All American 921 Pressure Canner

I finally quit wishing and ordered the pressure canner that I've been wanting for 3 years. I canned green beans and chicken broth today. I canned chicken backs and feet for the dogs yesterday, and the broth from simmering the feet-for us! This thing is heavy. Real heavy. I love it! I have used a pressure canner for the last 36 years that I hated. But it worked, so I wouldn't replace it. I finally got so tired of the old one, I just decided to bite the bullet and get what I really wanted.

What pressure canner do you have? What do you like/don't like about it?

My canner must be about that old too. But, like you I keep using it because it works. I don't hate it, but I'd love to have one that will do a double stack of jars at once. It would sure cut down on the work time.

Really? Double stacked? They do that now?
Been a while since I shopped.......

I do have one of the little electric ones. Does good job but only a few jars at a time. Hi temp control works well for meats and it's great when you only have enough for a few jars. It's auto timer and all that.

My "original" is now about 40 yrs old. Guess I will need to at least see what's new.

I canned all day today. We butchered a bunch of roosters and the freezer is full, so I canned them. I canned 48 jars today! I canned 7 quarts of bony back pieces for the dogs. I put the backs of 2 roosters in each jar along with squash, green beans and rice. I now have 15 quarts of "dog food." I canned 14 jars of thigh and drumstick meat and 17 jars of chicken broth. And yes, I double stacked!

I cut the breast meat off those hatchet breasted Delaware mean $%^#%& roosters and froze it for future stir fry suppers. I still have a huge pot of broth, but I ran out of jars and have to buy more. I had already canned 13 pints of broth and the pot waiting to be canned is probably another 30 pints of broth!

I positively adore my All American 921!!

Wooohooo! Chicken & dumplings!

So, when you feed the dogs do they get bones & all? You know, don't give chicken bones to dogs??? thing.

A big dog would crunch it pretty much and the spine isn't long pieces. My only dog is a min pin. But she loves chicken! About the only bone she can handle is the little round cuts from ham steaks. Most are just too big for her mouth.

My dogs get chicken bones, it doesn't faze them. I figure after being pressure cooked for 75 minutes, those bones ought to about turn to mush or close to it anyway. I have 2 Great Pyrenees (outside) and an Australian Shepherd and black Lab/Great Dane (inside) dogs. They all adore chicken bones. They have loved all this chicken cleaning, the house dogs ate the intestines (not given food the night before slaughter) with gusto, we kept the liver, heart and gizzards for frying. The GP's are getting the chicken feet skins metered out daily over their kibble. The only thing we threw away was the skin with feathers attached and the heads. We used practically everything but the crow!

I've got 5 roos in a pen being milk fed - can't wait to get them butchered. They're not totally milk fed, but I do soak their feed in excess milk. I actually read somewhere that "milk-fed chicken" is considered a delicacy....stay tuned and I'll let ya know!

frustratedearthmother said:

I've got 5 roos in a pen being milk fed - can't wait to get them butchered. They're not totally milk fed, but I do soak their feed in excess milk. I actually read somewhere that "milk-fed chicken" is considered a delicacy....stay tuned and I'll let ya know!

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Are you going to skin or pluck them? Oh that's right, you have a chicken plucker! I seriously need one of those. Do you keep the feet for broth? The broth I made from the feet is whitish and congeals in the refrigerator, so that I have to dig it out with a spoon. Why did I ever give the feet to the dogs? smacks self in the forehead..... Do you keep the heart, liver and gizzard? Would you do me a favor and post a pictorial of your butchering/plucking process? I would love to see your plucker in action!

Oh heck ya I'm plucking!

I haven't kept the feet before, but I'm planning on it this time. But, I'm still not 100% sure what to do with them, lol! I'll google it though and may ask some of my neighbors. Did you just wash em real good and boil 'em, or did you skin em? It's a mystery to me!

We love the innards! DH loves the gizzards and hearts, and I love the livers. We usually fry 'em up the same day we butcher. And, in fact, this last time I actually cooked one of the roo's the same day we butchered. I usually let 'em age in the fridge for about three days, then freeze 'em. I'd always heard that as long as you cooked 'em before rigor sets in you'd be ok, and that one was just fine.

I'll sure try to get pics! I'm usually really dirty, lol. DH kills and plucks and I eviscerate. So, if I can keep my hands clean long enough I'll try to get pics. I'm sure I can at least get a pic of him plucking because that'll happen before I get my hands dirty! It'll be awhile though cuz the next few weekends of our life are already spoken for... I'm so ready for retirement when I can actually choose what day I want to do things instead of waiting for a weekend and hoping the weather cooperates!

I did the feet ALL wrong! So now I can give you the benefit of my vast experience and wisdom. I blanched the feet for 3 minutes, ALL of them from 22 roosters. The whole skin peeled off, it was gooey, the colder they got, the harder it got. It took several hours to peel the darn things. Dumb.

What I should have done, is barely scald them, a few at a time. Dunk in cool water, peel the outer membrane off while still warm. Scald them for 15-30 seconds. And don't scald them ALL at one time.

They sure make some nice broth. We had fried livers, gizzards and hearts tonight for supper. I have 3 more packages in the freezer, will eat them all soon. I don't know how long they will last in the freezer. Ever eat the testicles? I saved some, gonna try them, but there wasn't any in the package I thawed out today. DH thinks I'm nuts. Make that rooster nuts.