The Joys of Jewish Preserving: Modern Recipes with Traditional Roots, for Jams, Pickles, Fruit Butters, and More—for Holidays and Every Day

A guide to creating your own sweet or savory Jewish preserves, plus recipes to showcase your jams and pickles.

Come celebrate!

From apricot jam and lemon curd to kosher dills and pickled beets, preserves, both sweet and savory, are at the heart of Jewish cooking. Can you imagine a Passover without charoset, a deli sandwich without a pickle, latkes without applesauce, or blintzes without jam? Today home cooks are rediscovering the soul-satisfying pleasures of making these delectable preserves from scratch. In 75 brilliant recipes, all updated for the modern kitchen, Emily Paster shows how easy it is to make beautiful Jewish preserves at home.

Praise for The Joys of Jewish Preserving

“This is the book I have dreamed of for years! Emily Paster has flung open the larder of traditional and innovative multicultural Jewish pickles and preserves. Only a well-seasoned, well-traveled balabusta like Paster could have delivered this book. It will engage, enrich, and nourish anyone with an interest in home preservation or in Middle Eastern, North African, or Eastern European cooking.” —Karen Solomon, author of Asian Pickles

“A delicious collection of recipes whose flavors and stories are rich in heritage and culture. Her recipes preserve an important tradition and show how that tradition is alive and evolving today.” —Jenn Louis, chef/owner, Ray (Portland, Oregon), and author of The Book of Greens

“Paster taps into the bright, briny, and full-flavored potential of old-world food preservation, while expanding our understanding of what it means to ‘eat Jewish.'” —Leah Koenig, author of Modern Jewish Cooking

Editorial Reviews

Review

“The Joys of Jewish Preserving is a buoyant and useful exploration of the Jewish preserving tradition that manages to be both modern and rooted in age-old culture. It should be a mandatory addition to anyone’s collection of books on preserving.”—Marisa McClellan, author of Food in Jars

“The Joys of Jewish Preserving is the most exciting resource in my pantry! Because pickles and jams were such an important part of my early food memories, I cannot wait to update them in my professional kitchen and my home cupboard with the help of Emily Paster’s incredible book.”—Michael Solomonov, co-owner and chef, Zahav (Philadelphia), and author of Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking

“Emily Paster’s The Joys of Jewish Preserving is a jewel of a book.  Clearly and appetizingly she tells the tales of pickles and preserves, both sweet and savory, from pomegranate paste to prune lekvah.”—Joan Nathan, author of Jewish Cooking in America and King Solomon’s Table

Emily Paster’s The Joys of Jewish Preserving is a jewel of a book.  Clearly and appetizingly she tells the tales of pickles and preserves, both sweet and savory, from pomegranate paste to prune lekvah.―Joan Nathan, author of Jewish Cooking in America and King Solomon’s Table

This is the book I have dreamed of for years! Emily Paster has flung open the larder of traditional and innovative multicultural Jewish pickles and preserves. Only a well-seasoned, well-traveled balabusta like Paster could have delivered this book. It will engage, enrich, and nourish anyone with an interest in home preservation and Middle Eastern, North African, or Eastern European cooking.―Karen Solomon, author of Jam It, Pickle it, Cure It

Emily Paster serves up a delicious collection of recipes whose flavors and stories are rich in heritage and culture. Her recipes preserve an important tradition and show how that tradition is alive and evolving today.―Jenn Louis, chef/owner, Lincoln (Portland, Oregon), and author of Pasta by Hand

Emily Paster taps into the bright, briny, and full-flavored potential of old-world food preservation, while expanding our understanding of what it means to ‘eat Jewish.’―Leah Koenig, author of Modern Jewish Cooking

To survive for thousands of years, often on the move and often living in inhospitable places, the Jews had their religion, their rituals, and their foods – and all three required adaptation and preservation. Thank you, Emily Paster, for reminding us that to preserve a food is to preserve a tradition, a culture, and a people. Your book has been a joy to read and your recipes will be a joy to follow.―– Mark Russ Federman, Russ and Daughters, New York

The Joys of Jewish Preserving is a buoyant and useful exploration of the Jewish preserving tradition that manages to be both modern and rooted in age-old culture. It should be a mandatory addition to anyone’s collection of books on preserving.―Marisa McClellan, author of Food in Jars

The Joys of Jewish Preserving is the most exciting resource in my pantry! Because pickles and jams were such an important part of my early food memories, I cannot wait to update them in my professional kitchen and my home cupboard with the help of Emily Paster’s incredible book.―Michael Solomonov, co-owner and chef, Zahav (Philadelphia), and author of Zahav: A World of Israeli

About the Author

Emily Paster is the author of the widely admired blog, West of the Loop, primarily about food but with forays into parenting and family life. She is the co-founder of the Chicago Food Swap and is a national leader in the growing food swap movement (community get-togethers where handmade foods are bartered and exchanged). Emily is the author of Food Swap, The Joys of Jewish Preserving, and Epic Air Fryer Cookbook.