Stainless Pressure Cooker/Canner Recommendations

[Winnie]

Canid, I did some research on pressure canning and I get the difference between steam canners, water bath canners and pressure canners, I use the water bath method for canning fruit. Perhaps it's an English/American difference. Pressure cookers over here tend to be small, I have the biggest pressure cooker you can buy over here it's 7 litre sized, and can only fit 3, 1 pint jars in at a time. It does have 3 weights 5,10 and 15lb. Compared to the pressure canners, I was under the impression that because of their small size, pressure cannot be maintained properly to guarantee complete processing. Also the larger pressure canners are made of a thicker gauge metal and take longer to cool down, so some of the processing time is in this period. As I said I could be wrong, But over here the use of a pressure cooker is not recommended for low acid foods for these reasons. Hence no-one cans meat here and the reason I've had such trouble finding one.

Just so you can see what I mean, here's a link to what's available here.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_...&sprefix=press

I'm probably not explaing things too well! Sorry.

[LowKey]

Reviving this a bit.

Rick, your All American, is it the gauge that reads the pressure, or the weight?
I'm really looking for a weighted pressure canner and would prefer not to have the Aggies having to check a gauge every year. I'd probably have to mail it somewhere for them to do that.

I'm looking at the the #915, the 15qt job.

[Rick]

The weight controls the pressure. It has a 5, 10 and 15lb dimple. The gauge is only there for reference. It's handy when you are letting it cool down because you don't want to pop the top until the pressure is at 0 but you can't regulate the pressure with gauge. You adjust the heat until the weight jiggles a couple of times a minute to release excess pressure.

[LowKey]

Just what I wanted to hear. Thanks!

I also found this while rummaging around the NCHFP site. Might clear up what is considered a pressure canner in a few of the previous posts.

Pressure canners come deep enough for one layer of quart or smaller size jars, or deep enough for two layers of pint or smaller size jars. The USDA recommends that a canner be large enough to hold at least 4 quart jars to be considered a pressure canner for its published processes.

http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publication...s_canners.html

[Chris]

I think most big canners (and big stock pots) are aluminum simply because stainless would be too heavy for many people to handle (and too expensive for many people to buy).

[Rick]

That's an excellent point, Chris. I have a canner that can process two rows of jars and when that rascal is full, it's heavy. I can't imagine what a stainless steel one would weigh.

[Chris]

Besides the point that most big pots like that are only used to handle water or stocks, which aluminum does fine. You'd only want steel if you were doing something very acidic like tomato sauce, and if you're doing 20 quarts of tomato sauce... Well, you're probably cooking for a barracks, not a home.

[edr730]

I only know the word "pressure cooker" and I've never heard the word "pressure canner". I'm assuming it must be new or unheard of, by me, terminology. I only know what the common usage of the word is here. Whenever anyone needed a big pot to cook in, they always used the big blue or white ceramic pots. These are the pots or roasters that everyone, that I know, uses for tomato canning.

[Rick]

Pressure canners have been around for a long time. It's the only method of canning at home that is safe for long term storage of non-acidic foods.

[edr730]

It's the name not the tool that is unfamiliar to me. We called them "pressure cookers". I'm sure there are many store canned vegetables that I probably never tasted until close to my adult life. We just canned some cabbage soup last night. I've given two of them away in the past year because I had too many around the house.

[Rick]

Oh, sorry. Around here a pressure cooker was a smaller pressurized vessel. The larger was called the canner.