Canning Equipment 101: What You Need And Where To Get It
Aug 27th, 2012 | By Esther | Category: Food, Storage | Print This Article
When I first started canning years ago, I had just a few basic supplies: a water-bath canner, a jar lifter, a funnel, and some jars. In general, I prefer simplicity, and I don’t have room to store a lot of equipment that I only use a few times each year.
But, as my canning repertoire has grown, I’ve slowly accumulated a few more things. I tend to agonize over each purchasing decision, but I’ve never regretted buying canning equipment. In every case, the purchase saves me time and adds to my canning enjoyment. Before I buy any piece of canning equipment, I ask myself these questions:
1) Can I use this equipment for more than one thing?
2) Do its potential benefits justify the expense or room it takes up in my storage room?
3) How often will I use it, and where will I store it?
Whether you’re a beginner canner or an old veteran, you may wonder what’s available and what you really need. Read on to learn everything you need to know about canning equipment.
Water-Bath Canner or Steam Canner
The very first piece of equipment you’ll buy is probably a water-bath canner or a steam canner for processing acidic foods like peaches, jams, and applesauce. A water-bath canner is basically just a very large pot with a rack for the jars to sit on. Look for a stainless steel or aluminum model at hardware stores, thrift stores, and most large retail stores. Buy one large enough to hold at least six quart-size bottles. You’ll also find canners at thrift stores or yard sales. Just make sure it comes with a lid and has handles to carry it from the sink to the stove.
Steam canners are surrounded by controversy because the USDA has deemed them unsafe. However, several other studies contradict this position. I own a water-bath canner and for years, I believed steam canners were unsafe. Recently, though, I’ve started doing some research into steam canners, and I just might have one in my future. My current home has a glass-top stove—a problem with most water-bath canners. Steam canners are a lot lighter, use less water, and heat up more quickly.
Pressure Canner
Once the canning bug bites you, you’ll probably want a pressure canner. Low acid foods, including most vegetables, meats, and soups, must be cooked in a pressure canner, which cooks the foods at high enough temperatures to destroy all bacteria. Pressure canners have either a dial gauge or a weighted gauge to measure pressure.
Buy a stainless-steel canner that comes with at least a one-year warranty. This will most likely be the most expensive piece of canning equipment you purchase. If you do a bit of scrounging, you might find an old one at a yard sale or thrift store, but make sure the lid fits securely and the dial gauge is accurate. There should also be no pitting or gouges in the metal, as this can weaken the canner and make it prone to failure.
New DVD shows you all the basics and techniques of preserving this years harvest…
Jars and Lids
Your mom might have used old commercial spaghetti sauce or mayonnaise jars for canning, but this is a big no-no. These jars aren’t designed for multiple uses and may crack or even explode in a steam pressure canner or water bath. Buy jars made specifically for canning and check them every time you use them for nicks and cracks. Check at yard sales or ask around. My elderly neighbor gave me boxes and boxes of canning jars she no longer used.
You’ll also need some lids and rings. Traditional rings can be used over and over. I’ve got some that are probably at least twenty years old. Unfortunately, lids can only be used reliably once—a fact that irks me every year. You can find both rings and lids at grocery stores, hardware stores, or online retailers.
Recently, I discovered reusable lids from a company called Tattler. At first, I thought it was a gimmick, but they really do work and come with a lifetime guarantee. They cost more, but I love the idea that I can use them forever. Now that’s true self-sufficiency. You can get the regular mouth size here and the wide mouth size here.
Steam Juicer
I balked at buying this one for a long time, but now it’s one of my favorite pieces of canning equipment. Put any fruit in the top chamber and the steam softens it so the juices flow easily from a surgical tube right into your clean jars. I use this to extract juice quickly and cleanly from chokecherries, grapes, berries, and even my neighbor’s crab apples.
Food Mill
Early on, I bought a small food mill at my local hardware store. It turned out to be a huge disappointment. It held only a small amount of food at a time, and the work was arduous and slow. Since then, I’ve upgraded to a larger food mill that attaches to the tabletop. These mills have adjustable sieves to control how fine the puree is. They work wonderfully for making applesauce and jams or processing tomatoes and pumpkin. I also use my large food processor for making batches of salsa and spaghetti sauce.
Accessories
Of course, you don’t need every canning accessory you might see online or in hardware stores, but there are a few that are indispensable. First, of course, are a funnel and a jar lifter. You’ll also want a heavy-duty oven mitt for lifting jars out of hot water. I like the non-stick silicone mitts for this job.
I have a friend who swears by her apple peeler-corer-slicer, but I’m unconvinced. I’ve borrowed it once or twice to make applesauce, but I feel like it takes away an awful lot of the fruit along with the peel. Besides, it’s messy and cumbersome. I prefer a plain old paring knife for this job. I do love my cherry pitter for processing cherries. And of course, a few large bowls, hefty cutting boards, measuring cups, wooden spoons, and a good set of knives are indispensible.
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Can you name a few decent brands? I am just not willing to spend $400 for a canner. I have looked at the Presto on Amazon that seems to have good reviews. I am looking in the $100 tops range. I will be doing butternut squash, tomatoes, potatoes, corn and probably some precooked meals. I have given up looking for a used one and need to get one soon. Thanks!
Presto and Mirro are trusted names that make an excellent quality product (and replacement parts are easy to find).
I used to have a 50′ x 100′ garden, and canned a lot of pickled beets and okra. But that was 15-17 years ago.
So, in trying to quickly re-educate myself and to save the harvest of a 30′ pear tree before selling this house, I was determined to can them. I still have all my canning equipment, but it was the shock of a lifetime realizing that my trusty old canner CANNOT BE USED ON MY NEW GLASS COOK-TOP STOVE!!! My pears were ripening, and I have been all over town trying to find another canner that I can use. Nothing!
For use on cook-top stoves, the bottom of the canner must be FLAT on the bottom, no ridges like my Granitewear waterbath canner, and it must not be wider in diameter than my largest burner, which is only 8″ or it can crack your glass cook-top.
Ball makes a new “1884″ canner with a flat bottom, but it still is as huge as my old canner and priced at $70! That still wouldn’t help me. Frantically, I searched through my pots and pans, and found a tall stockpot with lid that worked, and fits my largest burner, but I can only can 3 pints at a time.
Just wanted to give everyone a heads up, because if you use the bottom ridged canners, the cook-top will cycle the heat (on-off-on-off) and your food may not get hot enough to kill all the microbes for storage.
Has anyone else run into this problem, and found a better solution than a stockpot or using a coiled hotplate/camp-stove? Or kicking your fancy new stove out the window? (Which is really what I want to do. I’m still crying about replacing my trusty coil stove with this new one—grrrr)
Thanks for the info! I may check out the Ball canner and feel the same way about my “fancy” new glasstop stove!
Rather than a new canner, you might consider the use of a propane “hot plate” or if your gas barbeque or a borrowed one will support your canner, using it for a heat source. This also allows you to move the extra heat and steam outdoors.
Thank you for the information about the reusable lids made by Tattler! I have been trying to find the old glass lids and was lucky to find seven quart bottles with glass lids – for $2 – in a thrift store. I have been unable to find any on-line, though. I am supposing they are no longer made and that my only hope is to go around to yard and garage sales to see if I can pick up any more. Still, your Tattler information is welcome news. Also, thank you to “WakinUp’ for the head’s up about the glass cook-tops! I’ll stick with my coil burners.
I think you might want to rethink your opposition to an apple peeler/slicer/corer. Maybe your friend’s slicer was dull or loose.
Because a measly 10 seconds from whole apple to peeled apple slices is something that any hard-core canner loves. Who cares if a little extra apple goes with the core? Hardly ever had I had TOO FEW apples to process. You can set it to just peel, or not peel or not slice and just core, or whatever. Use it for taters, too.
I’ve been canning for my large family for 3 decades- wasting time using a paring knife (really? a paring knife?) just doesn’t work if you are actually processing a year’s worth of food in a short summer.
You learn pretty quickly how to most efficiently set up for processing the most amount of food in the shortest time, and that means using appliances that help, like the p/s/c, or a food mill, or a cherry pitter or a kraut cutter.
Well, that’s my opinion anyway. If you are just putting up a few pints of jelly or the tomatoes from a backyard plant, I wouldn’t bother with anything but a canning kettle, a funnel and a jar lifter. If you plan on seriously storing food, don’t disdain the tools that will help you finish the job efficiently.
Multi-purpose tools. I don’t have enough garden (yet) to justify a canner so I generally freeze or give away excess. However, I did decide to purchase a pressure canner for 3 reasons:
#1 To safely can low acid foods.
#2 Will also work as a simple Water Bath canner.
#3 As I have started using Colloidal Silver as a preventative, I was wondering where I would get Distilled Water for my Colloidal generator if SHTF. After online searches about stills, I determined that a pressure canner would likely make a good still pot. Salvaged 20′ of small copper tubing, purchased some fittings to attach it to the canner (instead of the weights), set it up and yes it works as a distillery. Have some steam leaks at the tube connection to the lid, so may try ‘brewers cork’ instead of the fittings.
Now I wish I had saved for the gasketless canner instead of the WalMart unit for test purposes.
I’ve been canning or helping with canning for more than sixty years. I decided to try a steam canner for my peaches, plums, plum juice and Plumcots. Steam canners are excellent pieces of equipment. I have had no failures with mine and the canned goods are excellent.