Pre-order Paul Virant's Cookbook

It's not coming out until April, but you can pre-order Paul Virant's cookbook, Preservation Kitchen: The Craft of Making and Cooking with Pickles, Preserves, Jam and Aigre Doux, now. The 300-plus page book, a first by a Michelin-starred chef that instructs people how to can food so you can eat somewhat seasonally all year, is available now through Amazon for $19.79.

In the book, the Vie and Perennial Virant chef explains the benefits of canning and preserving fresh vegetables and other ingredients when they're in season so you can use them at other times of the year—and living in Chicago there's nothing worse than attempting to eat nasty tomatoes in the dead of winter. You'll learn how to make things like pickled asparagus, apricot jelly and peach saffron jam. But it's not just jarred items, but the book also has recipes for things like pound cake with dehydrated strawberry jam and sweetened creme fraiche and rainbow trout with creamed ramps and morels. Too bad you have to wait for it throughout winter, but once it arrives, so are spring vegetables. So there's that to look forward to.