If most canning recipes seem to yield too much for your small kitchen, Preserving by the Pint has smaller--but no less delicious--batches to offer. Author Marisa McClellan discovered that most "vintage" recipes are written to feed a large family, or to use up a farm-size crop, but increasingly, found that smaller batches suited her life better. Working with a quart, a pound, a pint, or a bunch of produce, not a bushel, allows for dabbling in preserving without committing a whole shelf to storing a single type of jam.

Preserving by the Pint is meant to be a guide for saving smaller batches from farmer's markets and produce stands-preserving tricks for stopping time in a jar. McClellan's recipes offer tastes of unusual preserves like:

• Blueberry Maple Jam
• Mustardy Rhubarb Chutney
• Sorrel Pesto
• Zucchini Bread and Butter Pickles

Organized seasonally, these pestos, sauces, mostardas, chutneys, butters, jams, jellies, and pickles are speedy, too: some take under an hour, leaving you more time to plan your next batch.