Newbie to the All American 930 Canner, not new to canning!

by Mrs. J
(Kansas)

I grew up watching my mom can, and after I got married she gave me and ancient, yellow Presto canner.

Last year I put up 100's and 100's of quarts. I told my husband it felt like I was trying to use "hobbiest" equipment! I went on the search for something bigger and better ....

I found the All-American 930. It's not the biggest, but it will can 14 quarts or 16 pints!

After I unpacked it, I was intimidated by how complicated it seemed compared to my old canner. I really had to push myself to use it - Old, Reliable Yellow Presto canner seemed to call loudly from the other room! But it was so $$$ I knew I had to break it in. ;)

I finally used it, to can chicken and chicken broth and I AM SO GLAD I DID! :) The bottom layer was all pints, the top layer was pints and quarts, which is possible because it's such a tall canner. I've never been able to do that - it is one AWESOME canner!!!

(Sharon's note for those new to canning different size jars together - be cautious when canning quarts and pints together. You can do it as long as you are aware if the quarts need a different processing time than the pints. Be sure to process for the larger/longer time.)

I am excited for this summer. I plan to pressure can all my tomato sauce and salsa, I am so excited. I can do basically two loads at once - that's a big deal when you have as much canning to do as I do!

I've been told to simply use two dialed canners, but I think I will like the weighted gauge better. With my old dial canner, the pressure just kept building if I happened to step out of the room. I need to can at 15# pressure, and that is only 5# away from the "caution/danger" zone. With the rocking weight, it exhausts more steam to keep it at the right pressure. Of course, *ideally* no one should ever have to leave a canner, but when you absolutely MUST I do think it's a much, much safer canner.

It also seemed to reach 15# faster than I expected and even "depressurized" fast enough to impress me. I'm very, very glad I upgraded!!! :)

Happy canning, ya'll! :)