Using a pressure canner is a little bit different than hot water bath canning, in that it requires a little more attention and every pressure canner is a little bit different. Making sure your pressure canner is in top order {or more specifically, the gauge} is essential. You can usually take it down to your local extension office or hardware store and have it tested–and you really should do this yearly to ensure your safety and the safety of the food you’re canning.
Here’s a basic step-by-step guide for using a pressure cooker:
1. First off, when using a pressure canner, make sure your stove top is level. Also, avoid using outdoor gas grills, as they can get too hot.
2. Put the rack and hot water into the canner. If your recipe doesn’t call for a specific amount of water, fill it about 2-3 inches high in the canner.
3. Place your filled jars, with lids and rings, on the jar rack in the pressure canner.
4. Fasten the lid of the pressure canner. Leave the weight off of the vent pipe for now.
5. Turn the burner to high and allow water to boil. Steam should flow freely through the vent pipe. Allow the steam to flow for 10 minutes or so. {This is called venting or exhausting the canner}.
6. Place the weighted gauge/counterweight on the vent pipe and allow the canner to pressurize.
7. Start your processing timer once the pressure reading on the dial is reached per your recipe.
8. It is EXTREMELY important for the safety of your food that you maintain the specified pressure for your recipe the duration of processing. This can require some babysitting on your part of your pressure canner. If the pressure dips below the required number, start your processing time all over from the beginning. It is equally important that you don’t allow the pressure gauge to climb unnecessarily. Too much pressure, and KABOOM. {Newer pressure canners have a safety mechanism that will prevent this from happening}
9. Once canned goods have finished processing, remove the pressure canner from the heat {carefully, you don’t want to tilt the jars inside and cause food to leak out and prevent sealing} or just turn off the heat. The canner will depressurize.
10. Once the canner is completely depressurized, wait another 10 minutes and then carefully unfasten the lid and remove {away from your face, unless you want a super hot steam facial}.
11. Use a jar lifter to lift the jars out of the canner–again be careful not to disturb the jars too much so that the liquids spill out, stopping the sealing process.
12. Set canned jars on a towel on the counter, adequately spaced from one another, and allow them to cool.
13. Allow the jars to sit untouched for 12-24 hours {or until COMPLETELY cooled}.
14. Check for a good seal on jars and remove bands from jars before storing.
Pressure canning seems a little overwhelming at first, but it really is pretty easy once you get the hang of it. Plus, if you want to can meats, beans, etc. it’s pretty much your only option.
This is the pressure canner I use, my MIL gave it to me for Christmas one year, and it’s awesome!
See all of my canning recipes HERE.
Madam Chow says
Fantastic tutorial, Mavis! The All American brand pressure canner that you have is the best one on the market, period. I have one, too. One of the reasons that they are so good is that they have no rubber parts that can deteriorate over time. I love my canner, too!
Tracy says
Thank you for the walk through and pics on this. I’ve always been very hesitant to try pressure canning. This eased my anxiety a bit and I just might give it a try!
Amy Robbins says
O…M…G!!! Mavis you read my mind. My husband has brought home a TON of salmon that he’s caught fresh from Puget Sound. Our poor little electric smoker can barely keep up. Last night I made plans to finally bite the bullet and pressure can it all—-my FIRST foray into pressure canning after many years of water-bath canning jam. Lo and behold, I wake up to this post on pressure canning!!! Yay!!! What a confidence booster for me!
Mavis Butterfield says
🙂 You can do it!!
Leanna says
Great post, Mavis. I would hate to be without my pressure canner – in fact, I invested in 2 of the All American canners and have never regretted it. Awesome for canning chicken, sausage, beef, venison, green beans and dried beans. Worth all the money I spent to get them.
Madam Chow says
This is good to hear – I have one and I love it so much that I have been thinking of getting a smaller size, too, but I thought, “who has 2 pressure canners?” LOL!
Alicia says
Hi Mavis! Thanks for the tute! My husband and I are trying to can this year. We started out with an inherited canner that is 20+ years old. Did fine for awhile, but I think it needs a new gasket. So we set it aside and bought a bigger one, 23qt. Well, we are just not figuring it out!! It seems to HOLD at 17 lbs, won’t go lower. Can I can my green beans at 17#??? I was canning at 10#, the book says 15#. Any suggestions on why it won’t go lower???
Mavis Butterfield says
I am a stickler for following recipe directions. If I were you I would go get it tested at your local hardware store or grange. 🙂
Katrina Fournier says
Shouldn’t #14 say to ADD the bands for storage? I’ve never seen anyone REMOVE them for storage??
Debra says
It is recommended to REMOVE the bands for storage – the reason is that if you lose a seal on a jar you’ll know it if the bands are off. I was glad to have learned this last year because over the summer one of the seals failed on a jar of soup I had pressure canned. If the band had been on the jar I might not have known that the seal failed. Similarly it is best not to stack home canned jars for the same reason.
suzanne says
We always remove bands unless transporting or storing the leftovers in the fridge.
Ellen in Clackamas says
We always took the bands off. That way you can use them for the next batch you put in the canner.
Noel G. says
Do not store with bands. It is a false sense of protection. Most people tend to then tighten them down and end up breaking the seals.
RayK says
It looks like you remove the heat source and then remove the weight, if you’re pulling hot jars out of the canner. Since the canner depressurizes faster than the jars, the jar contents are still super-heated, and will continue to boil until the internal temperature falls. I let my canner cool with the weight still on, and frequently find jars with a significant loss of liquid (and the juices in the canner). How do you keep jars from boiling liquid out of the jar, particularly if you are rapidly depressurizing the canner??
Mom24boybarians says
NEVER RAPIDLY DEPRESSURIZE A PRESSURE CANNER WITH JARS IN IT!!!!!
Removing the weight to rapidly reduce pressure is dangerous for 2 reasons: 1) you can get a horrible steam burn. 2) the physics of pressure will cause it to try to equalize and at best, juices inside the jar with be sucked out and at worst, some of your jars will explode.
Using wet cool towels or a water bath to the outside of the canner to rapidly cool it will do the same things mentioned above.
Proper method:
Once time is up, either leave your canner on the stove or move to the side to cool naturally. [I think the best choice is to leave in place on your stove.] Once the pressure has dropped of it’s own accord (any locks have dropped and you can jiggle the weight without any steam showing), remove the weight and lid. Now, using a lifter, remove the jars. They will still be aboil inside but no juices/fluid should be escaping. Set on the towel and let completely cool.
If you still have a problem of the fluids inside the jars escaping during processing, it might be that you used too high of a temperature to start and get up to the “Venting” stage. You want to be at a reasonable heat to get it all hot enough for a gentle column of steam, not a powerful/forceful column, before you add the weight.
I hope this helps clarify things.
Dennis says
Possibly, also make sure you leave enough head space between the contents and the lids!
Deb says
I would love to hear a solution to RayK’s question as we also lose liquid from the jars when we’ve pressure canned green beans. We don’t bother now because they just tasted like water. Any thoughts?
MK says
Couple of questions…
1 when you are done with canning is the interior discolored as well as the aluminum that the jars rest on?
2 When you remove the jars all of them are still boiling inside. If one is not boiling and the lid is down is it storage worthy?
I bought and All American model 930.
I preformed the first canning attempt with chicken. I ran a batch of just water to see what I was in for. Where the water was inside it discolored the metal. When I did the chicken I placed a ‘shelf’ on the bottom then 6 canning cars on top of the shelf. The shelf is a dark color now. I can only assume that is normal…
After I allowed the Pressure Caner to depressurize I removed the 6 chicken jars and one was not boiling inside. Yet the lid shows a vacuum.
I live in CO the altitude is 5892 ft at my location. I used the weight at 15 and the dial is supposed to be 13. The closest I could get was 14. It is recommended that it not to be placed on top of a glass top stove. So we used a propane burner hence the cause of the dial be 14 instead of 13.
The jar that didn’t continue to boil internally we placed in the fridge after it cooled we will use it tomorrow.
MK says
RayK,
I am but a noob but I would assume you didn’t leave a 1inch head space in your jar. I use the Ball Canning Instructions and it relates this information. And it also states you are to leave the weight on while it decompresses before you open the caner.
Maryellen says
How big of a pressure cooker do you really need? I looked at the one Mavis posted…. How many cans does it do at a time? Is it better to can with a pressure cooker than the canning pots I see at Walmart? We really want to get started on canning, but would only like to invest in the right equipment one time. Thanks!! 🙂
walt says
I started with 21 quart one same as mavis it holds 7 quarts I think 14 or 17 pints
walt says
any one have recipe for corn an tomatoe done in pressure canner
walt says
corn by it selt an tomatoes by itself
Demarie says
I just bought a pressure canner with the intent to can my own salmon and such. I was then told it was really bad to use it on my stovetop because I have electric coils. Is this true? I was told to get a outdoor single flame burner to pressure can with. HELP!
debbi says
I also would like to hear thoughts on canning on an electric stovetop! Possible or not?
Ann Mariea Freyne says
I would love to get an answer to the same question. I just bought the (930 30 quart), and have a GE Electric coil stove top. I understand that glass stove tops might get damaged and/or scratched due to the weight of a full load; however, is it safe to pressure can with the 930 on my electric coil stove?
mom24boys says
I’ll answer since it looks like no replies have been posted.
I am not an expert, I only have my experience and what I have observed and been told over the years.
I have used a pressure canner on electric coils and had no problems what so ever. I have know women who canned for 60 years on electric coils only, never having a gas stove.
The only concern I have seen validly expressed was specific about a solid/glass top electric stove.
Sharon Kline says
How long do you process the beans ? I’ve used one for years but always done the hot water bath first !
Melody says
How did you fit 14 pint jars in your pressure canner. I can only fit 8.