Pressure canner owners: When did you last can? *Poll*

[PistolBob]

"A pint's a pound, world around" is a good rule of thumb.

I have about 50 pints of elk canned and I checked a half dozen. They net between 475 grams and 500 grams, so just a touch over 1 lb.

That also happens to be the last thing I canned. Last thing I pressure canned was a couple dozen jars of turnips that a goat farmer was giving away this past fall.

I wish you were in Indy....I'd LOVE to trade for some of that Elk.

 

[PistolBob]

I like to post this link every now and then....

National Center for Home Food Preservation | USDA Publications

It's the USDA version of the Ball Blue Book - online and in PDF format.

 

[MordecuS]

This thread is awesome. My wife and I can salsa primarily, but I want to branch out into other foods as well.

 

[Jason R. Bruce]

Pork butt for 1.39 a pound, great deal right NOW (a year or so ago I went to sams and bought a case for $1.15 a pound and ground it all up, but current prices are about $1.60-1.80)

Sorry, have to chime in on this one... unless something changed in the last two weeks case price at Sams has been running $1.32-$1.36 / # for several months. I take a photo of the case-price-lists every time I walk past it, just for reference when I'm elsewhere. I bought two cases @ $1.32/# on Feb 5th. They rang up between $97-$99 each as I recall.

 

[GhostofWinter]

Sorry, have to chime in on this one... unless something changed in the last two weeks case price at Sams has been running $1.32-$1.36 / # for several months. I take a photo of the case-price-lists every time I walk past it, just for reference when I'm elsewhere. I bought two cases @ $1.32/# on Feb 5th. They rang up between $97-$99 each as I recall.

I havn't looked up here, but suspect because we are so close to Chicago (less than 40 miles) we pay a higher price than you would there. I know that when I am down visiting family in southern Indiana prices are some things are cheaper than up here. Same goes for gasoline most times.

 

[Jason R. Bruce]

10-4. The Sams I visit most often is just a couple miles from Louisville, KY.

 

[GhostofWinter]

10-4. The Sams I visit most often is just a couple miles from Louisville, KY.

Is it in Indiana or Kentucky?

 

[HeadlessRoland]

A thread on another forum got me thinking, when is the last time you canned? For me it was a couple weeks ago, and I had run into an issue I had never run into before. I had chatted with a guy at work, he owns a NICE canner. He is the type of prepper who buys everything he can, and is easily scared into buying overpriced equipment ($2000 solar generator that has only one battery in it). He seems to be of the mindset that just owning the stuff is enough. The high end canner (all american I think) he has has been on his shelves for 5-10 years and he has never even taken it out of the box. I have a couple dozen batches under my belt and am still learning new things, so when is the last time you practiced your canning?

The issue I ran into:

I canned some garbanzo beans recently. Should be the same as any dry bean, and it was. When the cooling was done I heard the clink of the safety latch dropping, indicating the pressure was down to 0 psi so I could take the lid off. I took the lid off, and within seconds the jars started flash boiling! I put the lid back on with the weight as quick as I could and the pressure climbed to 10psi. After another hour of cooling the pressure dropped back down again, I took the jars out and tightened the lids. They all sealed, but almost ALL of the liquid had flash boiled out of the jars. I had never had that happen before. I am glad it was only 4 quarts, but just goes to show that you will continue to learn for a while.

I let it sit for another five to ten minutes after the indicator has dropped. Do you adjust your temperatures in the midst of canning too rapidly? That will cause siphoning too. Ask your friend if he's accepting offers on his All-American.

 

[djl02]

I like to can pork tenderloin,when its on sale. killer with sauerkraut

 

[6mm Shoot]

Yesterday the wife and I canned home ground beef made from sirloin tip roast. We also canned some home made Italian sausage made from pork loin. We got a good price on sirloin tip roast and pork loin at Kroger. We also had to take some loin chops out of the freezer and can them before they went bad. We can most of what we eat. So canning is dun when we find something we need on sale. We try to do most of it in the Winter though that don't always work out. I know that we have reduced our food bill by at least a third.

We paid $3.69 a pound for sirloin tip roast and ground that up. Ground beef is 4.25 a pound. Also we don't put the fat in our ground beef that they do at the store. Italian sausage goes for $4.00 a pound and we paid $2.00 a pound for pork loin and ground it up and added the spices. We end up getting a better grade of sausage and spiced to our liking. That is just two examples of what I was talking about. Buy in bulk and can it.

 

[bwframe]

Great thought provoking thread! You folks are giving me great ideas to keep my canner at work all year.

I bought my All American last year, making the agreement with myself that I had to justify it's cost with usage. I done a few loads of beans to get familiar with the process, but my goal was meat canning to reduce dependency on freezer space. So far I'm happy with the results. The self motivation pushed me to take and butcher a couple of does this last season. At the same time I pulled sale bought chicken and pork out of the freezer, to round out the batches and fill the canner. Last batch of venison six weeks ago.

 

[DougBarnes101]

Do you have a glass top stove that you can on? If so has it done any damage? Or do you use one of the supplemental type single burners for your canning?

PS How you been my friend? We need to meet and have coffee and shoot the **** sometime soon

Great thought provoking thread! You folks are giving me great ideas to keep my canner at work all year.

I bought my All American last year, making the agreement with myself that I had to justify it's cost with usage. I done a few loads of beans to get familiar with the process, but my goal was meat canning to reduce dependency on freezer space. So far I'm happy with the results. The self motivation pushed me to take and butcher a couple of does this last season. At the same time I pulled sale bought chicken and pork out of the freezer, to round out the batches and fill the canner. Last batch of venison six weeks ago.

 

[PistolBob]

Do you have a glass top stove that you can on? If so has it done any damage? Or do you use one of the supplemental type single burners for your canning?

PS How you been my friend? We need to meet and have coffee and shoot the **** sometime soon

I do all my pressure canning on the back porch or in the garage, I use a propane fired "Cajun Cooker" burner....same thing you find with those turkey fryers. My wife had to have a glasstop range....after she read the book on it she was ready to throw it away....no canning, no cast iron, oh brother what a waste of dough.

 

[GhostofWinter]

I am actually thinking about building a 'summer kitchen' in the back of the house that will house my smokers and grills, and such. I figure I could put a single or double burner propane cooker out there to do my canning as well in the summer to keep even more heat out of the house. I mean I already use a turkey fryer for my waterbath canning so I might as well do my pressure canning outside as well.

 

[bwframe]

Do you have a glass top stove that you can on? If so has it done any damage? Or do you use one of the supplemental type single burners for your canning?

PS How you been my friend? We need to meet and have coffee and shoot the **** sometime soon

Doing good. Yes we do! We should tie that together with some shooting at the club.

I've never canned anything inside. I have a burner like PistolBob's mounted on the outside rail of my back deck.

 

[guns and groceries]

Look into changing the flip valve. It is a very cheap part on line and takes about 2 mins to change the valve and add the weight. I have 3 All American canners and bought them used and replaced the valves and weights on all of them. I can now just hear the phhh of the steam and know it is just fine. Very simple and a real time saver and makes me feel much better about the pressure staying constant. The replacement parts are genuine AA parts and will fit just about every AA canner out there.

 

[jeepville]

we can with our aa pressure canner on our glass top no issues yet. We also use cast iron on it. We hate the stove but it came with the house and wont replace it till it breaks or we have a windfall.

My wife pressure cans all the time we do chili, turkey broth, 6 bean and other things.

 

[Rexmage]

Just outta curiosity whats a good canner one can get. I've helped my mom and gramma do jellies and stuff but I want to preserve fish and anything I take in the woods, and can some stuff from the garden this year and I don't think my dutch oven can handle it. I'd like one that can do the heavy duty surivialist type canning too. Appreciate it.

 

[Spudgunr]

Looks like we have had quite the discussion here, awesome. I have been needing to make another youtube video, its been too long. I think my next one may either be a look over the canning equipment I have or a test of the tattler lids I just got.

Rexmage: I would get any weighted gauge type canner. All american canners are probably great, and I highly want one (especially the 30 or 41 quart canner). They don't need a gasket to seal which is a big plus, but not ABSOLUTELY critical. It does mean your canner would go for quite a while after gaskets are no longer available, but the gasket I'm using on my canners is 10+ years old. I don't can a ton, I don't know if that affects the life or not. The weight on them looks just like the mirro weight, making me wonder if the parts convert. I suspect that they are just 1/8" NPT threads, I'll have to measure them and see.

Really, I would just get started with whatever you can get off ebay or craigslist. Check the ads out, place some want to buy ads. Don't go over $3 a dozen for jars because rings and lids will run you $4 a dozen or so, and thats about what new jars will run you. Make sure the canner you get used comes with the weight, they aren't cheap by themselves. If the gasket doesn't feel super flexible then try to pay around $20 or so for the canner. Replacement gaskets can be had for around $10 or so, safety fuses around $5-10 also. I got a little 4 quart one that I bought primarily for the weight, it was $7 which was cheaper than the weight and vent tube. Still, one safety fuse later and I have a small canner for small batches (it only holds 3 or 4 pint jars).

I like the fact that the mirro canners that I own have one weight that can do 5, 10, or 15 psi, but they are pretty loud rattling. The presto canner I got for free only came with the 15psi weight (which is the safest because that is the pressure you need if you are over 1000 feet), but it is a much more gentle swishing sound that is much more pleasant.

I am not sure why 16 quart canners exist, maybe they can also do water bath canning? I personally would just get whatever you can get cheap, but if you are going to do a lot of canning in quart jars I'd definitely go for a 22-23 quart canner. A 12 quart can hold around 7 quarts or maybe 8 pints. A 23 quart can also hold 7 quarts, but you can stack the pints and get 16 in there. A 16 quart has pretty much the same capacity as a 12, you MAY get 1 more jar in it if it is bigger diameter instead of being taller.

 

[100Xkid]

My wife canned some tomatoes this year and today I am taking my first try at chicken breast. They are in the canner right now and have about 50 minutes left. hope it works!!!!!!
lol