The Self-Reliant Kitchen: From-Scratch Sourdough Breads, Homemade Cheese, and Farm-to-Table Meals

The Self-Reliant Kitchen is a well written tutorial collection with recipes for increasing food security and self-reliance by Michelle Mullennix. Due out 1st Oct 2024 from Skyhorse, it's 224 pages and will be available in hardcover and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.

This is a colorful, appealing collection with very well styled appetizing recipes for homestyle simple American dishes. The emphasis is on garden-to-table, fresh ingredients, simplicity, and increasing food security and abundance. These are everyday family meal type recipes. 

They're arranged thematically: sourdough & yeast breads, dairy, breakfast, dinner, sides, snacks, and quick breads & sweets. Recipe ingredients are variable in weight and/or volume measures. Units are imperial (American); there are some general substitutions and conversion included in a chart in the back of the book.

Oddly, many of the recipes use canned and other convenience foods. Ingredients will be widely available from most well stocked grocery stores in North America. There are some small issues with disclaimers. The author recommends raw whole (unpasteurized) dairy products in the recipes. There is one disclaimer (in a footnote) which explains that raw milk can contain harmful bacteria and readers are cautioned to use their discretion. 

The author's tutorial for sourdough starter seems to differ from most of the ones commonly available online (but sourdough is generally *not* screw-uppable as everyone discovered to their delight during the pandemic). 

The DIY snacks are varied and fun, including homemade gummy candy, hummus, fruit leathers, soft pretzels, applesauce, and a few more.

Four stars. Great ideas, moderately good execution. It would be a good choice for public library acquisition, home use, or potentially gift giving. Most self-sufficiency folks, smallholders, and farmers will have more detailed cookbooks/preserving tutorials available. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

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