Steam canner?

[Marianne]

Anyone have a steam canner?

We have a neighbor that buys huge jars of jam/whatever, divides it into smaller jars, then steam cans them. Other things she'll open the jar, spoon out what she needs, then steam can the original jar again.

She has a regular pressure canner, but she said this was a steam canner.

 

[Beekissed]

Anyone have a steam canner?

We have a neighbor that buys huge jars of jam/whatever, divides it into smaller jars, then steam cans them. Other things she'll open the jar, spoon out what she needs, then steam can the original jar again.

She has a regular pressure canner, but she said this was a steam canner.

I've got one and have been using it for years for things we used to do in a BWB pot. Works like a charm, is smaller than the big speckled pot and it uses less water. No problems with jars breaking in it and having to discard a whole pot of hot water and start all over.

LOVE my steam canner and don't know what I ever did without it. Anything you can do in a boiling water bath, you can do with the steam canner, but you don't have to worry about warming jars to go into hot water, don't have to take forever to heat that huge pot of water, etc.

 

[BarredBuff]

I've used it in place of a water bath last year, and when I canned before my hiatus. I like it a lot better. Not nearly as messy or hot as water bath canning. I think your food turns out better in a steam canner too.

However, it is not an approved canning method by the USDA. But, I think it works well for high acid foods.

I'd never do a low acid food in it or a boiling water bath.

 

[Marianne]

Sometimes I feel like the USDA doesn't want us to be self-sufficient at all - and wants us to rely on the Industrial Food supply. I saw on the news this morning that there is a recall on Avacodos due to possible Listeria contamination.
Crockpots were wonderful and cooked great meals for many years, until the USDA decided that the LOW temp was too low and was a danger of allowing the food to spoil. Now they require manufacturers to up the temp of the low setting. I no longer use a crockpot because my old one broke and the new one burns food when set on high and overcooks things set on low...

Slow cookers are weird. I had one like yours, my neighbor had one that was the opposite. She said that it took almost 24 hours to cook something like beans. Egads.

I have a new way of thinking because of our nomadic son. He's lived in areas where there is little to no electricity, absolutely no refrigeration and has eaten things that the USDA would have said to pitch. Yet millions of people have been eating like that for generations and they aren't dying off. All they do is bring that pot of food to a rolling boil for a few minutes, every 12 hrs.

 

[Hinotori]

I love that my steam canner isn't super heavy. That makes it worth while all on it's own.

Just follow as per water bath times once it reaches temp.

 

[wyoDreamer]

I love my Steam Canner! I can a lot more now that I have it. I like to use filtered water for canning because out water is so hard and the cloudy film left on the jars drove me nuts with the BWB canner. It uses alot les water which is great. When I discovered that my BWB canner cracked on the bottom when the squirrel knocked it off the shelf in the basement - I immediately replaced it with a Steam Canner.

My steam canner has a knob on the lid with a temperature gauge in it, so I can't turn it over and cook in it like @Beekissed commented, but I like it anyway.

 

[Hinotori]

The University of Wisconsin studied steam canning safety.

https://fyi.extension.wisc.edu/safepreserving/2017/10/24/safe-preserving-using-a-steam-canner/


The USDA has some weird things on different canning and aren't always up to date.

They expect you to precook tuna but all other fish can be raw. Which doesn't make sense from any angle. Alaska Extension Service is the best place to go for meat and fish canning info.

 

[Beekissed]

Yeah...I never did listen to the USDA on anything. I rely more on the old ladies I've spoken with, who have fed their families for eons on home canned foods.

 

[BarredBuff]

Yeah...I never did listen to the USDA on anything. I rely more on the old ladies I've spoken with, who have fed their families for eons on home canned foods.

I agree with that to an extent, but I'd rather be on the safe side with low acid foods. Just my opinion...

 

[Beekissed]

I agree with that to an extent, but I'd rather be on the safe side with low acid foods. Just my opinion...

You are not alone. Many will not brave that sort of thing.