Best Books on Canning for Preppers (2026)
Canning is one of the few places in preparedness where guessing can make you seriously ill. Use processing times from a tested source. These books all follow tested methods, and the USDA guide is free from the government.
5 books, ranked. Affiliate links.
#1
Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving
Ball Corporation
The long-running home canning guide from Ball, with tested recipes and processing times. Inexpensive and widely trusted. Beginner level, 216 pages, 38th edition (2024).
beginner
#2
Complete Guide to Home Canning
U.S. Department of Agriculture
The USDA's research-based canning guide, the source many other books draw on. Free from the National Center for Home Food Preservation; print copies are cheap too. Beginner level, 2021 edition. USDA guide, free from the National Center for Home Food Preservation.
beginnerFree legal PDF#3
So Easy to Preserve
University of Georgia Cooperative Extension
University of Georgia Extension's preserving guide, based on USDA testing. Covers canning, freezing, drying, and pickling. Beginner level.
beginnerSpiral / lay-flat
#4
Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
Judi Kingry, Lauren Devine
Hundreds of tested recipes for canning, pickling, and preserving. The bigger companion to the Ball Blue Book. Beginner level, 448 pages, 2006 edition.
beginner
#5
Putting Food By
Janet C. Greene, Janet Greene, Ruth Hertzberg
A long-trusted home preservation reference covering canning, freezing, drying, curing, and root cellaring. Beginner level, 464 pages, 2010 edition.
beginner
See the full food preservation & storage section of the directory.
How we picked
Every book here is a print reference you could actually use during an emergency, and every edition, ISBN, and page count was checked against Open Library or the publisher. If we couldn't verify a detail, we left it out. The order is our editorial judgment: books a beginner can use come first, then specialist references. Free legal copies are flagged, and we never link to pirated PDFs. Affiliate commissions don't decide what gets listed or where it ranks.
Comparisons
- Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving vs So Easy to Preserve
- Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving vs Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
More buying guides: Survival Medicine · Wilderness First Aid · Water Storage and Purification · Food Storage and Preservation · Foraging · Ham Radio · Homesteading · Off-Grid Power · Survival Gardening · Bushcraft · General Survival