Pressure Canning Questions???

[HSmama24]

Hi All,
I have never used a pressure canner and have always stuck with canning high acid produce. I am thinking of purchasing a pressure canner and have a couple questions. Can you can high acid foods with a PC too? Will using a pressure canner for high-acid produce like tomatoes cut the process time? By how much? I'm also hoping it cuts down on the heat-up of my kitchen during the heat of the summer. Will this be? All the recipies in the Ball Blue Book give process time for boiling water method....what if I want to use pressure canner only? Can I do this? Is All American a good brand?
Any other info you really think I should know before I buy?
Thank you in advance for all your expertise

[contractor909]

We love the All American canner. Much of the information that you'd need, comes with the purchase.

[goatlady]

Pressure canning is suitable for ALL foods and an absolute MUST for canning meat, poultry, and fish. Are you sure those tomatos you can ARE a high acid variety? Most on the market now days, including home grown, are a low acid variety. You must have a really old Ball Blue Book as all the ones in the last 8 years or so contain pressure canning times and pressures for all the recipes. The All American pressure canner is the Cadillac of canners and the most expensive. If your budget can handle it, definitely get one. They will last several lifetimes and the best thing is it does not require a sealing ring as do the Presto and MIrro pressure canners - which a great majority of us home canners have and use. Pressure canners do cut down the actual process time, but it takes a long time to get the pressure up to where it needs to be and then the cooling down period after the process time can take more time. Yes, less heat as there is no steam billowing into the kitchen once the regulator is in place on the lid.

[HSmama24]

Well, I'm not sure if the tomatoes are high or low acid but I did always add lemon juice or citric acid as well....but now I'm even more convinced to get a pressure canner. My blue book is copywrited 1999, the year I was married....so looks like it's time for a new blue book too:) Man, time sure flies

[goatlady]

You will love any presure canner you get, gal. I have 4 personally and I don't mind the less than $10 cost to keep an extra sealing gasket and pressure release valve in reserve for each. Having multiples really make the canning go faster as while one is processing, I can be filling a second one and putting that on the stove. When the first one is de-pressurized and unloaded, I have another batch of 7 quarts filled and ready to go again. For me and my budget I got 1 new and 2 used pressure canners for the price of 1 All American which fills my needs perfectly. Your milage may vary, but you with 4 children at home...! Lots of helping hands I'll bet.

[Meemur]

I got my All American at an estate sale for about a third of the cost of a new one. Keep your eyes open, and you might run into one still in the box. A lot of folks bought them for Y2K and never used them.

[HSmama24]

You will love any presure canner you get, gal. I have 4 personally and I don't mind the less than $10 cost to keep an extra sealing gasket and pressure release valve in reserve for each. Having multiples really make the canning go faster as while one is processing, I can be filling a second one and putting that on the stove. When the first one is de-pressurized and unloaded, I have another batch of 7 quarts filled and ready to go again. For me and my budget I got 1 new and 2 used pressure canners for the price of 1 All American which fills my needs perfectly. Your milage may vary, but you with 4 children at home...! Lots of helping hands I'll bet.

I actually have five kids now, I guess I need to chanage my signature:)
But with five under 12 they take a lot of my time which is why I have not thought about pressure canning until now. But for the past two years I have run out of tomatoes and they are a staple for us. I need to do something different to get more done in less time. Thank you so much for all your help, I will consider it all in my decisions

[Disastercat]

I love my All American, ordered back in the days when it didn't take Fort Knox to mail something to Europe - the other day it proved its worth when something affected the seal and the water boiled out. It did not blow up or anything, the steam just came out the sides and the pressure fell. Since I never leave the canner longer than a quick trip to the bathroom, I knew something was wrong right away and turned off the heat.

I didn't even lose any jars, and all I had was a bit of mess at the bottom of the canner (came right off with steel wool).

I have a pressure cooker that you can, can in also but I haven't done it yet. Instead I use it for cooking and the canner only for canning.

I may want to get a new Ball book myself as my is from 1998, though I tend to pressure can a lot of things, though I often do make high acid salsa (by adding a lot of vinegar and lime juice according to directions) simply because proper pressure canning jars are very hard to get here and expensive.

In the fact they are now coming in "easier to use" packs of three which cost even more than the packs of six did grrr...(so now nearly 5 dollars a jar for quarts)...

[Summerthyme]

In the fact they are now coming in "easier to use" packs of three which cost even more than the packs of six did grrr...(so now nearly 5 dollars a jar for quarts)...

Holy COW!! They really DON'T want people to be self sufficient over there, do they??!

I'm so grateful I was able to top off my supply of jars and then buy enough Tattler lids that I should have a lifetime supply, even if we (as I'm prepping for- just in case) ended up with all the grown kids plus grandkids back on the farm to feed. When I started stocking up seriously on jars, I was able to buy regular mouth pints for $3.25 a case. (the price tag is still on some of the boxes). My mom gave me all her canning jars a couple years ago... she never canned seriously, but it still added another 30 cases of pints to my collection.

My Amish neighbors buy them by the pallet, and then resell them... I pretty well finished my purchases with them last summer, although I may end up buying a few more cases of 1/2 gallon jars (for canning juice and cider) and maybe a few more of wide mouth pints (as I'm finding that getting regular mouth pints clean inside after canning meat for dog food is more than a little frustrating)

While it's a little crazy (and I occasionally hear about my "disorder" from my kids), I figure that the way things are going, even if they don't want them all, they will probably be able to sell the things for more than I paid for them new. But my daughter and one daughter in law do can, although not to the extent I do.

I do want to buy quite a few extra rubber rings for the Tattler lids... while the plastic lids themselves are "lifetime" quality, the rings aren't going to hold up to a lifetime of canning. But so far, I'm finding that they can be reused *at least* a dozen times with care.

Summerthyme

[pigzzilla]

Summerthyme, I just thought I would pass along my jar cleaning tip.

Years ago I was wandering around in a huge restrurant supply store. I found a '3 brush bar glass' washer. Looks kinda like this.._l_l_l_ A suction base with 3 large bristle brushes- like 3 stiff baby bottle brushes- cost about $15 and worth every cent. There is also a 2 brush model. The brushes are tall enough to clean quart jars and wide enough to clean wide jars. And do a great job on regular pint jars with stuck on stuff. With the 3 brushes, you can clean inside and out at the same time........pigz