Well Preserved: A Jam Making Hymnal

by Joan Hassol

Book Overview

"This book is about my relationship with jam, my soul, music, and the world in which I live. When I make jam I slow down, my actions become rhythmical, my thinking clear. The repetitive motions of washing, stirring, pouring, and labeling allow me the space to think about my life -- what it means to be starting over and how I can embrace this stage of my life with vitality and joy."
With warmth and love, Joan Hassol takes us on an evocative journey...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684839210
• ISBN13: 9780684839219
• Release Date: June 1998
• Publisher: Atria Books
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Great book for beginners

This was a great book for beginners in canning. It gave detailed instructions for all the steps of canning.

best jam/jelly book I've used

The best grape jam I've made. The best strawberry jam I've made. The best pear ginger jam I've made. I can keep going. This book has simple short lists of ingredients, lucid and basic instructions, and enough unique jam varieties to please any cook. Her prose style invites reading and re-reading of the recipes, to the point where you make the jam with the ingredients in mind but actually *pay attention* to the cooking process. I have learned to watch the consistency change...thick and quiescent, then simmering, then boiling, then the beautiful last metamorphosis where everything gets crystal clear and you know the jam is done. If you have never made jam before, this is a perfect book to start with. It's a warm intimate manual rather than a sterile cookbook. However, as other reviews have pointed out, I would suggest watching your sugar and pectin amounts. Hassol can be a bit...overzealous with those ingredients. But hey, one batch really isn't all that big and if you goof it up you will learn for the next batch. Try with something simple like grape jam, with such a short cheap list of ingredients that you can afford to lose a batch or two. I've also found that making notes in the margins is a great way to remember what you wanted to change for the next time. Unfortunately Hassol passed away a few years ago, so this is her only book. I wish there had been more.

Simply Inspirational

When I bought this book I had no idea how to make or process jams. The instructions are easy to follow and the results are fantastic. I have noticed that 1 1/2 packages of pectin is sometimes too much, but the final product is still very edible. This book has inspired me to have a pantry filled with all sorts of goodies that I have made. I have also learned that just showing up for life every day and making the best of things as they are is essential for my happiness. Yes, this is a book about making jam, but it is also about making an anjoyable life for yourself.

A beautiful tribute to the satisfying craft of making jams!

The fact that there are recipes in this little jewel of a book is just a sweet bonus! This book is the poetic and poignant description of one woman's philosophical journey into the empty-nest phase of a rich, abundant life. Because she is also newly widowed, the story is just slightly washed with a light gray sadness -- the same color as the sky over the ocean in November in Massachusetts where the writing is set. Being the grandaughter of Mormon pioneers (big preservers of food), I completely related to the author's description of the jam-making process as a soulful, meditative craft that at once is productive and therapeutic. The way she describes the sound of children laughing when picking apples, and her own delight at discovering wild cranberries on the sand dune is so moving and real that you can almost feel the wind on your face. It reads quickly (I read it in traffic every morning) and is one of those books to just glance at every now and then for an injection of joy. I loved it!

absolutely beautiful recipes

Like most people who do labor intensive archaic tasks, Joan Hassol has turned it into a creative, meditative act of love. For any serious preserver, the book is worth the price for the creative, unusual way Hassol combines fruits and spice. As for the "hymnal" part, well, that appears to be a way of fleshing this out into something more than just a recipe pamphlet, and some very compassionate publisher's largesse to let Ms. Hassol work out her widowhood. There are enough banal meanderings and minor errors in the text (not the recipes!) to make you wonder if the editor ever looked at the manuscript after giving it the go ahead. But like I said, the recipes speak for themselves. In addition to jams, there are chutneys, marmalades and spreads. Ms. Hassol makes a case for some of the more unusual combinations using her experience selling her wares at a farmers' market. She gives jam-making includes jam-making and canning basics, resources, and a few good tips. All of the recipes use pectin, and unfortunately, there is no non-pectin alternative directions included. Arranging the book by season is a clever strategy than any "real" canner will appreciate.