pressure canner/pressure cooker

trying_to_stay_afloat

Hi all
I'm growing much more fruit and veg this year especially potatoes. I want to can the veg as keeping it somewhere cool is virtually impossible as I live in spain.

I've been researching online and some sites say I can only use a pressure canner and not a pressure cooker. Is there much difference. What can you advise.
Many thanks

maryb

Pressure canners are much bigger.  The recommended times for canning on the main US sites take into account the time it takes to get to pressure and depressure which are much longer.  Also you need to vent ie close the cooker but just let it steam without a weight for 10 minutes, before you start bringing it to pressure and you can't do that with all pressure cookers.  You need to make sure you are operating at at least 10lb of pressure - more if you are well above sea level though that is more of an issue in te US than the UK - and some pressure cookers are only just over that.

Having said all that, US sites are very very cautious about canning because botulism spores are more prevalent in US soils than in the UK.  Unless you get the contents up to a sufficiently high temperature (which needs pressure) botulism spores can survive in the sealed jar.  There hasn't really been any research on this in the UK since WW2 when it was decided it was too risky to recommend bottling vegetables given the wide variety of facilities available in wartime.

The French on the other hand, quite happily waterbath veg at temperatures no higher than ordinary boiling point.  There is a lot of information on the Le Parfait site with English translations.  This is also discussed in a big Facebook group about preserving and Canning which might give you more information

trying_to_stay_afloat

many thanks. that's really helpful. Off to do more research now

maryb

I think there is a new version of the Instant Pot which has a canning mode.  The pressures and temperatures it reaches are being validated by a Canadian university so the verdict may be that it is safe to use as a canner.  But it won't hold very much.  Useful for doing a couple of jars eg chicken stock if you boil up a carcase.  But if you have a big harvest to process you would need the big canner otherwise you'll never get through it.  I bought my canner many years ago when the US exchange rate was much kinder. Even then it was an investment purchase.  I don't know how much it would be now

PipneyJane

I’ve done a little pressure canning, but I am not an expert.   (Mainly stewed apples and crab apple “cheese”.)

When I looked into pressure canners vs pressure cookers, I found out that American pressure cookers only reach 5lb of pressure while their pressure cookers reach 15lb.  The advice given on the US Department of Agriculture site was to add 20 minutes at full pressure if you were using a cooker rather than a canner.

I have a 10L pressure cooker, which was bought precisely because it was the largest I could find.  It reaches 13lb of pressure - I had to email the manufacturer to find that out -  so I add 5 minutes to the times quoted in recipes.  It takes 3 large (1L) Kilner jars, padded out with tea towels.  I’ve also used Le Parfait jars in it.

If you are in the market for a pressure cooker/canner, I’d suggest buying it in France.  I’ve sometimes seen them in the big Carrefour at Cite Europe, Calais, which is where I usually buy my jars.  There’s a big kitchen equipment shop in the nearby outlet centre, which always has 12L pressure cookers.  (I can’t justify buying another, unless the current one dies, but that’s where I’d buy it.)

- Pip