tell me about your pressure cooker

[swimming with sharks]

I'm looking at getting one. :rockon I would like to can chicken broth and some other similar items. So tell me about your pressure cooker. Is there one that you would LOVE to have? What would you add to yours? :think

[StoryOfGrace]

:popcorn

[swimming with sharks]

:bump

dont make me just buy one! :snooty

[Blue-EyedLady]

My pressure cooker isn't big enough for canning jars. My pressure canner is ginormous. Haven't used it for anything other than hot water baths, though. :lol

[Macky]

Are you talking about a pressure cooker or a pressure canner? You're not supposed to pressure can in a pressure cooker, but you can pressure cook with a pressure canner. ;)

I bought the model suggested on multiple threads over in the Harvest forum on GardenWeb. I've gone blank now as to the name, though... sorry! Most everyone there says to buy the weight set to convert from dial to weights, but I haven't done so yet. So far, the gauge has been accurate for me.

I've only pressure canned chicken stock and diced tomatoes so far and both times there was leakage from one or more of the jars. I find the process a lot more fussy (not difficult, just fussy) than the BWB, but that could be because I'm still getting used to it.

Works good as a BWB canner for all my other stuff, so that's good. :giggle

[shekinah]

My pressure canner is the Presto 16 quart. I did some research a couple years ago and landed on that as being the most popular, so I just went with it. I am super happy though! No problems, very easy to use, instructions are in depth and easy to follow, and the manual has all the pressure times and directions for just about everything you would ever want to can. It doesn't take up much space, and I find when it's full of jars (it does 7 large jars at a time), it's just heavy enough that I can still lift it off the burner when it's time, but not too heavy that I need DH's help or am afraid of dropping it. It would be nice to have the double decker, but I likely would not be able to lift it!

I have canned potatoes, carrots, beef stock, chili, soups, applesauce, and spaghetti sauce. My experience is the ready to go meals and stock can really well, but when doing individual vegetables, you can choose to hot can (flash cook the veg first) or cold can (just pour boiling water into the jars without any pre-cooking). I thought cooking first would help make it easy to be able to open a jar, heat up, and serve, but really it just turns to mush from the extra processing. It's an unnecessary step in my opinion, as the canner heats it so much anyway it cooks them. I mostly just can all my veg in a soup or chili rather than bother individually doing them.

If doing potatoes, I also recommend soaking them in cold water for 30 minutes after chopping them into pieces to draw out the starch first. Then use different fresh boiling water to pack them in the jars. Otherwise, you end up canning them, and the jars are full of starch which makes them taste really strange no matter how good you rinse them before cooking. I learned the hard way.. lol.. totally not edible.

[ncsweetpea]

I have an amazing pressure cooker, but do not can in it. I have a Magefesa
Stainless Steel unit. I can't remember how many quarts. I love the safety features. It is easy to clean. I can make two chickens in it at once. I often use the base as a separate soup pot when I need a second one. They are usually demoed at the state fair. I have had zero complaints from it in the eight or nine years I have had it.