Pressure Canning

[newatthiskat]

Originally Posted by Rockporter

What do you all know about electric canners?

All American autoclave, looks to be more of a sterilizer than a canner?

http://www.allamericancanner.com/all...sterilizer.htm


Here is a Presto 23 QT, is it a good one? The price is cheap and I see it has a gasket, I think I want one without a gasket to worry about.
http://www.amazon.com/Presto-01781-2.../dp/B0000BYCFU

One more question, say I have corn and tomatoes to can at the same time and I want to do it in one process, is this ok to do?

According to my book that came with the pressure canner you have to process whole corn in pints at 11 psi for 55 min for pints. that would be a whole lot of processing for a tomato. you could process together but I would always process with the product that requires the longest amount of time. Sometimes I process carrots and potatoes together and I go with the process time for potatoes. PS That is from the Presto pressure canner book I got with my 23 quart bought on Amazon

[Doug9345]

Originally Posted by JRinPA

That 23qt presto we just got says double layers of pints or half pints, but only for water bath and not for pressure. Does that AA double deck for pressure canning?

Yes they do. The 921 double stacks pints, the 930 and 941 double stacks quarts.

[Doug9345]

Here is a source of pdf canner manuals.
http://www.pickyourown.org/canning_e...m#.UjzPQz-Z2PY

[JRinPA]

Yep you're right, I got that reversed. The Presto 23 qt says 20 pints doubled stacked for pressure only, not boiling water bath.

That makes more sense.

[salix]

Further to Doug's suggestion of doing a load or two with jars of water only, I would also suggest a few drops of food colouring in the jars to detect any siphoning.

Oh, to be even close to 6'3"! Can you even imagine the struggles of a 5', short armed old lady with a full canner load? I did actually consider the large AA so I could do 14 quarts at a time, but fortunately there was not a comfortable amount of clearance above, so was saved from my own foolishness...

[Rockporter]

Originally Posted by salix

Further to Doug's suggestion of doing a load or two with jars of water only, I would also suggest a few drops of food colouring in the jars to detect any siphoning.

Oh, to be even close to 6'3"! Can you even imagine the struggles of a 5', short armed old lady with a full canner load? I did actually consider the large AA so I could do 14 quarts at a time, but fortunately there was not a comfortable amount of clearance above, so was saved from my own foolishness...

I am with you on that since I am only 2" taller than you, so lifting jars into a very tall canner would be almost pointless for me. I was thinking at first about the electric one because I could set it up outside on a short table and load that way. Ah well, that one doesn't have the ability to control the pressure like a stove top canner does.

[Doug9345]

I've thought about getting something like this to can outdoors. http://www.outdoorcooking.com/camp-c...ner-stove.html I came across it from a Google search. I've thought about using the burner from a turkey fryer, but I've always wondered if I could turn them down enough and I've always been real suspicious of their quality. I've kind of keep my eyes open for one at a garage sale, but have never seen one, which again makes me believe they aren't very well built.

[Rockporter]

Originally Posted by Doug9345

I've thought about getting something like this to can outdoors. http://www.outdoorcooking.com/camp-c...ner-stove.html I came across it from a Google search. I've thought about using the burner from a turkey fryer, but I've always wondered if I could turn them down enough and I've always been real suspicious of their quality. I've kind of keep my eyes open for one at a garage sale, but have never seen one, which again makes me believe they aren't very well built.

We have a huge turkey fryer and the flame is real easy to control, I thought about trying that out for my water canner.

Hmmm, I wonder if a canner can be used on this new cooktop? It is rather expensive but you can use a square pan on it. Thermador recreated the flat induction cooktop.

http://www.cnet.com/8301-13553_1-573...ction-cooktop/#!

[ContainerTed]

I use my 23 quart Presto Pressure Canner on a "flat top" stove. I've never had a "hot spot". When the canner reaches pressure (about 8-10 minutes, I'm turning down the heat to maintain the pressure. Most pressures recommended here are 11 psi. We also use a Boiling Water Canner. It's one of the enameled (Dark blue and white specs) canner from Walmart. I "could" use the Presto, but why wear it out on BWB when I already have a BWB canner.

I reviewed the AA units and decided that why pay three times the price for the same function. At my age, I usually welcome a day of sitting and watching sports on TV while I get up and down to tend to the canning. I know many of you have busy lives and may not have the spare time to do what I do. But, time has shown me that you don't have to do it all in one day.

Y'all take care. I gotta go get my Green Tomato and Peppers Sweet Relish out of the BWB.

[Rockporter]

Originally Posted by JRinPA

Did not hear back from Presto today. I talked to someone on the phone and emailed pics around 1pm but that was it. I guess I will hear back from them on Monday, but I wanted to let Rockporter know what happened. It may not matter for his stove.

The problem with this canner we bought was it states on the package that it works for smooth top ranges. The "reviews" agreed that it worked as well. Even some above in this thread. Today I confirmed this on the phone with Presto's customer service. It is supposed to be a very flat 8" raised bottom contacting the stovetop, to work with an 8" burner.

Well, the one we received is not quite flat, rather a bit concave. It only contacts the stove in a narrow ring and the center of the burner soon gets a hotspot. It would not even boil water because the stoves cycles off to protect itself due to the hotspot. Also due to the this "not flat as it should be" bottom, the burner got scratched/etched by the aluminum ring that does contact.

I didn't look over much else - we bought the weighted regulator to go with it and I think it would work well if the bottom was flat. The handles seemed a little flimsy too - they are held with one bolt through the handle and they are able to rotate instead of two bolts making them very solid.

That is an interesting bottom for a canner, I don't think I have ever seen that on a canner bottom. I hope that works out for you.

[Doug9345]

Here's a T-ville thread on that sort of stove. I didn't read it close enough to see what conclusion the reached. Sometimes you have to pay close attention to which reply goes to which post as threads fragment.
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=24610

[Rockporter]

Originally Posted by Doug9345

Here's a T-ville thread on that sort of stove. I didn't read it close enough to see what conclusion the reached. Sometimes you have to pay close attention to which reply goes to which post as threads fragment.
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=24610

Thanks Doug, I think I will go with this and use it outside.
http://www.shopperschoice.com/item_i...source=froogle

Of course here is the double one and could probably hold two canners, one large and one small?
http://www.shopperschoice.com/item_i...source=froogle

[Father'sDaughter]

Thanks you all for the timely discussion! I've been considering a pressure canner for a while now, and finally ordered up the Presto from Amazon thanks to all the reviews both here and there. I have a gas stove so there won't be any cooktop related issues. I've never owned one before, and I don't know how often I will end up using it, so the less expensive Presto seems like a great way to experiment.

What intrigues me is the possibility to can things like fish, soups, stews and chili, as well as vegetables and the like. While I do have an upright freezer in the basement, I've learned that things tend to disappear into it as we never remember to pull something out to thaw. I like the idea of being able to just grab a jar and dump it into a pot when we get home from work. I've just started searching for sites having to do with pressure canning, and already found a blog with recipes for things like beef stew, chili verde, beef and bean chile, and even corned beef and potatoes to use as the base for a quick breakfast hash! What really got me started thinking about this is the possibility to can my own tuna in oil. We switched to the Italian canned tuna a number of years ago, and can no longer stand the taste of Starkist, Bumblebee, etc., but the imported stuff costs a small fortune for such a small can.

[Doug9345]

Originally Posted by Rockporter

Thanks Doug, I think I will go with this and use it outside.
http://www.shopperschoice.com/item_i...source=froogle

Of course here is the double one and could probably hold two canners, one large and one small?
http://www.shopperschoice.com/item_i...source=froogle

Unless you were using the very largest of the All Americans you could fit two canners on that as the outside diameter is around 13" NOT including handles and the cover bolts. The canners are all the same diameter just taller between one model and the next. The exception being the very biggest, the 941. With that said I wouldn't want to try to undo the lids with two canners that close to each other. Given that it's only $5 more to buy two single burner ones instead of a single two burner one I'd go that route and put them further apart than the two burner is.

[Rockporter]

Originally Posted by Doug9345

Unless you were using the very largest of the All Americans you could fit two canners on that as the outside diameter is around 13" NOT including handles and the cover bolts. The canners are all the same diameter just taller between one model and the next. The exception being the very biggest, the 941. With that said I wouldn't want to try to undo the lids with two canners that close to each other. Given that it's only $5 more to buy two single burner ones instead of a single two burner one I'd go that route and put them further apart than the two burner is.

I thought the same thing after I posted about the double burner, using two separate burners and a single propane tank for both burners.