clear. You will, however, find many excellent ideas in the chapters on oil, vinegar, sugar and alcohol.

If, however, you're interested in traditional food-preservation techniques, this book is uniformly excellent. The chapter on lactic fermentation of vegetables is fascinating, and the diversity of preservation techniques is remarkable.