sometime in the recent past Virginia Tadrzynski posted this:
"zxcvbob" wrote in message
...
Kajikit wrote:
Okay, we have some canning experts here... I haven't done any
preserving or canning since I was a teenager, and my mother never used
a water bath - she only ever made jam and chutney and high-acid sauces
that preserved themselves. Now I read that EVERYTHING should be boiled
for safety's sake... Anyway, I want to get some supplies to try it. I
already have a set of nesting stockpots with the largest being
15litres. I have a round cake cooler that nests inside it and I use it
for making steamed Christmas pudding (I can't use it for actual food
because some of the metal on the rack annodised off in the boiling
water and I don't trust it!) Can I use this pot and nesting rack to do
canning if I buy a jar-lifter to get the bottles out again? If I need
an actual canning rack, could I use that in the stockpot? It's all a
big mystery to me, but we haven't got the space (or the money) to buy
extra kitchen equipment unless I'm going to use them a LOT.
Notice that I crossposted to r.f.p

You can do boiling-water bath canning ("BWB") using a stockpot with a rack
in the bottom if it's deep enough to cover the jars. A jar lifter is
almost a necessity. A magnet-on-a-stick is also handy for lifting lids
out simmering water when you are ready for them. Both are really cheap
accessories you can buy wherever you get canning jars.

You can also do BWB canning in a pressure cooker/canner by leaving the
vent open so it doesn't pressurize. Just fill with boiling water up to the
shoulders of the jars if it's not tall enough to fully submerge them.
(Begin timing when steam starts pouring out of the vent)

What do you want to can? Some things need to be processed in a pressure
canner.

Bob

The little magnet on a stick to get the lids out of the sterilizing water is
actually cheaper if you go to a big box hardware store and buy the magnet on
a stick to pick up screws and nails. In the cooking aisles they give it
some high-faluting name and charge you double for the same thing. I do a
lot of 'kitchen' gadget buying in the hardware.....like a rubberized dead
blow hammer for a meat tenderizer....works wonders and is fully immersible.
-ginny


Got one at a traveling hardware show (don't laugh) and it was a rare earth
magnet on a telescoping handle collapses to the size of a pen. These are
very strong for the size and double for getting rings you drop behind the
stove ;-)

--
Wilson 44.69, -67.3