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|title=Preserved

|author=Nick Sandler and Johnny Acton

|buy=No

|borrow=Yes

|pages=224

|publisher=Kyle Cathie Ltd

|isbn=1856265323

}}

I was born not long after the end of the Second World War, at a time when food was still rationed. My father grew vegetables and the surplus was bottled or pickled for use in the winter months. By the end of September the larder shelves would be groaning with colourful bottles and jars. I've done some bottling myself but most of our food is preserved in the freezer. This may be convenient, but I'm afraid it's not the most environmentally-friendly appliance and I was looking for a book which would revive some of the old ways and bring them into the twenty-first century.

At £6.99 this book is reasonably good value, but I wouldn't recommend paying any more than that. It's only an introduction to the subject and one that's fairly skimpy in places. There are some excellent, indeed rather beautiful photographs by Peter Cassidy, but they're over-used and make the book into the sort you display on the coffee table rather than use in the kitchen. If you want an introduction to the subject you'd do just as well reading Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's "River Cottage Cookbook". If you want the bible of preserving I think you've got to try and get hold of Oded Schwartz' "Preserving", but there's a waiting list of four for used copies on Amazon. Perhaps I ought to make it five.

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