So, I've finally got a small pressure canner by the Christmas.
It's the old model All-American Pressure Canner 915 (15 1/2 Quart Capacity). Only $75 total shipped off eBay. It was in a good used condition, everything looking clean and sound. I've decided on this model convinced by various online reviews from avid food preservers.

These canners are considered the best in the industry, as they have the all metal construction, so you don't have to worry about the sealing gasket ever, no matter how harsh is the liquid you are boiling in it (and I do have some diversification ideas for it like a moonshine still and seawater distilling). Just be careful not to dent the precisely machined aluminum lip. Also I love their serious 6 bolts sealing mechanism, looking precise, but bomb proof, and extremely reliable in case I would need more pressure.



(images are not mine, but this one looks exactly as what I've got, except for the pressure gauge)

It came with the internal wire rack and 2 half round aluminum bowls with wire handles fitting inside (not sure what they are for, perhaps for pressure cooking).

The old model means the gauge may have been out of specs already, as they require periodic checks. As well as the pressure control mechanism being a petcock instead of a modern weight jiggler (I may consider replacing it, but petcock looks more appealing, as I'm not sure I will like the clanking sound of the weight going for that long).

The first thing I did - washed it thoroughly with dish washing detergent, sponge and stiff brush. Dried. Then wiped it with a rag soaked in lemon juice to loosen the aluminum rust, and washed everything again. While washing I've thoroughly inspected all of the surfaces inside and out for any possible tiny cracks or dents, but found none. Verified all of the vents in the lid to be free of any clogging with a thin wire (also completely unscrewed the petcock for inspection). And finally I've used a bit of olive oil to lightly grease the sealing lip.

Then I did the "dry run". Wet actually, as I have filled the canner for about 1" of water and "cooked" on my electric range at high with petcock open util I saw the steady vapor streaming out strong. Closed the valve, set the range on "medium", and observed the pressure slowly rising on the gauge to 15 ppi from behind the kitchen door Jumped back to quickly turn off the range and then observed the pressure coming back to 0 (just checking it periodically). Everything looked perfect. No vapor leaking anywhere, the gauge moved very smoothly... Sure thing there is no easy way I can make sure the gauge is correct at home (though, I have one idea, see below), but neither I want to spend another $50 for a new one yet (I know, that's important for safety of the food).

The 12 pack of Ball Mason quart jars with lids arrived about a week later ($15 off eBay shipped).

Several days later I had some fresh chicken broth to work with. So I bought some pork as well (costco standard issue sirloin 4 piece pack), cut one piece (I believe they are 1 pound each) in 1" cubes, removing the fat and sinew as much as seemed practical. Then seasoned each with some vegetable powder for meat, which my DW has recommended, placed them tight but in 1 layer into a plastic oven tray, added 3/4" of chicken broth, sealed it with aluminum foil as a lid, and simmered for 2 hours at 350F in the oven (also browning them with the lid removed for the last 20 minutes). I've used the microwave's timer for precision. Also during that time I've been simmering the cut off earlier "junk" in the rest of my chicken broth (about a pint) on the range, with 1 tsp of salt added. It boiled out more than in half by the time the meat was done.

After the meat was removed from the oven, I've poured a bit of the simmering broth into the mason jar and shook it around preheating the glass for a minute, also letting the meat in the pan to cool down a bit. Then I loaded it into the jar loosely one by one. It's luckily turned out that I've got the exact amount of meat to fill the jar exactly to the required 1" below the lid. After that I've poured in the rest of my simmered broth first and topped it with a bit of broth from the oven pan to cover the meat completely. Then I ran a knife on the inside along the walls to release any bubbles stuck, wiped out the jar's mouth, and put on the lid, tightening it only lightly.

I have filled the canner up to the wire rack's bottom (which is exactly 1" required, and which is something like 20-25oz of water), placed the jar in the center, put the canner's massive lid on, tightened all the bolts following the opposite triangles pattern, opened the petcock up, and set the oven on high.

After about 5 minutes I've noticed the steam coming from the petcock, but that was not the steady stream yet. The later has obviously formed in about 10 minutes after that. When the steam became dense, steady, and noisy I've closed the petcock and started to observe the gauge moving to the target 11 ppi. That took about 6-7 minutes. I've reduced the heat to a medium and started experimenting with the best range setting to keep the gauge from moving in either direction (in fact, I've decided to keep the pressure at 12 ppi, so I never go below 11 by an accident). I had 90 minutes ahead to play with that. Also, even though the gauge has no sub ppi divisions - it has some small print text around the dial, which can be used for precise monitoring of about 1/40th of a ppi easily, as the thin needle goes right over that text. The half division method works very well here. If the needle goes up, you turn the range dial to the lower notch and observe again. If it goes down, turn half way back. Up again? 1/4 of the way in the opposite direction and so on. At some point I've been checking only every 15 minutes just to make sure the needle stays on the same letter of that text line. I also have that sweet spot clearly marked right on the range's dial with a silver sharpie now, so I can see if it is a repeatable setting later.

After 90 minutes the microwave's timer went off, and I've turned off the range. You should not touch anything else until the gauge shows zero pressure for at least 10 minutes. When that happened (actually I've missed the 0 by much more than that, like 30 minutes), I've rised the petcock, releasing the residual pressure safely, undone the six bolts, and exposed the jar. The smell on the inside was not pretty (perhaps the seasoning I've used decomposed? Or it was a mix of chicken and pork smells?), the lid looked properly depressed down, but I've noticed large bubbles rapidly coming from the bottom along the walls (still boiling? Leaking the air?). I left it in place open for another couple of hours to safely cool down, then removed the jar, placed on the wooden board, wiped it with a dump cloth, and removed the screw ring from the lid for the inspection. It was looking perfectly sealed to me, no obvious cracks, and still nicely depressed. The meat inside looked good as well. However I don't recall hearing the "famous pop sound" which supposed to announce the proper sealing.

I've replaced the screw ring, just in case, and placed the jar into my pantry. Will be observing it for a couple of weeks for any spoilage signs. So far, after 2 days, I can see just the normal broth "clotting" and "jellying" as it is cooling down.

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The idea I have for the in-house gauge testing is based on the elementary physics. The Clausius-Kronig law (or Ideal Gas law) implies that pV=nRT and the V is constant in our case. The gauge even has a lose temperature readings as well, most probably as calibrated for that volume. So, all I need to do in order to approve the gauge is to measure the temperature inside with at least 2 different pressures. I'm sure I can either rig a petcock replacement insert for an oven thermometer, or use a mercury thermometer fixed inside, which registers the highest temperature reached (and not moving back as it drops), running the canner just a couple of times.

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Any questions, comments, suggestions and corrections are welcome!

I don't think it costs $50 to replace the dial gauge with a jiggler

$16.99 + $5.95 S&H = $22.94

May you also need a new vent pipe , +$7.99, for total of $30.93

http://www.yelp.com/biz/technical-services-group-alameda these guys might do testing,
but dial gauges seems like a hassle to me

The presto canner manual gives canning times for meat for 15PSI ... I can't really tell how much pork you're canning , but all I can say is overcooked meat is tastier than poison meat

Can we say "petcock" on a family-oriented forum?

Harmless, unless you use it in the same sentence as "screw ring".

Thank you for the links. Vent pipe is a must for such an upgrade. I will definitely consider the testing facility as well, however I heard that it is much cheaper to get a new gauge That's where the $50 total figure was popping out for the full upgrade.

The 11 ppi for a quart jar pork canning at 90 minutes was found from the trusted canning source, dealing with exact same canner model. The 15 pounds value is so common only because you cannot actually set the 11 ppi pressure with the weighted jiggler (it usually has only 3 fixed pressures available to set and control - 5, 10, and 15 ppi). That's why I'm on the fence about the upgrade. It's not just about the overcooking, but rather about energy saving, especially If I'll have to use a generator, propane, or a wood stove in a survival situation. Actually, it was not much of a hassle to monitor the gauge even for the first time, as it seems very stable as soon as you hit that sweet spot. If I'll find that my marking for that power output is repeatable on the next batch, then it will be a nobrainer to just set it and forget it for 90 minutes.

In Russia we have a saying, which could be translated to something like: "Everyone sees things in proportion to their sins". So it should be safe for any innocent children, and nothing special for other children But that's indeed a legit concern.

Who is your trusted source?

The National Center for Home Food Preservation should be your main source of info.
Yes they call for 11 lbs with a dial gauge but with a weighted gauge, the pressure is 10 lbs as the weighted gauge typically only has 3 settings of 5, 10 and 15 lbs.

As for the choosing between a weighted gauge and a dial gauge. You are better off with the weighted gauge as the dial gauge needs regular visual monitoring to make sure the pressure is correct and this will rule out your statement above of "set and forget" which is dangerous in more ways then one.

Consider what may happen if you "set and forget" then come back 90 minutes later only to find that the pressure is down 2-3 lbs? That canned food must not be ever considered safe for consumption.

On the other end of the scale, what happens if you do not monitor the dial gauge then the pressure builds too much and the relief valve does not open? Hint, look up to where the lid is impacted into the kitchen ceiling. I don't think your wife would think too much of her now ruined kitchen because you chose "to set and forget." Needless to say, anyone standing in the near vicinity when that canner went nuclear, may have been seriously burned and injured.




Also the dial gauges need to be properly tested in a proper facility. If the gauge is more then 2 lbs out of calibration, it will need to be replaced.

Whereas with the weighted gauge, as long as you are within earshot in the house, out in the yard, in the garage etc and still hear the gauge gently jiggling, no constant visual monitoring is required. Also the weighted gauge never needs testing as it cannot go out of calibration due to their design.

Good points indeed. Another argument would be that with a less stable heat sources such as open fire or propane range it might be hard to maintain the proper temperature manually, so the automatic pressure release should be able to amend that. Besides, in case I would really need to maintain an exact pressure value - I can still use the gauge to set and control it, while simply loading the jiggler with some additional weight and switching to the manual temperature regulation.

The source I used was some state canning club web page. I don't have that link at hand (it's on my home PC).

Also installing a jiggler will make story telling more family friendly, as I wouldn't have to use "petcock" anymore

By the way, the weight regulator also should have a limit to its life, as its surfaces should change with use. It would be nice to figure what could it be.

The image is indeed impressive, however the All American Canner should be blowing in a totally different way (the Mirro canner is pictured, which is jiggler based by the way; probably it was the gasket failure). I cannot imagine the lid separating from mine like that. Most likely it will simply spew out the petcock, or the gauge, or the safety valve first striping the threads. I doubt it is possible to tear trough such a thick cast aluminum wall (except you have a hidden crack already).

Regarding the emergency release valve, I have one installed. It looks clean. However, the petcock construction is basically the same emergency release valve with a spring holding the ball against the opening. And you are testing it's working every time you operating the canner. So, I think, the higher side is quite safe as it is now, as you will need an enormous heat to overpressurize with the petcock valve open.