Amazon itself had a decent price for this book originally. Now they can't get it and want you to buy it from one of their partners for 21 bucks. You can get this book on multiple other websites in the seven dollar range, which includes shipping and handling.

This book has been a life saver. This is the first year we have canned anything and we have actually canned 30 jars of tomatoes. This book provided so much useful information. The book arrived very shortly after it was ordered.

This book should be a Bible for those wanting to learn how to can and those who are experienced. A great tool for those who want to preserve. Not only are there complete instructions but there are wonderful recipes too!

This book was great! I have 2 other books which I read before receiving the Ball Book but I endended up using the Ball. The visuals and instructions helped the process move along like "Balls of Fire" smoothly. I highly recommend the Ball Book.

I'm a first year canner and this book is great for me. The instructions are very clear as are the illustrations. There is a troubleshooting guide in the back with instructions for reprocessing--very handy!
There's lots of classic canning recipes as well as some contempory ones. A great variety. There are also sections for freezing and dehydrating. This will most likely be my second most used cookbook.

...if you are canning food. These folks are the experts with tested safe canning recipes for a wide variety of foods. I have only owned the book a few weeks but already used it to put up some great pickles, bush beans and seasoned tomato sauce. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in food preservation.

Nice book, but I found it to be a bit involved. I found easier recipies on line.

I love this book. I made the pork and beans with tomato sauce and also the Boston Baked Beans. They were both delicious and excellent. The best beans I've ever tasted! The information in this book makes it a must have for people who can food.

The book is everything I expected it to be. It seems to be very complete and contains lots of information on various methods of food preservation.

Excellent book! It is very detailed, with good pictures and step-by-step instructions. Makes the canning and preserving process less frightening. Offers good history of the evolution of the canning process, too! Highly recommended.

This book has a good all around introduction to canning, freezing and dehydrating and contains a lot of good recipes.
It begins with a thorough introduction to canning principles and methods, equipment, processing and storage, and food types. From there the chapters clearly define the type of food(high/low acid)and recipes(jams, pickles, special diet, etc). Each chapter starts with information on ingredients, techniques, and equiptment needed. The text is an easy read without getting too technical and to the point. The recipes that follow are in alphabetical order and easy to follow.The recipes are pretty basic; for instance, there are 22 jam recipes from 3-7 ingredients including apricot, elderberry, kiwi, peach,raspberry, tomato. No fancy designer blends here. Other topics with recipes include juice, jelly, meat, seafoods, veggies, condiments, salsas, low sugar/salt, leathers, jerky. There are not a lot of pictures but the featured illustrations are clear and comprehensive. At the end of the book is a section called 'Problem Solver', glossary, and index.
This is a great book for a beginner as it covers the basics of the different type of preserving and its a great collection of favorites for any home preservers library. Highly recommended!

The Ball Blue Book of Preserving is very comprehensive. I purchased it for pickling recipes, and it includes every food I could think of pickling. It is well illustrated and concisely written.

This book has a lot of great information on the various techniques of preserving, from canning, both with and without a pressure cooker, to freezing and dehydrating food. It also has many, many recipes for each technique of preservation, they all sound so good, but there just isn't enough time! The one main drawback for me was the presentation. The book itself just has a flimsy feel to it, something closer to a thick fashion-like magazine, as apposed to a sturdy tome, used within a rough-and-tough kitchen. I feel like if I don't write out all the information before hand, I'll end up having to buy this again in a year or so.

This book keeps getting better and better with each new addition. I believe my aunt used it in Vermont in the 40's. The addition of new technology for methods such as dehydration, is most welcome The recipes show us why we want to preserve all this food. I would have given the higheat rating but I am always expecting something new to come along and give us new incentives.

With my mother-in-law moving away, this year I had the job of putting up what I could out of my garden. I have known of this book for some time but never owned a copy. Trying to find a book to help me I came across the Ball Book. It ended up being one of the best books I have as far as gardening is concerned. It gave me the info I need to put up my items from the garden and explained the process to me in terms and words I could understand. You will not go wrong if you buy the book. michael beck- florence, alabama

I was a little intimidated as a beginning canner, but this book broke everything down into very simple steps. I'm looking forward to trying everything. Amazon was really great on delivery too. But wouldn't you know, when I went to Wal-Mart to look for jars, there was the Ball Blue Book of Preserving next to the other supplies for the regular price of $5.72.

This is the resource book everyone refers to when canning. This book has information about canning safely, canning methods, recipes and more. If you have an abudance of some fruit or veggie this book will have a recipe to help you save your harvest for eating later. This has been an invaluable resource and has paid for itself many times over in the money we have saved canning just some of the simple things like jams.

This is the first year I have done any canning and I wanted a book to describe the how to and some tasty recipies. This book gave me all the information I needed. We now have some tasty pickles, zucchini pickles, apple butter, and apple preserves!!!

I also like it because it also covers freezing to preserve.

Overall a great basics canning book!

I have been canning for over 20 years, and without a doubt, this book provides the best instruction on how to can properly. This is important if you want to successfully can, and enjoy the food you can.

First: you are provided with numerous methods on how to can, water bath and pressure cooker for instance.

Second: you are provided with chart of what type of processing works best for which type of food (main ingredient in your canning).

Third: you are provided with a chart on how long to process each type of food, and better still, they have not forgotten that people are not at the same elevation across the country. As someone who started canning in Iowa and then moved to Colorado, this book makes all the difference.

Fourth: you are provided with clear, easy to follow recipes (many of these have been around for generations).

Fifth: the final products taste good! I gladly share the canned products with friends and family. Many items end up as birthday or Christmas presents.

Whether you are a novice, experienced, or somewhere in between to canning, this is a must have book.