# Date this book?



## oneokie (Aug 14, 2009)

Recently found this canning and freezing book.









There is no publication date in it, and am curious as to when it may have been published. The recipes are more to my liking than the recipes in the BBB.

TIA


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## judylou (Jun 19, 2009)

Kerr quit publishing as a separate entity when they were purchased by Ball in 1996 so this pre-dates that. It also pre-dates the 1983 edition which is the oldest I have. Given the price on it and comparing it to the BBB prices of the era I would guess mid-to late 60s but it could be older.

If that is the case then the safety guidelines have been revised at least 6 times since then. Since the standard canning safety recommendation is to avoid books more than 10 years old, use of this book would carry a fair amount of associated risk. But any recipes in it that are still contained in a recent version of the BBB, the Ball Complete Book of Home Canning or by NCHFP would still be considered safe.

Hope this helps.


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## suitcase_sally (Mar 20, 2006)

Look on the inside of the back cover, down in the right-hand corner. There may be a list of copyright years. One of mine has this:

COPYRIGHT 1958, 1965, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1980, 1981, 1982 KERR GLASS MFG. CO.

This means that the first year that it was printed was 1958 and the last year (the one I have) was printed in 1982. It it had been printed after 1982, if so, it would have a later date.


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## Bonnie L (May 11, 2002)

I have a Kerr book I bought sometime in the early 90s. It doesn't have any copyright or publishing info. :shrug:

If you e-mail the Ball people, they should know the date from the picture.


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## oneokie (Aug 14, 2009)

suitcase_sally said:


> Look on the inside of the back cover, down in the right-hand corner. There may be a list of copyright years. One of mine has this:
> 
> COPYRIGHT 1958, 1965, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1980, 1981, 1982 KERR GLASS MFG. CO.
> 
> This means that the first year that it was printed was 1958 and the last year (the one I have) was printed in 1982. It it had been printed after 1982, if so, it would have a later date.


Thank you. Mine is 1977.


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## NCLee (Aug 4, 2009)

I have one with the same cover. Published dates on the back page range from 1950 to 1974. Thought I recognized it. 

FWIW, any time I use one of these old canning books, I cross reference it to either the current Ball Blue Book or National Center for Home Food Preservation. http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/publications_usda.html Some of those old recipes can be used and other's can't. 

Sometimes it's simply a matter of adjusting the processing time. In other cases, research since the book was printed has shown that something about the recipe type/method, etc. has been proved to have too high a risk for it to be considered safe for canning. 

If you're new to canning, please follow the current guidelines to the letter. After gaining experience, you'll be in a better position to look at those old canning books and glean from them things that can be adapted to today's guidelines. 

Just my 2-cents.
Lee


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