Foobooz Book Club


Once in a while there come a few great books that Foobooz World HQ deems interesting enough to satisfy the most curious culinary minds. These two new fascinating reads might not qualify as beach reading but they would surely have Oprah’s little book club shaking in its live-studio-audience-having boots.

Marisa McClellan of the popular blog www.foodinjars.com has written every locavore’s dream in Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year-Round. The book features over 100 recipes of jams, chutneys, pickles, and even flavored salts. For beginners or masters, this guide helps you store everything in your garden from harvest time to next summer. But you don’t have to be saving enough food to survive the zombie apocalypse: McClellan’s guide features small batch recipes like those she makes in her own Philadelphia apartment. We think the Vanilla-Rhubarb Jam with Earl Grey sounds like a challenge we’d like to take on.

In another story of preservation, Rich Wagner captures the tale of Philadelphia’s long- standing beer brewing history. Philadelphia Beer: A Heady History of Brewing in the Cradle of Liberty gives a detailed look into where Philly got its rep as a beer city, starting in 1682 when locals were already drinking homebrews. The next year marked the opening of the town’s first brewery and the rest is, well, history. Imagine trying to brew a fine beer when your equipment consists of ice you took from the river and your finger as a thermometer. It’s easy to see why Philly had 94 breweries in 1879 compared to today’s single-digit count: it is hard work!

Now that we’ve told you our picks they’re probably flying off the shelves as we speak.

Take that, Oprah.