Pressure Canning
Can I speed up the cooling down process?

When I am pressure canning, I find that the fluid tends to boil up and out, leaving about 1.5-2" of head space the jars. Is this because I am rushing the cool down process? Is there anything else I can do to prevent it from boiling out? It doesn't seem to affect the food all that much but it looks ugly.

Thanks in advance for your help and much great information on on your website.
(Off to can corn)

Colin ~ MI



Hi Colin

Speeding up the cooling artificially will cause problems. It will, as you found cause liquid loss.

It will also shorten the cooking time for your foods. When they did the testing to find out safe times to process foods, they take into consideration the heating up time (time it takes to get to pressure) and the cooling off time. (time it takes to come back to 0 pressure). If you shorten the cool down time you are also shortening the time the food is cooked.

You really need to let the canner come to zero all by itself. Take the lid off. Then, leaving the canner open, wait about 2 minutes before taking out your jars.

I'm not sure why this helps, but it always makes a difference for me. It seems as if it cools the jars a bit before they are taken out of the canner. Which means the food is shrinking and pulling down on the lid as it is taken out.

I hope that helps.

Sharon - who is almost done with corn, and being bombarded with beets!

SimplyCanning.com