Hi everyone,
This is an update on my American Pressure canner from Lehmans that some of us were chatting about today. I found the parts on the website, and was able to order them and have them sent to a friend with an APO address so the shipping was the same as if it were in the US. It may take six weeks to get to the UK but that's all right. I also got the new edition of the Encylopedia of Country Living. My friend will enjoy reading the book until I can pick it up and we can probably mail the parts over to my house since it is not that far and/or have someone bring them over when they visit.

So, by in a month or two I should be able to ask people all sorts of questions when I start trying to seriously pressure can for the first time! I've done a lot of water bath canning but this will be my first experience with the pressure canning, I may also experiment cooking large roasts and things in the canner since it suggests doing that too.

More later when I have news.

DC

There is one more item that is indspensible.
That is a Ball Blue Book guide to pressure canning or more commonly,
The Ball Blue Book
Also, at Backwoods Home Magazine there are the collected articles by life long homesteader, Jackie Clay.

There is one over riding rule of thumb for all pressure canning.

The minimum time to hold at pressure any food is the amount of time needed for the longest necessary for any one item in the jars.

For instance (examples, not real ones) if you have potatoes, carrots, onions and beef, you must process for the amount necessary for the beef, e.g. 45 minutes, not the much lower amount if the vegetables were canned alone. Also you can keep this in mind if you dislike the overcooked texture of the longer cooked vegetables.

Now your off to the races, it's a blast

The only other rule of thumb that comes to mind is to beware of too short processing of very thick foods such as pumpkin,etc.

DC, Pressure canning is easy, and this is from a guy. The p/c is the old version of the microwave, yes, it can be that fast. after you have done it twice, an expert you will be. But, follow direction's..............wireless

OK, I wrote a nice post last night thanking everyone and the computer must have eaten it. So, Rinse and repeat thanks for all the encouragement and advice. I do have the Ball Blue Book 1999 edition, I looked at the new one and it did not seem much different and from what I've been reading I could not get some of the new fangled "suggested" replacements for things like corn starch (which is hard enough to get) anyway.

The Sunday Times of London ran an article last Fall on the comeback of home preservation and canning and how there were now "Kilner" Jars (aka English Mason Jars) again for the first time in years. I checked and yes, they were being made again, though I can get less expensive version from the factory in Belfast.

About 1998, when I was ordering all my canning stuff, I called the factory in London that pretty much supplies all of the UK Supermarkets and such with jars, and they told me "I guess we English are lazy those are not made anymore, if you want 1,000 jars we can order a flat from France." I tried, but could not get enough interested people to go in on me with such a large order, since I don't have space for 1,000 jars even if I could have afforded them. Maybe over time as I collected them, but not all at once.

When I showed the article to DH he said, "maybe the upside to this economic mess is that people all over the modernized world will regain some of basic skills that have almost been forgotten, then even if things are better than we think they will be, there will be another generation that can pass them on if needed in the future."

However, the Pressure Canner problem comes from the tiny kitchens and tiny stuff that most UK households (and Irish) have. Even during the second world war when home canning was at it peak over here, most of it was water bath canning with a small amount of pressure canning done in tiny pressure cookers a couple of jars at a time.

Instead of pressure canning, people continued the old practice of making pickles and chuntneys with vinegar and other acids that made vegetables safe to water bath can (or more or less safe). They also preserved meats by pickling and drying, often canning the results to last longer but again via the water bath method.

I've learned that Aussies and Americans (and some South Africans) always know exactly what you mean by Pressure canning, where the Brits and Irish are confused. That's because all three places had frontiers at just the right time, the start of the new technology in the 1840's and 1850's. People in new areas were open to new ideas, and they were willing to try something different whereas the average person in agricultural England or Ireland would not dare to risk living through the Winter by trying some new fangled way of food preservation, nor could they have afforded the jars. Instead, over here factories (starting with military suppliers) began canning food and over time the prices dropped to where the poor could afford them. Used jars where then re-used for water bath canning.

The same thing pretty much happens with home sausage making with Germans and Northern Europeans in the US bringing over Grand-Daddy's meat grinder, while in Ireland you traded the butcher part of your home raised pig in exchange for him making the sausages and hams for you.

Anyway, I'm getting a bit excited now that Wireless has told me it really isn't all that hard. I also now have enough interested friends that getting people to help me lift the stuff won't be as big a problem. In the past, even water bath canning was such a production because at 4'8" tall with a bad back and shoulder, I need him to help lift jars and things. This last time when I had to use the individual jar lifter on the smaller pans, I found I could lift one jar at a time myself. So that may be the answer for removing the jars from the pot.

Hopefully, I won't have to wait too long for the parts.
DC

I use the one jar at a time lifter too, that's what it's for, it also keeps the jars from jostling each other which will cause breakage when hot.

The next part of the fun is going about your day after unloading and counting the lids popping and later on making sure they are all dimpled in to prove they sealed.

The Blue Book you have is just fine, between the Ball Mason website, (Jardin Brands now)

Jackie Clay, and the USDA website that has all the latest safety precautions, your good to go.

the sound of them lids popping is music to a canners ear.

Just a note, I loved the food from the canner so much that we got a friend to get us a large pressure cooker on base (8 quart). It also came with canning instructions so obviously you can use the larger cookers as canners if you want. Though, I'm planning to use my All American larger Canner as a canner only, but mostly cook in the smaller one. Also, the smaller one only has a gage an only does 15 pounds of pressure, whereas the other one has several choices, including very low for things that barely need it.

Today so far, in water bath canner we have 10 jars of plum sauce and 3 jars of home made pickles. Earlier in the week waterbath canned 5 pints of Summer squash with lemon juice.