I met Washington cookbook author Cathy Barrow on Twitter
six years ago. We quickly became great friends virtually and in real life. At
the time, she had a food blog, Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s Kitchen, but as the years
passed, she also began writing for The New York Times, Garden & Gun, Modern
Farmer and is now a regular columnist for The Washington Post. Her new book, “Mrs.
Wheelbarrow’s Practical Pantry: Recipes and Techniques for Year-Round
Preserving,” published this week, and she’ll be at Southern Season
tomorrow, Nov. 6, from 4-6 p.m. signing books.

How did you make the transition from food blogger
to cookbook author?

A lot of it was just an accident. I was a landscape
designer and a very happy one. In 2008, when the economy made a little switch,
my landscape business dried up. So I started to blog to get people to come to
cooking classes I was experimenting with. It really was backwards. I didn’t
intend to — I didn’t even know what blogs were. I just started to
write, not expecting anyone to read it. Then I got on Twitter, and then [the community
recipe website] Food52 was a big part of expanding my audience and taught me
about writing recipes. I have to tell you, I hadn’t really thought about this [career]
at all.

Why did you become so interested in preserving
food?

Well, I started very young as a kitchen slave for my
great-grandmother. And my mother and I did it together in the ’80s. The whole
science of it wasn’t at all daunting to me — I got that. I began to
understand that my knowledge was something that other people didn’t have. It
was after reading Barbara Kingsolver’s “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle,” I
drew a very direct line between local eating and preserving in season. Really,
you can’t eat locally year-round if you don’t preserve things — because there’s
not enough to eat. That connection made me seek out ways to preserve things I
regularly bought at the grocery store.

What fear or misconception do people have about
canning that you think is unfounded?

I think it’s good to have a healthy respect for the
science of preserving always, but if you’re making fresh fruit jam, preserves
or most pickles, there’s nothing to worry about. Food-borne illnesses do not
survive in the highly acidicized and low-pH environment. The worse thing that
will happen with those products is that they’ll get moldy.

What’s the biggest mistake people make starting
out?

The biggest cooking mistake is knowing when jam is
set. That’s a really tricky bit of cooking technique that takes some time until
you get really good at it. There are ways to test for the jell so that your jam
isn’t runny like syrup, and I outline all of those in my book. But still, there’s
nothing like experience to teach you when exactly the jam is going to be ready.

We’re moving into winter. What should folks be
preserving now?

Right now, I’m making caramel-pear preserves — and
that’s pretty delicious. I’m also making whole cranberry-raspberry preserves
that are great for the Thanksgiving table. All of the fresh cheeses [in the
book] are available to be made now and through the winter. It’s a great time to
focus on the dairy section. You can learn to make cultured butter and your own
buttermilk, yogurt, ricotta, mascarpone and even Camembert. We have so much
great dairy available to us right now — it’s changing in this region and it’s
easier to find pasteurized but not homogenized milk. Those make very complex
products. Without the stabilizers that you’re used to tasting, it’s a
revelation.

Below you’ll find the recipe for the caramel-pear
preserves mentioned above, and if you’d like a taste, Barrow will be bringing
tarts made with the preserves to share at her book signing at Southern Season.

Caramel Pear Preserves

by Cathy Barrow
makes 5 or 6 half-pint jars
active time: 1 hour

When October comes and caramel apples are on display at
local farm stands, my mind, of course, turns to jams and flavors. And that is
how this recipe came to be. I cannot explain the spice, except to call it divine
intervention.

There are many types of pears. Some are velvety, soft,
and juicy; others are a little firmer, grainier and drier. That’s the kind you
want for this jam, one that stands up to cooking, leaving distinct pieces of
pear surrounded by the smooth, silky caramel.

1. Mix the pears, 2 cups of the sugar, the quatre épices,
and orange and lemon juices in a bowl. Cover and let macerate while you make
the caramel.

2. Slowly melt the remaining 1 1/2 cups of sugar in your
preserving pot over low heat, without stirring (you can shake the pan for even
cooking), and cook until it becomes a caramel. Let it turn from golden to a
deep amber color. Don’t rush the process, and watch it carefully. Do not walk
away. Do not read your email or fold laundry. Stand there and watch.

3. Here’s the really scary part, the part that will make
you think you’ve wrecked it all. Pour in the pears and all their liquids. The
caramel will seize and break. It will make you want to cry. It will look wrong.
Don’t worry. Just heat the whole mixture up again very slowly, stirring
carefully and frequently to work the pieces of caramel off the bottom of the
pot and incorporate them into the preserves. It’s a hellish moment. Then bring
the preserves up to 220 degrees, which will take at least 30 minutes, by which
time all the caramel will have melted again and it will be heavenly. You’ll
smell those spices. You’ll be happy again.

4. Keep the preserves at a boil that will not stir down
for about 5 minutes, then remove from the heat and test the set, using the
wrinkle test or sheeting test to determine if the jam has set to a gentle
slump. If not, heat it again and boil for 2 to 3 minutes, then test again.

5. Ladle the hot preserves into the warm jars, leaving a
1/2-inch head space. Clean the rims of the jars well with a damp paper towel.
Place the lids and rings on the jars and finger-tighten the rings.

6. Process in a boiling-water bath for 10 minutes. The
preserves are shelf stable for 1 year.

Quatre Épices

makes about 1/3 cup

Quatre
épices is a French four-spice mix used in many sausages and pâté. I like the floral bite of white pepper blended with cloves, ginger
and nutmeg. It’s a great mix to have in the cupboard. This recipe makes much
more than is needed for the preserves, so there will be plenty left for
experimentation. Sprinkle it on pork, chicken, and fish, summer and winter
squash, panna cotta, and grilled nectarines.

Combine all the spices. Store in a tightly closed jar.

Excerpted
from “Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s Practical Pantry: Recipes and
Techniques for Year-Round Preserving,” by Cathy Barrow (W.W.
Norton & Co.).