• averythingcooks on August 11, 2022

  I can confirm that the Canadian version is in fact titled "Bernardin Complete" etc (with a little maple leaf included in the title).

• Breadcrumbs on September 04, 2015

  Some editions of this book (perhaps in Canada?) are titled "Bernardin" vs "Ball"

• schambers on August 31, 2010

  9780778801399 c2006. Has subtitle "400 delicious and creative recipes for today"

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Strawberry jam

  • Dms02 on July 06, 2020

    Detailed instructions are great for a first-time jam maker.

• Spreadable fieldberries (strawberries)

  • lindseyshannon34 on June 15, 2020

    Pg. 29 of book

• Spreadable fieldberries (rhuberries)

  • lindseyshannon34 on June 15, 2020

    pg. 29 of book

• Traditional jam (sweet cherry)

  • Skamper on July 04, 2021

    This was delicious. I added the cinnamon and cloves but not the amaretto. Added the pectin by weight, 49g. Yielded 6 8 oz jars + 1/2 for the fridge. The one in the fridge became quite stiff, but that wasn't an issue with the other jars.

• Traditional jam (mulberry)

  • springandfall on July 09, 2014

    Why does this recipe call for such a large proportion of sugar compared to other berry jams? Having lucked into some mulberries but not enough for the recipe, I made this with a combination of mulberries (1 3/4 cups mashed), gooseberries (3/4 cup mashed), and currants (1/2 cup cooked). I thought the tartness of the gooseberries and currants, plus the relatively large amount of lemon juice, might balance out the sugar, but it still turned out excessively sweet, masking the complexity of the tart elements. Surely it would have been even sweeter with all mulberries, as prescribed. Since there's normally a reason for the amount of sugar in a canning recipe, I thought I should respect it here, as I've found this book to be reliable and was already varying the fruit, but I wish I hadn't. If anyone knows why mulberries require more sugar than other berries, I'd be curious to know.

• Heavenly fig jam

  • megaelim on April 02, 2017

    This is my go to fig jam recipe, which I first attempted after we fell in love with preserves as a sandwich spread. I can make seven jars of this for the price of one store bought jar, and this recipe is richer than any store bought jar I've ever had. Plus, it uses dried figs, so I can make it any time of year. Love this recipe.

• Carrot cake jam

  • Skamper on December 05, 2021

    This makes a delicious though quite sweet jam. I might cut the sugar a bit next time. I used the food processor to shred the carrots, and can see where a finer shred might be prettier, but this worked fine. Made just shy of 6 cups.

• Peach butter

  • Breadcrumbs on September 04, 2015

    p.57 – Bright, fresh and flavourful. This silky peach butter was a big hit. It really does taste as though you’re taking a bite out of a fresh peach. I lowered the sugar content. The addition of lemon is essential as it is key to the fresh flavour. Photo here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/1010361?commentId=9710187#9710187

• Black Forest preserves

  • Thredbende on July 31, 2011

    This is unbelievably good. It has a slight chocolate undertone, definately cherry flavor, and great balance in the tart and the sweet. It is sinful on vanilla ice cream (Try Ben and Jerry's book for a great non cook vanilla), layered on a trifle, and even on toast. Alas, my neighbor Jim just ate it out of the jar...

• Blood orange marmalade

  • Skamper on July 04, 2021

    We loved this. I made a half batch, which yielded 3 8 oz jars and a half for the fridge. Wasn't quite sure it was completely jelled (saucer test wasn't perfect), but temp was right and it seems to have turned out fine.

• Morning cheer marmalade

  • Barb_N on June 03, 2017

    My first foray into marmalade- I skipped the apples and didn't miss them. I prefer this and don't like the bitterness of traditional marmalade.

• Pomegranate jelly

  • Skamper on January 04, 2022

    This was delicious. I used Trader Joe's pomegranate juice.

  • breakthroughc on January 08, 2024

    I used bottled pomegranate juice leftover from making cocktails. It has a nice tartness to it. I like it.

• Roasted garlic jelly

  • averythingcooks on August 30, 2025

    This has a "sweet with rich garlic in the background" flavour profile (as expected :) I needed the full 1/4 cup of wine to top up my "garlic juice" from the jelly bag and a 1/2 recipe gave me 4 x 125 ml jars for the canner & close to 1/2 of a 5th for the fridge which is pretty much spot on re: the predicted yield. I'm pretty happy to know I have these little jars in my canning cupboard.

• Easy jalapeno jelly

  • heatherlee on January 18, 2019

    Delicious spicy jelly. Looks pretty served over cream cheese. I chose to add the optional green food coloring.

• Red pepper and garlic jelly

  • averythingcooks on November 30, 2023

    I made this in the fall (& forgot to comment). This was my 1st use of liquid pectin and the rapid sequence of last minute events was a learning curve for sure. The peppers all seemed to float to the tops of the jars but when I used my 1st jar (glazed meatballs = a delicious use for this stuff) everything easily stirred down into the jelly. I will likely add this to next summer's canning list.

• Habanero gold [jelly]

  • averythingcooks on November 30, 2023

    I have frozen whole habaneros on hand from the fall and used a few to make these very pretty & tasty little jars of jelly. My yield for a full recipe was close to the predicted yield...3 x 250 mL jars for the canner and a couple of tbsp's for the fridge. It's not as hot as I expected (but still does have a really nice hum of "sweet with heat") and I will easily find lots of uses for this stuff.

• Blueberry pie filling

  • heatherlee on January 18, 2019

    I thought this was going to be a disaster as after I added the ClearJel the blueberries became extremely viscous. It was difficult to fill the jars. I processed in the water bath canner. A few weeks later I opened a jar and was surprised that the finished product was fine for pies (not too thick). I’m still not certain about the amount of ClearJel - will refer to other sources before making more.

• Peach pie filling

  • springandfall on July 25, 2014

    Something is wrong with this recipe. It never thickened as promised in step 2, probably because it uses no thickening agent (such as ClearJel). Second, it instructs you to prepare four pint jars but makes enough to fill seven. As a result I'm stuck with three pints of uncanned, extremely runny "pie filling" that I have to use now or freeze, defeating the point of undertaking this. All poorly written recipes waste time and ingredients, but poorly written canning recipes often waste large quantities, in addition to hours of work at the time of year when that work is most intense. In general I've found this book to be excellent, but occasionally there is a costly error like this one. I wish the Ball website would publish corrections to errors in this book to save readers the lost time, effort, and food.

• Fresh vegetable salsa

  • averythingcooks on September 13, 2024

    A 1/2 recipe yielded 4 x 250 mL jars for the canner + 1 partial jar for the fridge. I picked 2 "not orange yet" Numex orange spice jalapeno peppers (80,000 on the scoville) to use with 2 "normal" jalapenos and so mine does carry a kick. Oddly, this salsa does not call for salt (I triple checked!) and while good, a taste of the fridge jar tells me that it needs...salt.

  • breakthroughc on September 14, 2024

    Reading averythinngcooks note, I feel terrible I didn’t post a note earlier. I have making this salsa long before I joined EYB. Yes, it needs salt! I add 2 teaspoons to a full batch. The perfect spice level for us is to seed half of the jalepenos and chop the other half with out seeding. I find the spice level does mellow in the jars, so it needs to be spicier than you want going into the canner. I also don’t add the cilantro until the last few minutes and add double.

• Roasted tomato-chipotle salsa

  • averythingcooks on September 16, 2025

    This is a very dark, richly flavoured salsa full of roasted tomatoes, onions, garlic & green pepper. I did take some liberties with the dried chiles, using 4 cascabel + 2 chipotle (in place of all chipotle) to make something a little less hot/more versatile re: guests with less heat tolerance :) A 1/2 recipe gave the predicted 4 x 250 mL jars with only a spoonful left in the pot. And oh yes...this is on pg 204 in the Bernardin book.

• Zesty salsa

  • heatherlee on January 18, 2019

    Very good salsa. I prefer salsa with a bit less heat. I seeded the jalapeños but that didn’t quite reduce the heat enough. Next time I will reduce the quantity of jalapeños.

• Jalapeno salsa

  • averythingcooks on September 02, 2025

    This recipe appears on pg 4 in the Bernardin book. I used a mix of mostly jalapenos topped up with some guests. The yield was as predicted with 3 x 250 mL jars (1/2 recipe) which surprised me as I find the instruction "simmer until slightly thickened" pretty ambiguous (not even a suggested time?). We opened our first jar last night to use for burritos (both in the filling & as a topping) and although we thought it would be hotter, we are happy with the result.

• Carrot pepper salsa

  • averythingcooks on September 20, 2024

    I'm always looking for something new to add the canning list (especially as the end of the season draws near) so this was next up in the "try line". With tomatoes, onions, grated carrot & a healthy dose of minced jalapenos, a quick drag of a cracker through the remnants in the pan confirms that I like this stuff :)

• Tomatillo salsa

  • averythingcooks on September 23, 2024

    A quick taste confirmed that it this is good, pretty tart (which typically tempers while on the shelf) & pretty hot (reflecting my choices re: green chiles). I had no idea how many tomatillos were needed to get 5 1/2 cups so I kept track as I worked & around 35 oz did the trick. I ran the immersion blender through it quickly before filling the jars & I can see using this as a salsa, an enchilada sauce and a simmer sauce for chicken thighs or pork in my slow cooker. I still prefer the Canning Kitchen version as a true salsa, but I'm happy to tuck these 1/2 pints into my cupboard.

• Roasted tomatillo-chipotle salsa

  • averythingcooks on September 12, 2023

    Even though I weighed all my produce carefully, my yield came up a bit short and it is a little thinner than I expected...perhaps it will thicken as it sits after the water bath? It does have a lovely smoky flavour and a good hit of heat and I can see using this stuff (1/2 recipe = 4 x 250 mL jars) more like a sauce (with tacos? enchiladas? pulled pork?) and I'm sure they will disappear before spring.

  • shelbstirr on September 15, 2025

    Very good! I couldn’t find cascabel chilis so I left them out, and it was pretty spicy with just the chipotles. I did cook down the tomato/onion/chilis/water mixture a little bit before adding the tomatillos & vinegar. Super tasty on eggs, I imagine it would be great for enchiladas, as well as all the other typical salsa uses. Update: spice mellowed out after a few weeks on the shelf. Fresh, it was on the edge of too spicy for me, now I would call it medium spicy.

• Cucumber relish

  • averythingcooks on August 13, 2022

    I cut this in 1/2 and got 5 x 250 mL jars of a very tasty relish. The mix of red & green peppers with the cucumber, celery and onion adds great colour, texture and flavour and I appreciate that this relish makes no attempt to be the "day glow" green that so many relishes have......how it that possible with peeled cucumbers?? I also chose to seed my garden cucumbers as suggested and I am really happy with my efforts from this book so far.

• Zesty zucchini relish

  • rivergait on August 21, 2013

    Fabulous minced pickle relish. Pretty tawny yellow in the jar, just slightly spicy (I used one Anaheim pepper for 6 half-pints). My tasters wanted "just the tip of the spoon", but came back over and over, wanting more. It's why I've had a hot dog every day for lunch this week. Use on burgers, sausages, deviled eggs, potato salad. pg. 232

• Zesty peach barbecue sauce

  • heatherlee on January 18, 2019

    I didn’t like this. I felt like the vinegar overwhelmed the peaches.

• Grandma's chili sauce

  • averythingcooks on August 11, 2022

    This chili sauce tastes exactly how I remember my mom's tasting which was my 1st goal. Now let's hope that my jars seal as I am new at this boiling water canning process (ie my 2nd goal :)

• Oktoberfest beer mustard

  • twoyolks on October 19, 2014

    Unbalanced

  • heatherlee on January 18, 2019

    This was disappointing. The mustard was quite bitter even several weeks after canning (by which time it should have mellowed).

• Thai hot and sweet dipping sauce

  • averythingcooks on September 08, 2025

    In the Bernardin book, this recipe appears on pg 277. Making 1/3 of the recipe = a slightly higher yield (3 x 250 mL jars + a partial 125 mL jar for the fridge). I use my homemade chile flakes (dried de Arbols that I grow in the garden & they are far hotter than the commercial flakes I used to buy)....for this reason I cut back significantly (from around 40 ml to 15 ml) and yes, it is sweet & still very HOT. These will be fun little jars to have on hand.

• Refrigerated dill slices

  • EasyBakeThis on August 16, 2024

    Makes 5 pints. I like a lower yield batch

• Traditional preserved lemons

  • swegener on February 01, 2015

    I've made these several times--very good and they keep for quite a while.

  • shelbstirr on February 18, 2025

    Easy ferment!

• Dill sandwich slices

  • breakthroughc on September 14, 2024

    I make these every year. Fresh dill makes all the difference in this recipe. I make some in slices and some in spears, using the same directions. I like to add about a 1/4 teaspoon of red chili flakes to each jar.

• Dilled beans

  • averythingcooks on July 31, 2023

    I actually made 2 pint jars of these last year to deal with a huge yellow & green bean crop and they slowly got shoved to the back of the pantry and kind of forgotten...until a friend stopped by last week and we opened a jar to snack on. He was thrilled to be gifted the other unopened jar that day. Then yesterday we had friends over for a drink on the deck and now over 1/2 of the other jar is gone. I am now planning to make these again and it is highly unlikely that they will linger/be forgotten about this time.

• Aubergine pickles

  • autonomatic on August 12, 2014

    Might want to double the amount of pickling liquid used for this recipe - it was definitely not enough for me.

• Crushed tomatoes

  • averythingcooks on September 14, 2023

    This provides a clear (and a bit different) set of instructions to produce water bath canning jars of crushed tomatoes. I like the resulting texture but I guess the final test is opening and using them :)

• Basic tomato sauce

  • averythingcooks on September 06, 2025

    In the Bernardin book, this "Basic tomato sauce" is on pg 360. It is easy to use a mix of tomatoes here and I seasoned mine with a Deluxe Italian blend. The food mill (I do 2 passes...the large disc for skins & the middle disc for most of the seeds) ensures a beautifully smooth sauce.

• Seasoned tomato sauce

  • averythingcooks on September 01, 2025

    I scaled this back for 2 pints but based on lessons in the past...after the long reduction time, I "food milled" it into a measuring cup and sure enough, my 2nd pint would come up short. So it was 1 pint with lemon juice into the canner and the rest frozen in generous 3/4 cup (or scant 1 cup:) portions. I will say that it does taste good :)

• Pizza sauce

  • shelbstirr on December 03, 2025

    I added only half the garlic powder and like that amount. I wish I thought to add some red pepper flakes. I may mix in sugar if needed when I open to make pizza. Made 5 pints.

• Crushed tomatoes

  • ellabee on August 21, 2013

    p.376, the pressure canner version. Made 4 pints from 6 lb. mixed Amish Paste and Juliet elongated cherry tomatoes. Next time: more seeding, into strainer over 4-cup measure, then use some of the liquid during the pre-fill gentle boil. Update after using up in winter 2013-14: the seediness didn't prove as big a drawback as I'd feared, but it's still worth taking the steps noted.