# The Lost Kitchen Skills, Checked: Canning, Drying, Root Cellars, Bread, and Scratch Cooking from Our Grandparents' Kitchens, Checked Against Today's Food Safety Science > Canning, drying, root cellars, bread and scratch cooking the way our grandparents did it, each skill checked against today's food safety science. The Lost Kitchen Skills, Checked is a home food skills guide by Nancy Whitaker. It takes 42 skills from our grandparents' kitchens, shows how each was done, then what the USDA, FDA, CDC, NCHFP and extension services say now. Each skill gets a badge: SAFE TODAY, UPDATE IT or RETIRED. It prints no processing times of its own and points to tested recipes. - URL: https://www.agentskillpacks.com/books/the-lost-kitchen-skills-checked - Author: Nancy Whitaker (pen name) - Length: 214 pages (paperback) - Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HQ6P7N52 - Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HQ6SX8CD ## Keep the skill, update the method The whole book rests on one sentence. Keep the skill. Update the method. Our grandparents were not careless. They worked without tested recipes or the lab research we have now. So each chapter takes a skill they knew by heart and shows how it was done, often in the words of an old USDA bulletin. Then it shows what food scientists say today, and gives the steps for the safe version. We like how kind the book is about this. A RETIRED badge, Nancy Whitaker writes, is not a judgment on anyone's grandmother. It means the research moved on. ## An honest count, and good news for Grandma Every one of the 42 skills carries a badge. Here is how they came out: 17 SAFE TODAY, 21 UPDATE IT and 4 RETIRED. That means most of what our grandparents did was right already, or close. The root cellar, sauerkraut, blanching before freezing and a well-kept cast-iron skillet all hold up. Only four old methods are off the table: paraffin on jam, open-kettle and oven canning, tasting raw dough, and water-glassing eggs. The book also checks the claims people still repeat. Every chapter ends with a Kitchen Myth Check. Does an aspirin in the jar preserve it? Does turning jars upside down seal them? Does the float test tell you an egg is safe? The answers come with the agency or extension service named. ## Where every rule comes from The sources are the people who study this for a living: the USDA, the National Center for Home Food Preservation, the FDA, the CDC and university extension services. Their guidance is free, and the book sends you to it again and again. The Sources section at the back lists every page the book relies on, chapter by chapter. Period bulletins are listed with the year printed on them, and most can be read free online. Guidance changes, and when an agency updates its advice, the agency is right. For canning, the book has one rule above all others: follow a tested recipe. Botulism has no smell, no taste and no warning. ## Cards you can work from Every skill sits on the same card, so you can find what you need fast. Each card has the badge, the time and what you need, Grandma's way, what we know now, four to eight numbered steps, what to watch for, and a Log it line for your notes. At the back, the Pantry Workbook has canning records, pantry and freezer logs, a four-season preserving calendar and a worksheet for checking an old family recipe card. In the paperback, you write in the book. On a Kindle, keep a notebook nearby and copy the fields. If you want to try one rule first, our free pages on [open-kettle canning](/guides/is-open-kettle-canning-safe) and [lemon juice in canned tomatoes](/guides/do-you-need-lemon-juice-to-can-tomatoes) walk through two of the book's cards in plain words. ## What is inside - The root cellar and cool pantry in three zones, and why apples and potatoes should not share a shelf - Water-bath canning start to finish, the added acid every jar of tomatoes needs, and jam sealed with a lid instead of wax - Pressure canning for beans, meat and soup, with the altitude bands and the yearly dial gauge test - Drying fruit and vegetables, and jerky made with a heat step before or after drying - Sauerkraut, quick refrigerator pickles, freezing, salt and sugar cures, and smoking - Bread, a sourdough starter, stock from bones with the two-stage cool, butter, yogurt, farmer's cheese and eggs - Beans, sprouts, leftovers, one roast stretched into three meals, and cast iron that lasts - A Pantry Workbook with canning records, pantry and freezer logs, a four-season preserving calendar and a Grandma's Recipe Card, Checked worksheet ## Chapters - How to Use This Book - The Root Cellar and the Cool Pantry - Water-Bath Canning for High-Acid Food - Pressure Canning for Beans, Meat and Soup - Drying Fruit, Vegetables and Jerky - Fermenting and Pickling - Freezing, Old Way and New - Salt, Sugar and Smoke - Bread from Flour, Water and Time - Stock, Broth and the Whole Bird - Butter, Yogurt and Simple Cheese - Eggs: Keeping, Testing and Preserving - Beans, Grains and Sprouts - The Leftover Kitchen - Stretching Meat and Planning the Week - Kitchen Tools That Last - The Pantry Workbook ## Problems this book helps with - [Can you water-bath green beans? Grandma did it for years, so why won't anyone say yes](https://www.agentskillpacks.com/guides/can-you-water-bath-green-beans) - [Do you need lemon juice to can tomatoes? Yes, in every jar. Here is how much](https://www.agentskillpacks.com/guides/do-you-need-lemon-juice-to-can-tomatoes) - [A gift for someone who wants to learn canning and the old kitchen skills, the safe way](https://www.agentskillpacks.com/guides/gift-for-someone-who-wants-to-learn-canning) - [How to make jerky safely at home: the heat step most videos skip](https://www.agentskillpacks.com/guides/how-to-make-jerky-safely-at-home) - [Is open-kettle canning safe? How it compares with oven, water-bath and pressure canning](https://www.agentskillpacks.com/guides/is-open-kettle-canning-safe) - [Is the egg float test accurate? What a floating egg really tells you](https://www.agentskillpacks.com/guides/is-the-egg-float-test-accurate) - [Left a pot of stock out overnight to cool? What to do with it this morning](https://www.agentskillpacks.com/guides/left-stock-out-overnight-to-cool) - [Pressure canner altitude chart: what pressure to use, and when to get your dial gauge tested](https://www.agentskillpacks.com/guides/pressure-canner-altitude-dial-gauge-test) ## FAQ ### Is this a canning recipe book? No. It explains how each old skill was done and what current guidance says, then gives the steps for the safe version today. For canning, it prints processing times only from the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning or NCHFP, and otherwise sends you to the tested recipe for your jar size and altitude, with a line to write it on. ### What do the badges mean? SAFE TODAY means the old method still matches current guidance. UPDATE IT means the idea is sound but the method changed. RETIRED means current guidance says not to do it this way, and the card gives the safe replacement. Of the 42 skills, 17 are SAFE TODAY, 21 are UPDATE IT and 4 are RETIRED. ### Which old methods are retired? Four: sealing jam with paraffin wax, open-kettle and oven canning, tasting raw dough, and water-glassing eggs. Each card explains why and shows what to do instead, such as a two-piece lid and a short water bath for jam, or freezing extra eggs. ### Is the book medical advice? No. It is general education about home food skills and explains published US food safety guidance. The agencies named in the book publish the current tested recipes and rules, and their guidance wins over anything printed in it. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them. ### Who is the book for? Anyone who wants to can, dry and bake from scratch the way a grandparent did, people who inherited a recipe box and want to know which methods are still safe, and beginners who want to understand why the rules changed. It is written for the United States. Links go to Amazon. ToolGenX publishes this book under a pen name and earns from every sale.