Little Bitty City Pretty

I have always had an interest in pressure canning our own food for long term storage, especially when we have big hauls from our vegetable garden. With all the ingredients that’s put into our supermarket’s canned foods, it leaves much to be desired when you don’t want to feed your family bioengineered or lab grown “foods”.

This year I am making it my mission to can as much homegrown veggies and local meat market foods as our budget will allow. I would like replace all the store bought food my family and I currently have in our pantry that has just sat there collecting dust. Our ideal pantry would be stocked full of clean, healthy foods that myself and my family actually want to eat.

Sometime early last year I decided to break out my stovetop pressure canner that I received as a Christmas gift a couple years ago and get to canning. I thought I would teach myself how to can and then read the instructions that came with it, front to back. I got everything cleaned up and ready to go, as per the instructions. Soon the time came to heat the jars, and in order to do that I needed to fill the canner with water, then submerge the jars, and finally bring the water up to temperature.

Turns out my electric stove does not have the capability to heat large volumes of water on the cooktop! So, make sure if you have an electric cooktop that it has the heating capacity to use a stovetop canner in the quart size you are thinking of purchasing.

After doing some research I landed on the electric Presto Pressure Canner. If you are comfortable using a pressure cooker, then this pressure canner is going to a breeze for you.

Now, this pressure canner is different than a pressure cookers, but not vastly different. Learning the manual was pleasantly easy for me. Here is a simple breakdown of using the pressure canner.

This is by no means instructions for using this pressure canner. Do not attempt to use a pressure canner using this breakdown. You must read the manufactures instruction manual that comes with your pressure canner.

• Clean everything you’re using.
• Set the time you will be pressure canning your jars for.
• Fill pot with hot water to fill line. Fill jars halfway with hot water and put them in your pot.
• Warm jars, the machine will sound an alarm letting you know when your jars are ready and will keep your jars warm until you’re ready to use them.
• Open lid and take out your jars one at a time. Dump the hot water from your jars down the sink, not into the canner.
• Fill jars with food (hot jars, hot food), and put them inside the pot, then lock up your canner, sensor arm, and later put the regulator on when it alerts you to, about 10 minutes after you start canning..
• Once the processing time is done, the machine will automatically start the cool down phase. When the canner has cooled to a safe temperature to open, the pressure gauge will fall and the machine will notify you when it’s safe to remove your jars.

The instructions are broke down simply in the manual. My Presto came with a laminated sheet with easy to read and follow instructions. basically after you’ve used it a time or two and know when to put the sensor arm down to locked, and when to put the regulator on, it’s simply just following the prompts on the machine. I’ll make a video this week of the instructions and steps for my Presto canner and highlight it here when it’s ready. Here is a video of my Presto Canner right out of the box.

Over all, I really like this electric canner and I have big plans on using it as much as I can. Oh, I forgot to mention, it’s also a water bath canner. It has setting for both!

Well, if you’ve made it this far, thanks for the read! I am not affiliated with Presto in anyway. I just like the canner and wanted to share my experience with those who may be interested. If you have any questions about the canner or would like for me to make a specific video about it, or maybe you just want to say hi, drop me a comment below and I’ll get back with you pretty quickly.