Free (nook/Kindle) Gourmet Preserves Chez Madelaine [Specialty Technique Cookbook]

[ATDrake]

Gourmet Preserves Chez Madelaine: Delicious Marmalades, Jams, and Jellies Plus Desserts, Pastries, and Breakfast Treats by Madelaine Bullwinkel is her guide to Exactly What It Says In The Title, free courtesy of publisher Agate's Digital imprint.

This is a pretty comprehensive-looking light reference-type cookbook with lots of stuff on how jam/jelly-making actually works and how to modify it to suit various ingredients and tools etc., as well as tips on flavour blends and best times of year and what to look for in various foodstuffs you can preserve via these methods, with lots of additional recipes on how to use your resulting preserves in muffins and ice creams and cakes and such, which is also helpful.

Currently free, probably just until the weekend @ B&N (also UK) & Amazon (not available to Canadians, but also free in the UK). May also drop or already be free @ Google Play US, where it's been reported that Agate freebies have also been showing up in recent weeks. Doesn't seem to exist in the iTunes store.

And this has been the (late!) selected 3rd (non-repeat) free ebook thread of the day.

A bit by default, and it had some competition from that pop-psych romantic relationship advice guide which delved into sociological underpinnings and whatnot and looked interesting, but ultimately, I'm a commitment-phobic polyamory-inclined bisexual no-romo, and this one also looked like the sort of useful educational how-to guide that I like to see, with greater general applicability to the Gentle Readers at home, even if I'm no more likely to actually look at and use it than the other one.

(Okay, I might try some of the ice cream recipes, but with non-homemade preserves since that's beyond my level of DIY culinary commitment.)

And the author looks like she should have a co-author named Rocky, which is always good for bonus points.

Enjoy!

Description
Gourmet Preserves Chez Madelaine shows a new generation of home cooks the old-fasioned art of "putting food by" with easy DIY recipes for jams, jellies, and marmalade. In addition, author and French cooking instructor extraordinaire Madelaine Bullwinkel includes dozens of recipes for muffins, scones, crepes, puddings, pastries, desserts, and breakfast treats to use with these preserves.

The full flavor of fruit picked at the peak of freshness shines through in more than 100 recipes for preserves and 40 recipes for desserts. Most of the recipes avoid using commercial pectin, which means you can use less sugar, or, in some cases, none at all. Bullwinkel has taught French cooking for over 35 years at her home-cooking school Chez Madelaine and across the US and France. Her thorough style combines with how-to illustrations and time-saving techniques in this book, making the process of canning and preserving surprisingly simple.

[BelleZora]

Thanks for this! I've been putting up jams, jelllies, and marmalades for decades. What makes this book so appealing is that the author knows her subject, the quantities are small, and pectin is avoided, therefore reducing the amount of sugar needed and increasing the flavor. I needed new ideas for a birthday basket of homemade jams, and this definitely works. It was first printed by McGraw-Hill in 1984.

Edit: I read most of this last night and I am impressed. The book has been completely updated since its initial 1984 printing. The basics of putting up preserves are explained and include helpful illustrations. Time honored combinations found in vintage cookbooks (such as strawberry-rhubarb jam) are all here, but in small batches that can be put up quickly without added commercial pectin. She also tells you how to rescue a batch that fails to set with precise amounts of pectin. Of course, for me the 'failures' become fruit syrup for pancakes and ice cream.

I enthusiastically recommend this book for those who would like to successfully preserve some of summer's bounty with as little effort as possible. If you have never made your own jams and preserves, you will be amazed at how quickly and easily you can put up 3 or 4 small jars. The taste is always fresher and brighter than commercial products.

There are also recipes for breads particularly suited to each jam, jelly, or preserve.