Pressure canner advice, or precautions advice wanted

[Richard Chrz]

I’m in a place where I make 1 about 8 qts of bone stock about every other week, sometimes a bit less. I am using about 6 - 8qts in a week, and see that rising right now.

. I would rather make a large chunk of a year’s worth of stock throughout most of the winter, it’s so much easier getting the temp down quick on stocks, soups etc when it is 20 degrees outside,, so I am considering another freezer just for sauces, soups, stocks and bones saved for stocks, but another train of thought is a pressure canner and try that route.

feedback on size, etc..

thank you in advance.

[Mosca]

I’ve been checking garage sales and estate sales, and Fb Marketplace, for a pressure canner for a few months now. One will turn up eventually, I’m sure. I do see a lot of “6 qt pressure cooker/canner”, but 6 quarts is small. I’m pretty sure 22 quarts is what I want.

[Oak Smoke]

My daughter makes several sauces and cans quite a bit of her garden produce, Like Tom states she uses a 6 qt canner I bought her at Ace Hardware. I have my mothers stored somewhere. It’s a big black thing with a pressure gauge, big wing nut clamps, and a pop off valve. It looks like it was built in a pressure vessel shop. Frankly the thing scares me. I remember once when mom and my grandmother were using it the gasket failed. I thought we were all going to die. They turned off the burner and when it had cooled replaced the gasket and went right on with their canning. I will never use it. Maybe some of the kids will. The big ones have to be safer now.

[Richard Chrz]

So dose the 6 qt reference it will hold 6 quart yars, or? I understand qts in pans, but not in a canner

[SheilaAnn]

I have the 6-qt IP and it holds 2-3 qt jars or 3-4 pint jars. I just looked up my instructions.

I think Mosca is right with a 22-qt PC. Let me see what my boss has. She’s a master preserver.

[Oak Smoke]

Richard Chrz I looked at the pressure canners on line. A 23 qt Presto canner will do 7 qts or 20 pints. At the local Ace it was $189.00

[SheilaAnn]

With the kind of volume you are doing Richard Chrz bigger is certainly better! Unless you want to do several rounds at one time. I will say, though, when I do stock/broth, I just use the quart size freezer bags, press out the air, freeze flat. Stored in the door of the freezer like a filing cabinet. But that’s efficient for our needs. Each bag is roughly 2 cups.

[Richard Chrz]

That’s how I started doing it. Honestly, if I could keep up with it, I’m sure I could go through 8 -10 quarts if I just added in enjoying it as a hot beverage during the day,

[WI Bubba]

If you're doing that kind of volume, you might want to invest in a chiller. Something like this will cut your cooling time by a lot. if you want to kick it up a notch, add a pump like this.

[Richard Chrz]

I have thought about that, and have thought also about doing it in a brew kettle with a spout, and a false bottom so I can strain it the first time from the bottom.

[radshop]

I've never regretted that when I bought my pressure canner, I chose All American brand. They seal metal-on-metal without rubber gaskets and are essentially maintenance free - or at least 20-ish years and counting for me. Definitely a lot more expensive than other brands, but it's a buy-it-for-life and pass-down-to-the-descendants item if you care about that sort of thing.

[Donw]

Seconded. Buy once for life.

[Richard Chrz]

I had just read Kenji’s review on that one, and here you are posting it

Donw that’s kind of my philosophy.

[DavidNorcross]

This may be a real no no to many of the die hard canners out there. My wife and I store a fair amount of food each year and really like this canner. It is fast, easy to use and is a good size.

[Donw]

Sorry but I can’t get that link to open.☹️

[DavidNorcross]

Donw try again. Sorry, my bad

[mrteddyprincess]

Does the Ball Canning guide say that you need to chill pressure canned broth? I can't believe that broth would be much different than, say green beans, and I cool them down from hot to room temp, no "chilling" involved. The point of the pressure canner is that it gets above 240 F which is the point at which botulism spores are destroyed, then you have a sealed system and don't have to worry about bad stuff being in there. Maybe I'm misunderstanding something here?

(I was missing something, and you weren't talking about cooling with the canning process, you were just talking about cooling the broth to freeze--I also cool my broth outside in the winter!)

I have two Presto pressure canners that hold seven quart jars at a time. We canned 80 quarts of green beans in July, no issues.

I will say that the only thing I've replaced on either canner is the gasket. It lasts 5-10 years.

Good luck!

Brian

[Johnny Booth]

New to this, but been thinking about canning. My Mom used the old Ball jars and canned without pressure. Tomatoes usually. I understand commercial resale, but for home use is botulism an issue with a plain boiled ball jar?

[mrteddyprincess]

The issue is whether or not the food is at a high enough concentration of acid. Tomatoes typically have enough acidity that a water bath canner is sufficient because the acid also kills botulism spores.

However, low acid food like green beans are too low in acid to have that effect. A pressure canner creates pressure and raises the boiling point of the water inside from 1 atm of water boiling a 212 F to a higher pressure that causes the water to boil above 240 F. Johnny Booth

[dubob]

I have been pressure canning meats for about 11 years now. Almost exclusively wild meat such as waterfowl, venison, and salmon. All need to be pressure canned. I started with a 16 qt and used it for about 4 years. After deciding that doing two batches a day was more work than I was willing to suffer through, I gave the 16 qt to my daughter and bought a 23 qt from Amazon in 2019:

Amazon.com: Presto 01781 Pressure Canner and Cooker, 23 qt, Silver: Home & Kitchen

My recommendation would be this: Do not buy a pressure canner without a pressure gauge so that you can precisely monitor and maintain the pressure at the specified amount. At my altitude of 4200 ft MSL, I need to reached and maintain 13 psi for 100 minutes. I also recommend that you contact your local Extension Service and have them test the pressure gauge accuracy at least every 3 years. Also, bigger is always better. 😁 Buy 20 qt or larger.

I don't think paying over twice the cost for the All American is worth it. The Presto is always rated as top quality and you can buy a lot of gaskets ($8 apiece) with the money you save by buying the Presto. I haven't had to replace a gasket yet on either of my Prestos. But hey, its your money, so you can decide which one to buy. 😊

I typically do not add spices to any of my canner jars. I found that it is better (for me) to add spices when I actually consume the meat. YMMV!