If you’ve ever been curious about things like bottling your own soda, pressing your own tofu or fermenting your own miso, this book is (according to the author) “for serious kitchen nerds and the people they feed.” Can It, Bottle It, Smoke It covers over 75 recipes for recipes for condiments, cereals, crunchy snacks, beverages, and more, helping you stock your pantry with goodies and make unique gifts for friends.
Random House has sent us a copy of Can It, Bottle It, Smoke It to give away! To enter your name, just leave a comment below and answer this question:
What’s one form of food DIY you’ve experimented with?
We’ll draw a winner at random from the comment responses on this post on Friday, July 8th. Good Luck!
Hot Topics:
I’ve been experimenting with soda making. I’ve tried yeast carbonated soda in the past, but recently I bought one of those carbonation chargers and am just making the syrup.
making my own kombucha tea was a serious adventure!
Pickling beets from the csa box. Quite tasty and was great at a Christmas party.
I’ve been experimenting with fermentation as a means of preservation for the last couple of years. The first effort was a batch of sauerkraut that I ended up throwing out after it developed a layer of goopy mold on top. I threw it out due to an irrational fear of botulism and a limited understanding of how food-borne illnesses develop – and only realized later that I actually wanted that layer of goop on top (or at least, it wasn’t anything to be afraid of)! Since then I’ve been playing around with apple cider vinegar, sourdough, sauerkraut and kimchi, and want to get into miso and kombucha soon.
I made some strawberry jam one year. The first batch set up hard as a rock.
Second batch was pretty darn good!
So boring, but I make my own jellies. My husband did try to make his own absinthe once, though – yikes! LOL
We make our own smashed fruit sodas and infused vodkas. This book looks fabulous! Yum!
I have done lots of canning but my favorite DIY food moment was making/rendering duck fat so I could make french toast with it. Yummers.
I tried my hand at making Limoncello one time and gave it as gifts. It came out being more like lemon scented paint thinner LOL Very very strong!
I’ve only done your typical baking projects – cookies, pie, cake, but I’d really like to learn about canning food.
My first ever post! I have been making elderflower champagne, Tastes great but half the bottles explodes leaving cork marks on my ceiling! Opps
Nothing like DIY fun, net I want to try making elderberry wine, fess fizz!
So cool! I love canning but I’m def a novice!
I’ve done canned tomatoes, applesauce, and jam, but my favorite is bread and butter pickles.
I love canning and pickling! I put in a few pickling cuke plants this summer just for that reason!
I have been canning jams and pickles for years, just now getting into making soda. Would love to learn about preserving meats and condiments.
I have been experimenting with different types and kinds of mustards. Mostly they’ve been good, but there have certainly been lessons learned along the way!
Looks awesome. My husband and I are just getting into canning and are always fascinated with anything to do with food. This would be the perfect companion for our adventures in the kitchen!
Would love to try out a few recipes with this fall’s harvest!
Green tomato relish and spicy pickled eggplant!
We just started making pickles! So far we’ve only used premade spice mixes, but we would love to branch out and get a little more daring!
I have done canning in the past..always like to try new things…learning to make soda would be awesome!!!!
the only thing we’ve done thus far is jam, but the bf is super excited about smoking stuff, and i’d love to learn more about canning in general!
I’ve tried my hand at making my own infused olive oils for cooking and giving away as gifts. Very fun and easy!
i love to use the dehydrator and make condiments and sauces. can’t wait to make my own kombucha and do more canning!
I’ve only tried simple experiments like infused olive oils, infused sugars, and making fresh tofu. Now that I live in an area with a wonderful selection of berries and veggies, I’d like to learn some jam and pickle recipes! The canning process scares me a little, though.
I have canned jams, peppers, and even cookie mixes. Just tried my hand at pickling eggs. This book would definitely expand my knowledge and abilities.
Hi here in the UK I make wine elderflower blackberry etc basically anything that is free, but I have been trying smoking cheese in a cardboard box with mixed results. Smoking at home is not very popular over here but would love to learn more about it. Thanks your book looks brill!!
I haven’t experimented a lot (just jams), but I am going to try my own yogurt this week. This book looks fun.
We tried pickles last summer, when our cucumber plants ranneth over. I’d like to tweak some recipes this summer, if our dang cukes will just grow!
Homemade marshmallows were my favorite kitchen DIY. They were also the messiest…
I do food DIY all of the time due to food allergies. Coming up with appropriate substitutions can be tricky, especially with a dairy allergy and a fondness for foods that often require things like condensed milk. Coconut cream is a great sub!
I’ve made my own marshmallows and fridge pickles. My first attempt at making jam went a bit wonky.
these are two of my current DIYs – the sourdough makes the best waffles, and the jam, of course, goes with everything!
Last year I started brine pickling, can’t wait to expand on that this year!
Crab Apple Jelly- lots of hard work but very tasty!
Just made blueberry jam last week and plan to make some vanilla extract with local vodka soon. Also had a lot of fun with waffleized soft pretzels.
I canned sour cherry jam.
I made granola from scratch for the first time last week. I also recently made cheese.
I’ve made my own rubs a bunch of times and am toying with trying some canning – the cucumber plant it prolific!
I would like to make ketchup and relish. Made all sorts of other things.
I would like to make ketchup and relish sometime. I have made all sorts of other things.
i’ve made yogurt, jams, pickles, candies, and i’ve only eaten homemade bread since november of 2008, so i’d say i qualify as a kitchen nerd. i’d love this book!
I’ve made some jam, but am wanting to do a lot more.
My name is Robin Winder.
Last year I had good results with making gifts of infused vodka and maple-spiced nuts. I’ve also been making our own granola at home for a few months now!
This fall my father is going to pass on to my sister and myself the family recipe for wine, but most of my experimentation with food has been with soft pretzels, trying new recipes and seeing effects of different methods.
Canning pickles, tomatoes, jam. Dehydrating apricots and prunes. Baking. Cooking meals day in and day out.
I made all sorts of russian drinks, since it’s difficult to find them here (e.g., ryazhenka and kvas). I also make paneer because it is easy
I grow quinoa!
I’ve been making yogurt for over a year now and have been canning jams since childhood but I’d love to learn how to make sodas and some more adventurous canning.
I’ve mostly worked in brewing beers and ciders and creating flavored oils for cooking. I would like to get more into canning so that I can preserve seasonal fruit from our local farmer’s market.
I’ve experimented over the years with canning tomato sauce, BBQ sauce, and applesauce. One year I sent out homemade garam masala, with recipes, and that was very popular. I’ve also been doing some dehydrated tomatoes, although my experience in using the oven to do this just illustrated to us why a good food dehydrator is a good investment! We also process a lot of frozen foods; particularly berries.
I’ve been making kombucha for a while too. It kind of terrifies my wife who insists that it live under a “shroud” so the site of it doesn’t freak anyone (her) out. I was very pleasantly surprised at how easy kombucha was. A piece of my mother culture is in our fridge awaiting my getting things going again after some major home improvement tasks.
This year we hope to try some small-batch jams and canning some of our soups, stews & chili for a big road trip we’re taking in September. We’re also very interested in doing our own liqueurs and infusions. We have a pressure canner too and once we get the gauge calibrated we look forward to exploring the world of low-acid canning!
Granola, salad dressings, pizza dough. I try to make as much from scratch as possible, but i’ve been a little scared of preserving. But I intend to work on some jams soon! This sounds like a great book– I will be sure to check it out!
I have tried more DIY kitchen experiments than I can remember. My favorites have to be almond milk, soy milk, soy yogurt (it didn’t turn out), and most recently failed no knead bread. I’m also into foraging so I am always looking for things to do with what I find. I am always looking for something new to try!
i’ve been making my own BBQ sauce & freezer jam lately. both are great!
This book looks amazing! Probably my most DIY kitchen activity is brewing kombucha.
We’ve tried making just about everything: bread, crackers, baked beans, ranch dressing, granola, soda syrups, kombucha, kimchi, infused vodka, canning, jams, etc. But what’s required the most experimenting has been pickling. We’ve tried everything from infused to fermented, oshinko to bread and butter. I’ve pickled cucumbers, eggplant, zucchini (as a sweet relish), watermelon rinds, green tomatoes, jalapenos, carrots, and okra. And there’s always more to experiment with!
This would be an awesome addition to my book collection!!
I’m rather adventurous when it comes to trying my hand at most anything…. the most recent experiment was making my own Kimchi and beef jerky. My favorite food DIY was all the different things I made with the wild blueberries we picked… everything from muffins to ice cream, and the blueberry coulis to go on top!
We’ve been doing a lot of experimenting over the last couple of years, homemade cheese, jam, pickles, relish, mustards, sausage and more. Always looking for new ideas!
last year i talked my then boyfriend (now husband) into trying to make kimchi. not only was it a lot easier than we imagined, we also tried making other fermented pickles and that was also fun! homemade kimchi is so much better than the canned stuff too.
I experimented last weekend by making butter at home for the first time!
I’ve been making ice cream, jam and pickles. Pickles are some of my favorites.
My most recent food DIY was dried pineapple. Boring, I know, but I just got a new (to me) food dehydrator, and it was the inaugural run
I’ve made some beer pizza dough which turned out really good, ice cream, and pickled garlic. Just not all at the same time. Would love to learn more and this book looks awesome!
My most recent experiment was cultivating sourdough starter from just flour and water. It was lots of fun and I have two going now – the breads I’ve made from it are amazing.
I’ve made ice cream (shaky method), ginger ale, crystallized ginger, pineapple, and citrus rinds, and recently I made some homemade paneer to go with a slow cooker palak paneer.
Thanks for the contest!
I attempted croissants once upon a time, homemade frozen custard (soooo much better than just plain homemade ice cream) vanilla extract, I’m constantly experimenting when the weather isn’t too hot to bear cooking.
That’s amazing! I love quinoa but I never thought about growing it!
I have been experimenting with a stove top smoker. Great results!!
Tortillas, came out a little thick but super delicious. I watched my sister make her own salsa verde – the secret is roasting the tomatillos over an open flame.
I’ve been experimenting with kombucha. It went ok, but then was afraid it would blind me because I mistreated the mother mushroom.
I’ve been experimenting with kombucha. It went ok, but then was afraid it would blind me because I mistreated the mother mushroom.
I’ve done pickles, jams and when I was a kid we made homemade fruit rolls. I don’t do enough of this.
I’ve done a lot of pickles, jams and fruit rolls when I was a kid. If I get a bumper crop of anything this year, I should do more!
Hmmm… The last time I tried to “experiment” was when I used multi-colored marshmallows in rice krispy treats. I don’t recommend – unpleasant color
I’m always trying new things in the kitchen, most of them successful. I’m trying my first granita as we speak!
I’m thinking of trying to go a whole year making everything from scratch, rather than buying it pre-processed.
We use to make tofu. We make pickles. We can vegetables.
I’ve been recently experimenting with different ice creams and frozen yogurt. I love adding fresh fruits and different spices!
I’ve been recently experimenting with different ice creams and frozen yogurt. I love adding fresh fruits and different spices!
I’ve been recently experimenting with different ice creams and frozen yogurt. I love adding fresh fruits and different spices!