I searched for the model my friend has and found a forum chat someone who had the same model posted. At that time people were saying what you said, Kate, and that parts will be hard to get...and that was over 10 years ago.
I have a dozen or so Weck canning jars like this https://hospitalityconnectkitchenwa...MIrIK7oMCeigMVaieDAx3hrgD7EAQYDSABEgIxT_D_BwE But I can’t pressure can them cause the glass lid bows off them ….and you end up,with a hella of a mess in the canner.
Yeh, except the All Americans are not real good at water bathing, I think because the heavy metal-to-metal lid seals relatively tightly merely from being set on the pot. The instructions say to use a dedicated water bath pot, or to "water bath" in the All American @ 10psi (and expect mushy results.) I remembered that I bought an old aluminum 13qt Presto canner at Goodwill when I first moved in and was then afraid to use it. Here's a pic of that same Presto model #0171001 but a different configuration from an EBay listing: Mine has the pressure weights at top center where the gauge is on this one, but no second outlet for a gauge AND weights. The manual I downloaded does not show a gauge. I've never seen weights AND a gauge on a pressure canner. Mine also has the pressure and relief valves you see at 12 and 6 o'clock on this one. Some of the other listings are shiny aluminum. Mine is matte like the above pic. I bought a pressure regulator for it but did not replace the two valves. That one might be good for water bath canning.
How did you manage to post a photo @John Brunner Is a pressure cooker is any different to a canner ? …or is the inly difference the size ….
We can still link to pictures that are on another website. We just cannot save pics from our computers to the forum's servers. But we CAN use a "Photo Hosting" service where we save pics from our computers to that hosting service's servers, and then link to our saved pictures that are on that website (hosting service.) From what I recently read, pressure canners can also be used as pressure cookers. But not all pressure cookers can be canners, because they are too small. Complete sterilization requires a long-enough time under heat and pressure. Pressure cookers under 10-11 quarts heat up too fast and cool down too quickly to ensure proper sterilization, and most of them are only 4-6 qts. The problem with using a pressure canner as a pressure cooker is that it would make so much daggone food!
I can see that heating up too fast might mean you are overshooting the pressure, and the cooling down too rapidly might make the lids unseal. I think you could still use an All- American for waterbathing; just put a pencil or something soft between the lid and the base. I just don't see why that wouldn't work. Ypu wouldn't want something hard like a metal utensil unless you wanted to truly dedicate it to a water bath. You could even drill a hole in the top if you wished to do that, but you could never go back to pressuring.
I thought the issue with "too fast" was that there was not the proper processing time under heat & pressure to ensure adequate sterilization...but I've never canned before. Here is a brief article titled "Minimum jar load for pressure canners." It speaks to the heat up/cool down times as part of Total Sterilization Time (TST) and why there should be a minimum number of jars in the canner to ensure that TST is met (I think Beth and/or you mentioned using jars of water to take up space.) This was new guidance issued by Ball in 2016, and was restated in different terms by the National Center for Home Food Preservation. The article says that the hew standard was issued because in the past people were canning large volumes, so there was never an issue with under-loaded canners. But now you have folks like me who might have small gardens, or who want to can the occasional batch of soups, stews, broths and sauces as a matter of convenience rather than necessity, so we might not be achieving adequate jar loads/TST.
I forgot to reply to this. You're probably right. I've not water-bath canned yet, so don't know what the process is or how tight the lid should be, etc. I think I picked up one of those large crab steaming pots at a yard sale...I'll have to look.
Even steam canning, which was frowned upon for decades even though the Amish had used it for generations. is now "legal" if there is a temperature gauge on the steam canner. When we can, the time is always when the canner achieves pressure or temperature (in the case of water bath canning). In water bath canning, the time begins when the water in the canner returns to or achieves a full boil. The time is dictated by the altitude at which you are canning since the temperature will be lower at higher altitudes. In pressure canning, the temperature begins when the canner is vented completely, usually 10 minutes after steam begins to stream strongly from the pressure vent. If, say, the time is 90 minutes, the time starts at that time and usually involves adding a weight or closing a valve. So 10 minutes to vent then 90 minutes canning when the pressure is achieved, so if the desired pressure is 10 pounds, the time starts when the temp reaches the 10 pounds and continues as long as the pressure stays above that ten pounds. If the pressure should drop below 10 pounds, the timer is restarted when the pressure is back above ten pounds. When the time is done, the heat is removed or turned off and the canner is left untouched until the pressure has returned to zero, at which time the weight is removed or the valve is opened. If there is no big steam escape, it is safe to open the canner and remove the jars. Current books recommend in water bath canning to leave the jars submerged in the water for 5 minutes after the heat is removed before removing the jars. I don't think this is a safety issue, but it may reduce seal or jar breakage. It is a relatively recent addition, so I don't think all long-time canners do that. Any good canning book will tell you all this. Ball Blue Book is the canner's Bible for many things and a good basic reference.
I’ve never seen a blue book but I know about them ….i did pay for and download a blue book once it must be on my old laptop . I’ve got a modern version of it called Ball complete book of home canning https://www.dymocks.com.au/ball-com...MIioKbgrSfigMVEQyDAx15lS_pEAQYDyABEgLl8vD_BwE I like reading your information you post @Don Alaska you are a wealth of knowledge and I’ve picked up quite a bit knowledge of gardening from you.. Thank you When we can we only (bottle fruit ) no meats / beans anything like that , DH has worked out all the tech parts for above sea levels and he actually sits in the shed and times the process / puts the bottles in canner / removes then …. while I make the light syrup / wash / cut bottle ( wash bottles and lids ) DH has got a fairly large island bench in the shed so we use that for the canning part, and leave the preserved fruit for a day before putting it inside where it’s stored for our use I canned 2 x jars …of apricots today, they are about a 2 cup size wide mouth ball mason jar 475 mills …I only did then in a lightweight saucepan/ stew pot on my stove top as our apricots are ripening but not they are not all that big …but I don’t waste them ..there is lager ones coming on , and we have a few stinking hot days from Sunday 104+ F …so that will start to “ cook then “ on the tree ( stone burn ) so we will be doing early morning checking / picking apricots each day for the next week or so don’t think we are going to get enough to dry any this summer tho …..we will just have to wait and see
Of all the goofy things, this was on my mind when I woke up this morning. I think the driving force behind the revised advice is that the legacy canning recipes/instructions put out by Ball have been based upon the volumes that people had always canned. The instructions state a time that starts & ends as you stated, but that Ball recipe processing time is based upon a presumed minimum "heat up/cool down" time, which in the past had always been achieved because people were usually processing full canners. From the linked article: Higher BTU burners could also produce so much heat that the recommended come-up time for canning could be altered, potentially producing an unsafe final product. The National Center also warns against rushing the cool-down times, because the technicians who developed the tested processing times, rather than burn extra cooking fuel by extending processing times, instead counted on the cool down times for additional sterilization. As I read and reread this, I find it interesting that recipe/instruction writers would cut food safety so close merely to save a little fuel. Or would over-processing yield a lower-quality result?
To my way of thinking, the processing time does not include heat up/cool down--it is simply the actual processing time when the canner is at a boil (for water bath) or at pressure (for a pressure canner). The heat up time isn't really sterilizing anything until the water reaches temperature which is when processing starts, and though it does remain hot during the cool down I'm not sure it's still at a sterilizing temp. The main food safety considerations are things like starting with clean jars and lids (I put mine in a slow oven to sterilize instead of boiling), removing air pockets from the filled jar, wiping the top of the jar after filling so that the seal works right, tightening the lids, and handling the jars carefully when adding/removing from the canner. All food handling safety rules should be followed. One other thing that I've never felt good about is removing the rings for storage after the jars have sealed. One thought is that if a jar comes unsealed when stored it will be more obvious if the ring has been removed. I feel that the rings help keep the seal in tact but I'm probably wrong as usual. At any rate, I store my canned jars with rings on.
As you know, the recipes are written to be used that way. But those "at-pressure" times times are calculated as a component of an assumed minimum heat up/cool down time that is driven by the size of the pressure canner and the Jar Load. (I don't think any of this relates to water-bath canning.) The other component of total processing time is to not use a canner (pressure cooker) that cannot hold a minimum of (4) quart jars, because of the truncated heat up/cool down, per yet another article: Yes, you can use a pressure cooker for canning, but it’s vital to ensure it meets certain criteria. A suitable pressure cooker for canning should be large enough to hold at least four quart-sized jars. This is essential because smaller pressure cookers or saucepans heat and cool too quickly for effective canning. All of this begs the question Can I extend the "under pressure" time if I wanted to can a small batch of something and use a pressure cooker? I can see me making a batch of Mexican sauces that only amount to pints and wanting to can them in my pressure cooker for convenience . Maybe I'll send in the question to some of these sites once I get a little experience with this stuff.