I'm back safe and sound from Philadelphia (or, to be more precise, the inner-ring Western suburbs). It was a good trip, productive and busy. The family was fine in my absence and, although the house was a wreck, my husband did manage to accomplish some long put-off tasks.


It's Q&A time again here at Hot Water Bath. Over the past three or so months, I received scores of e-mails asking all kinds of questions covering everything from my favorite recipes for pot roast to the manner in which we are raising our children to the books in the "I'm Reading" section to the left. Some of them had themes that I found repeating and it is these that I will attempt to answer here today.


Q: What is the processing time for tomatoes?


A: The USDA just recently increased the hot water processing time (that is, the time starting from when the bath begins to boil again after jars are added to the already boiling water) from about 20 minutes to an hour and a half. The change is due largely to the fact that many modern tomato varieties have been bred to be much lower in acid than their more heirloom counterparts and, as such, aren't safe for short processing times. This has been fairly controversial in the canning community (is there really such a thing?) because many people feel that adding lemon juice or vinegar along with salt - which you typically do with tomatoes anyway - raises the acidity enough to keep the shorter time sufficient. For my part, I think this is a use-your-best-judgment situation.


Q: Can you recommend a good canning book?


A: I've yet to come across a really good multi-purpose canning book. The good people at Alltrista publish something called The Blue Book which is a nice place to start. I've always felt that the book lacks a bit in imagination, but there's no doubt that it remains the classic. Barbara Ciletti put out a book in 2000 called Creative Pickling which I found interesting and exhaustive, including everything from half-sours to kimchi (a newer version also includes chutneys and salsas). Then there's Edon Waycott's Preserving the Taste, which focuses primarily on small-batch seasonal jams and butters. Helen Witty's Fancy Pantry has rightly taken on the aspect of a classic, and is out of print and expensive even in used book stores. If you find one, snap it up!


Then, of course, there's Canning and Preserving for Dummies, which seems fairly self-explanatory to me.


Q: Can I save money by canning?


A: That depends upon what you can and how you can it. If you're canning pretty much all home grown produce and stay away from the fancy stuff, you can probably earn a decent return over time (that is, once your equipment and jars and such are paid for with your savings). If, like me, you can a mix of home grown, gifted and purchase materials, you're unlikely to "earn" much, although you can save a bit over similar commercially prepared products (that is, it's cheaper for me to make pumpkin butter than to buy it, but I think it can be successfully argued that pumpkin butter is more of a luxury product than, say, green beans). Many of the frugality books of the mid-90s embraced canning as a money saver, but in my opinion you need to keep at it for years if your goal is strictly to save money. Here in the U.S., we (currently, at least) live in a world of 24-hour supermarkets with fifty cents cans of beans sliced pretty much any way you'd like them. It takes a lot of canning over many years to approach a savings - not including your time (beans are a pain in the *&%&$ to prepare). For some reason, I tend toward the ever-so-slightly fancier products - mango jam instead of grape jelly and so on - so I tend not to think about the money, but rather that I like knowing precisely what's in my food wherever possible. So, I like to think of canning as a not-too-expensive, productive hobby more than a positive impact on the family budget.


Q: Why do you always talk about your kids? Isn't this supposed to be a cooking website?


A: To call Hot Water Bath a cooking website rather overstates the case. This is a weblog and, as such, contains whatever information I feel like including. More often than not, this means you'll find recipes and more canning minutiae than you can shake a stick at. Sometimes, this means just whatever's on my mind, from politics to reading to, yes, family life. Because my family contains two children they occasionally sneak their way into the narrative. Close readers will notice the "about" box in the upper left of the screen - that's the largest clue as to what you'll find here.


I must say, admitedly somewhat defensively, I really don't feel as if I write about my kids "all the time" - a quick glance at the archives will reveal entire weeks going by without mention of either of them. That being said, I have to point out the following: If you don't like it, don't read it. It's all very simple. You are likely equiped with a mouse, a back button and an Internet tool bar. A good users guide or helpful instruction from a friend will assist you in finding websites and/or blogs more to your liking.


Q: If I buy the stuff, will you make some canned goods for me?


A: No. Not only is it illegal for me to do so in many places, but that would take canning out of the realm of something that I do for fun into another item on my "to-do" list. Why not give it a try? It's really not hard and you just might have a nice time - and, with the outcome of four pints of jam or salsa or whatever, what's not to love?