Pressure canning on a rocket stove

Have been wanting to try pressure canning on a rocket stove, but don't want to ruin my expensive All American Canner.

Has anyone ever done this? Is it possible? Does it work? And which type of Rocket stove works best for this?

We have not built our rocket stove yet, so I don't have any experience with using one.  I don't want my pan covered in soot or damaged from the heat being too high. Not sure how you would regulate the heat to keep it as the required pressure/temperature for the long canning times require for meats or seafood.

Any ideas, suggestions or help if you have tried this would be wonderful. Thought about trying to find a old used All American to test with, but in our area and in our state there are lots of canners and more every day now. Finding a used one that isn't damaged is not easy and they can be almost as expensive as a new one since so many people want them.

https://permies.com/t/212703/Pressure-canning-rocket-stove

There is already a video out on this.

Hope this helps.

Hello Vickey!

For pressure canning I would use a rocket cook top like they have at Wheaton Labs in Allerton Abbey.
It is designed for cooking, not for heating.  So you could run it for hours and would not overly heat your house.

Check this out!  So cool!

I remember Grandma using a 55 gallon drum there was a fire under to heat water  and loading layers placing a wire rack on top and loading another layer till it was full.  She would bring it to a boil and watch the clock, after it had boiled ( seemed like all day but I was a small child then)  then she would rake the fire out from under the barrel and go eat dinner.  Left it to cool all night. I would spend part of the next day with my cousins in a "bucket squad" passing jars to Granny in the root cellar. When I was older I remember her loading cold jars in the same manner then we covered with cool water and started the fire. I'm pretty sure this was a very long burn time as we spent the day getting tomorrow's batch ready.

Hi, Vickey

Here is a thread with pictures of using a using a pressure canner on a brick rocket stoves:



https://permies.com/t/188921/Canning-brick-rocket-stove

As you can see the bottom of the pan is smoke covered.

This thread uses a cook stove top:



https://permies.com/t/169740/rocket-stove



https://permies.com/t/156857/Walker-cookstove

Another one:



https://permies.com/t/205948/Walker-Tiny-Cook-Stove-Reflection#1716004

Maybe you might want to build a Walker Cook Stove instead of a Rocket Stove.

Rebecca Fussner wrote:I remember Grandma using a 55 gallon drum there was a fire under to heat water  and loading layers placing a wire rack on top and loading another layer till it was full.  She would bring it to a boil and watch the clock, after it had boiled ( seemed like all day but I was a small child then)  then she would rake the fire out from under the barrel and go eat dinner.  Left it to cool all night. I would spend part of the next day with my cousins in a "bucket squad" passing jars to Granny in the root cellar. When I was older I remember her loading cold jars in the same manner then we covered with cool water and started the fire. I'm pretty sure this was a very long burn time as we spent the day getting tomorrow's batch ready.

Wow Rebecca!  Thank you for sharing that.

I love hearing what people did in the old days.  

We do our canning using an All American on a rocket fire.  We use what is known as the "Institutional rocket Stove" design,  developed at Aprovecho.  If you don't want your pan covered in soot then wood fires probably aren't going to cut it. Regulating heat requires fairly constant attention but that's par for the course with an L shaped feed and burn system.  I actually enjoy the challenge of running the fire and keeping the temp steady - it's not hard.  This design is extremely efficient.  I don't have any pics on hand but I'll include a link to the maths you need to think about.  My last two builds use a commercial Rocket Fire (https://www.bestdeals.co.nz/online-portable-camping-stove-stainless-steel-wood-burning-outdoor-cooking-stove-cooker-picnic-emergency-34987.html?aid=23)  incorporated into the drums.

Here's the link I was referring to - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NjBXsUUCtDRFa2hk1D1j6Wp-QEVvGPN9Oj1HNprwIc0/edit?usp=sharing

Anne Miller wrote:Hi, Vickey

Here is a thread with pictures of using a using a pressure canner on a brick rocket stoves:



https://permies.com/t/188921/Canning-brick-rocket-stove

As you can see the bottom of the pan is smoke covered.

This thread uses a cook stove top:



https://permies.com/t/169740/rocket-stove

https://permies.com/t/156857/Walker-cookstove

Another one:



https://permies.com/t/205948/Walker-Tiny-Cook-Stove-Reflection#1716004

Maybe you might want to build a Walker Cook Stove instead of a Rocket Stove.

This is all interesting. I will look into them. As for the soot....
I know coating a pan with dish soap will make the soot come off easier.
The glass cook top, Not sure if it can handle the weight of a loaded large pressure canner. But will look into that as well.
Wonder if a steel or cast iron surface would work in a similar way? Maybe something from an old wood stove.

Rebecca Fussner wrote:I remember Grandma using a 55 gallon drum there was a fire under to heat water  and loading layers placing a wire rack on top and loading another layer till it was full.  She would bring it to a boil and watch the clock, after it had boiled ( seemed like all day but I was a small child then)  then she would rake the fire out from under the barrel and go eat dinner.  Left it to cool all night. I would spend part of the next day with my cousins in a "bucket squad" passing jars to Granny in the root cellar. When I was older I remember her loading cold jars in the same manner then we covered with cool water and started the fire. I'm pretty sure this was a very long burn time as we spent the day getting tomorrow's batch ready.

It is so interesting to hear how it was done in the past. This is something I will keep in mind to see if there is any adaptation I could use if I do extremely large batches of water bath canning. Trying to figure out the pressure canner first as water bath is pretty easy.

Vickey said, The glass cook top, Not sure if it can handle the weight of a loaded large pressure canner. But will look into that as well.
Wonder if a steel or cast iron surface would work in a similar way? Maybe something from an old wood stove.

Why not ask that question in this thread:

Leigh said, "Does anyone can on their Walker cookstove?

These stoves use salvaged glass stove tops, which seems like a really economical way to have a cooking surface.

https://permies.com/t/156857/Walker-cookstove

Or in this thread:

Matt said, "They are susceptible to being overloaded.  In their original configuration in a metal stove they have very little support so can flex under load and, yes, weight can break them.  In my stoves I always have multiple points of support underneath.  The tops ride on brick dividers that are designed such that they have no span greater than 10" or so.  I feel confident loading them heavily when designed this way.  

https://permies.com/t/71700/Tiny-House-Cook-Stove-Heater#619884

I like hearing about the strategies utilized in the old days too.  So much ingenuity, so much resilience.

In the case of the 55 gallon canner, though, I am concerned with the amount of time the food spends at elevated temperatures.  There is the time heating up and cooling down as well as the processing time.  There would be the temptation to say “good enough” when the full processing time hasn’t been completed.

If it is completed, then the food is as safe as any other water bath canned food, but the food spends hours at almost processing temperatures.  It’s made safe, and then degraded by the lengthy heat.  I would look on it as I do the food I grow in my garden that I don’t really like, but in a food shortage situation, it’s nice to know it’s there.  (cardoon, Jerusalem artichokes, chard…)

I’ve done my share of canning, and I wonder about the time it takes to clean prepare and pack that many jars, (hundreds and hundreds?).  If it’s not all the same, do you process it all for the time required for the food requiring the longest processing time?

Do you spend days packing all those jars getting ready for the single run?  If so, how are you storing all the packed unprocessed jars in the meantime?

My most productive canning days were when I set up next to the apricot orchard.  I could produce 60 quarts of honey reduced apricots using the open kettle method.  (boiling high acid foods containing sugar placed into clean jars, lid and band applied). To accomplish this, I picked the apricots, pitted them, tossed them into a 7 gallon stainless steel paella pan with a thickened bottom supported over a hot propane burner.  I added a half gallon of honey, and kept pitting and adding apricots until I had 7 gallons, which finally came to the boil.  I stirred and waited for the volume to reduce to 5 gallons, then put it into quart  jars…

While I waited for the reduction, I could pick apricots for the next batch.

It was an all day job, and I didn’t have to tend a wood fire.  The fruit was right there.  I didn’t wash it, since I had so much, I could choose the fruit I wanted, so I just didn’t pick the fruit with bird poop or other imperfections.  And I wasn’t tending a fire.

My point is, that amounted to roughly 200 pounds of produce, only 15 gallons of canned apricots.  A 55 gallon drum packed with quart jars would likely be close to 150 quarts or 300 pints, and a quarter ton of produce.  So, should a person with just rudimentary canning experience be attracted to the romance of canning in a 55 gallon drum (as I might have been 50 years ago) I want to say “unless you have a crew of people, and acres of garden, this might not be a workable method”