Review: Format is challenging.  Book answers questions from people who are already pressure canning
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 01 18, 2013
This is a book of questions from readers and answers from Jackie.  So why put in a question you can't answer, this is just filling space:  the author has the authority to make the content tight.  Example from the book--Question-"Also, can I make and can a sweetened condensed milk using the store milk and the water bath method? Do you have a recipe for this? Jim and Shelly Isabell, AlaskaAnswer-Yes, you can home can store milk. The water bath time of 60 minutes works for pints and quarts as milk is a liquid.Yes, I have a recipe for the sweetened condensed milk, but it is in storage right now until we get our house finished, and I can't locate that box. So sorry!"The format of the book are pages of questions, and answers, which would have taken up a lot less space if the questions were edited down to just the question only, then answered.  Since you get a lot of information about people's lives that doesn't relate to canning, such as the people in the question above wrote to her, the reader finds out they live in Southeast Alaska in a the bus turned into a RV, powered by a Honda generator, without phone or computer (this book doesn't work as a novel and will work as not as a stand alone beginning canning information book either.) As a book is on how to pressure can, you have to read a lot of not-applicable information to get to answers.  However, does this author know how to pressure can? Yes, she does.  She knows more than most. I would have liked to have a table for the information about pressure canning times and pressures, so that I would not be reading through it searching for information.  This is a book would be the one to buy as an addition to a pressure canning book you bought to learn to pressure can if you have never canned before.  Lots of useful tips from a skilled canner.