Search...
Home Subscribe
Pie
Home Subscribe
Recent topics Flagged topics Hot topics Best topics
Search...
Search within food preservation Search permies
Advance search Google search
Register / Login
IC.org Living Woods Magazine Woodcarving free 1st issue Better Wood Heat DIY Rocket Mass Heater DVD Rocket oven bread
  • Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
skip the mortgage Free heat IC.org permaculture chockens permaculture bootcamp sketch with tools
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • Nancy Reading
  • Carla Burke
  • r ranson
  • John F Dean
  • paul wheaton
  • Pearl Sutton
stewards:
  • Jay Angler
  • Liv Smith
  • Leigh Tate
master gardeners:
  • Christopher Weeks
  • Timothy Norton
gardeners:
  • thomas rubino
  • Jeremy VanGelder
  • Maieshe Ljin

Pressure canner water level

 
Pearl Sutton
steward & bricolagier
Posts: 14662
Location: SW Missouri
10093
2
I like...
goat cat fungi books chicken earthworks food preservation cooking building homestead ungarbage
posted 3 years ago
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I am puzzled. I have been reading stuff about canning, and keep seeing the same answer, but I swear it's not working right.

The instructions always say "put about 2 inches of water in the canner"  Is that the level BEFORE the jars are added or AFTER the jars are added? If I do it before, the jars displace so much water they are close to underwater, or actually under if they are small ones. But everything I read keeps saying it at the beginning of the instructions.

If it's almost totally full of water, can the pressure be anywhere near right? Seems to me two inches on the bottom around the jars is very different than 2 inches that has come up to the shoulders of the jars.

How much water do I need? I have always done it so the level is about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way up the jars, whatever size they are.

:D

Gardens in my mind never need water
Castles in the air never have a wet basement
Well made buildings are fractal -- equally intelligent design at every level of detail.
Bright sparks remind others that they too can dance
What I am looking for is looking for me too!

 
Dan Boone
gardener
Posts: 3545
Location: Central Oklahoma (zone 7a)
1259
I like...
forest garden trees woodworking
posted 3 years ago
  • Likes 9
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
The way I had it explained to me long ago was that too much water isn't a problem unless it reaches the lid of the jars.  If it does, then it's possible to have some exchange between the water in the canner and the contents of your jars, because of pressure differentials before the jars seal tightly.

Too little water is when the canner boils dry during the venting process before you seal it, preventing you from ever getting enough steam pressure.  As far as I know it doesn't matter whether or how much water water versus steam (which are both at more or less the same temperature once your canner is sealed) is touching your jars.

Anything between those is good, or so I was taught.  I tend to go for a couple of inches of water around the base of the jars.

Pecan Media: food forestry and forest garden ebooks
Now available: The Native Persimmon (centennial edition)

 
Joylynn Hardesty
master pollinator
Posts: 4954
Location: Due to winter mortality, I stubbornly state, zone 7a Tennessee
2118
6
I like...
forest garden foraging books food preservation cooking fiber arts bee medical herbs
posted 3 years ago
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Ahem. AND if you are canning 2 stacks of pints, is it 2 inches from the bottom of the pot, or from the base of the top layer of jars?

'What we do now echoes in eternity.' Marcus Aurelius
How Permies Works Dr. Redhawk's Epic Soil Series

 
Carla Burke
Rusticator
Posts: 8568
Location: Missouri Ozarks
4542
6
I like...
personal care gear foraging hunting rabbit chicken cooking food preservation fiber arts medical herbs homestead
posted 3 years ago
  • Likes 7
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Dan is correct, to my understanding. Joylynn, that would be the bottom layer of jars, otherwise there could be a liquid exchange, with the jars on the bottom. The steam will be sufficient to can both layers.

The only thing...more expensive than education is ignorance.~Ben Franklin

 
John F Dean
master steward
Posts: 6968
Location: southern Illinois, USA
2536
I like...
goat cat dog chicken composting toilet food preservation pig bee solar wood heat homestead
posted 3 years ago
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I have made certain that the water level never gets near the top of the jars.  I also make certain there is at least a quart or two of water in the pressure canner (depending upon how long I plan to have the jars under pressure. At 71, I am still alive.

At my age, Happy Hour is a nap.

 
Mike Haasl
steward
Posts: 15505
Location: Northern WI (zone 4)
4846
7
I like...
hunting trees books food preservation solar woodworking
posted 3 years ago
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I agree as well with Carla and Dan.  My canner has a little line near the bottom and I think it's more like an inch from the bottom.  That might be a minimum line though...

After you're done canning, check how much water you lost so that you can adjust in the future or know how close to "running dry" you were.  You will lose more steam with a jiggler weight than with a pressure gauge and the longer/harder it's jiggling, the more steam (and water) you lose.

SKIP books, get 'em while they're hot!!! Skills to Inherit Property

 
Jordan Holland
gardener
Posts: 3132
2095
posted 3 years ago
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
It's been a while since I read up on it, but I vaguely remember something saying water should cover the contents of the jars for the recipe to work properly. This was with fish, though. I think the gist was that water transfers heat faster than steam, and the time given to cook it depended on that heat transfer and with the water level too low, it would not heat the contents all the way through. It was also insistent that nothing larger than pints could be safely used due to the center of the jars' contents not getting up to temperature as well.

And he said, "I want to live as an honest man, to get all I deserve, and to give all I can, and to love a young woman whom I don't understand. Your Highness, your ways are very strange."

 
Pearl Sutton
steward & bricolagier
Posts: 14662
Location: SW Missouri
10093
2
I like...
goat cat fungi books chicken earthworks food preservation cooking building homestead ungarbage
posted 3 years ago
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Jordan Holland wrote:It's been a while since I read up on it, but I vaguely remember something saying water should cover the contents of the jars for the recipe to work properly. This was with fish, though. I think the gist was that water transfers heat faster than steam, and the time given to cook it depended on that heat transfer and with the water level too low, it would not heat the contents all the way through. It was also insistent that nothing larger than pints could be safely used due to the center of the jars' contents not getting up to temperature as well.


Jordan: That's solid pack raw fish instructions.  I've seen those before :D

Gardens in my mind never need water
Castles in the air never have a wet basement
Well made buildings are fractal -- equally intelligent design at every level of detail.
Bright sparks remind others that they too can dance
What I am looking for is looking for me too!

 
Jay Angler
steward
Posts: 12425
Location: Pacific Wet Coast
6991
I like...
duck books chicken cooking food preservation ungarbage
posted 3 years ago
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Pearl, do you have a rack or a tray in the bottom of your pressure cooker? That might make a difference. The rack doesn't need to hold the jars much off the bottom - in one cooker I use, I bought a pizza pan that had holes in it and put it in upside down so the lip holds the jars up about 3/8th inch. Your jars wouldn't be displacing any water below the rack, which might ensure you've got enough of a reservoir that you don't have to worry about it running dry.

I think ugly things might happen if it ran dry!

Visit Redhawk's soil series: https://permies.com/wiki/redhawk-soil
How permies.com works: https://permies.com/wiki/34193/permies-works-links-threads

 
Pearl Sutton
steward & bricolagier
Posts: 14662
Location: SW Missouri
10093
2
I like...
goat cat fungi books chicken earthworks food preservation cooking building homestead ungarbage
posted 3 years ago
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Jay Angler wrote:Pearl, do you have a rack or a tray in the bottom of your pressure cooker?


Yup! And I went back to doing what I know works, so when the jars are in place, there is about 2 inches of water around them. I gave up on the directions on the net. I have been canning a lot lately, and they are all doing fine now. I messed myself up by listening to bad info, perhaps for a different canner than mine.  When I followed directions I had quart jars almost going under water. Pints were totally immersed.  None of that looked right.

:D

Gardens in my mind never need water
Castles in the air never have a wet basement
Well made buildings are fractal -- equally intelligent design at every level of detail.
Bright sparks remind others that they too can dance
What I am looking for is looking for me too!

 
Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious - Oscar Wilde
Freaky Cheap Heat - 2 hour movie - HD streaming
https://permies.com/wiki/238453/Freaky-Cheap-Heat-hour-movie
reply
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
Boost this thread!
Similar Threads
More...