We’ve had this Presto pressure canner for a while.
I don’t remember when we got it. Bernie says about 20 years ago. It can process 8 pints or quarts at a time.
And if I’ve got 8 or less jars to process, this little canner does the trick in short order. When there are more than 8 jars to process I can still use this canner, and I have on many occasions, but recently I got a double-decker canner that cuts down the amount of time spent canning by allowing me to process twice as many jars at one time. It’s a huge monstrosity in comparison. I named it Franken-canner.
It’s an “All American” brand canner, and the documentation says it can hold 19 pints or 14 quarts. I could only fit 16 pints in it, but I was using wide mouth jars and I imagine that’s why. But 8 pints easily fit in the bottom of it.
And, after adding the second rack, 8 more pints fit on the top.
I know there’s only one pint on the upper rack in that picture, but I wasn’t really canning and was only trying to give you an idea of how much these canners hold. Those green beans were some of the 10 pounds Charlotte gave us last weekend and I had already processed them, and they just agreed to model the canners for me.
I like both of these pressure canners.
If you’re in the market for a pressure canner and don’t know which size would suit you best, consider how many jars you would typically be processing at one time. I think if you typically process 8 jars or less at one time, a smaller pressure canner like this Presto will work beautifully for you. It’s also less expensive than the Franken-canner. But if you typically process more than 8 jars at one time, then the Franken-canner is probably going to be a good choice for you. Keep in mind that because pressure canning requires pressure to function properly, using the Franken-canner for only 8 jars or less is not quite as efficient as using a smaller canner. Because there is less space to pressurize, the smaller canner will work a little quicker and more efficiently for smaller batches.
I also have two sizes of water bath canners.
The smaller one Bernie and I bought just after we married. It processes 7 quarts or pints at a time. The larger one was gifted to me from an aunt and it processes 8 quarts or pints at a time. In all honesty, I’d have a hard time recommending the larger water bath canner over the smaller. The reason is because the difference is only one jar, but the amount of additional water required to fill and bring to a boil in the larger canner is significant. If I know I am only going to can exactly 8 jars, I use the larger canner, but I typically water bath can more than 8 jars in a day, so I tend to use the smaller canner. Did that make sense?
And since we’re on the subject of canning, I’ve been wanting to share this little book with y’all for quite a while.
I have no idea when or where I found this manual – certainly it’s much older than our Presto canner, but there is no copyright date inside it. There is this little clue though:
The style of this manual, combined with the “material shortages due to the present national emergency” lead me to believe it was published during World War II – probably between 1939 and 1945. I don’t know why that fascinates me, but it does. And I love that the manual let the owner know she had made an investment in good eating.
Because home canning is very important.
There are so many things I love about this manual and enjoy looking at, but there are a couple of pages I actually use from time to time.
I just love that manual. And I’d love to see the canner that came with it.
