Old All American Canner
ekgrows
11 years ago
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2ajsmama
11 years agoRelated Discussions
Conversion of 'All American - 25X sterilizer' to 'pressure canner
Comments (37)Ok, I had to chime in as I repair autoclaves for a living. With the RIGHT autoclave, sterility, safety, and flavor can be maximized. I have two Pelton Crane OCRs (10in diameter chamber,) one Midmark M9 (9in diameter chamber,) and one Tuttnauer 2540m (10in diameter chamber.) Of all the units I have used, the older Pelton Crane units seem to be the most viable for home canning, as I personally use them for this task. This autoclave uses a bellows to allow air in the chamber to be displaced by steam as the chamber heats up. It has a safety valve which will open in an over-pressure condition, usually at either 35 or 40 PSI. The analog temperature control is fully adjustable, regulated by a chamber steam temp sensor and TRIAC circuit. If you are worried about gauge accuracy, remember that there is a direct correlation between steam pressure and temperature. (See attached picture for a chart listing correlation points between temperature and pressure.) As long as the temp and pressure gauges correlate, it should be accurate. If you have doubts, a max register lag thermometer can be used to confirm the max temperature. If the max temp displayed on the thermometer matches what was shown on the gauge, and the temp and pressure gauges correlate, there is nothing to worry about. (If you are not running back to back cycles. More on this later.) When I am canning (or sterilizing liquid growth media or IV fluids) in it, I just run it at a lower temp for liquids, and only partially vent it at the end of the cycle to allow the water at the bottom of the chamber to exit. After the venting sound switches from water to steam bubbling through the condenser tube in the water reservoir, I allow the pressure to get down to about 5 PSI before closing the valve and allowing the unit to cool down naturally before opening the door. This will allow the pressure in the jars to come down some, and prevent exploding. This is mainly an issue if you are running cycles above 252F. For reference, pressure canning is usually done at 240F / 10.5 PSI, which is EASILY achievable in an autoclave. Lastly, when using an autoclave, you MUST remember to allow the unit to cool down enough for the bellows for it to open the chamber air vent valve. Failure to do this will cause air in the chamber to not be displaced by steam, leaving a space in the autoclave that DID NOT get up to temperature. -Adam Nash...See Moretrouble with new All American canner
Comments (6)ANOTHER thing there is no ARROW on bottom. Only a DIMPLE.......anyone else have a dimple rather than the arrow??? Don't know what you mean by this part of your question. Putting on the lid requires setting it on and slightly tightening down alternate handles at the same time - the ones across from each other - until all are evenly tightented down. Per the instruction manual: To secure the cover, gradually and evenly tighten two opposite wing nuts at the same time, maintaining the same size gap around the entire unit where the cover meets the bottom. Never tighten just one wing nut at a time. A new cooker will sometimes leak slightly around the metal-to-metal seal. This will do no harm, and should cease after being used a few times. Make sure you have properly lubed the lid with Vaseline as per the instructions before using. Dave...See MoreQuestion about All American 921 canner
Comments (10)Moogies, is the canner or pressure canning new to you? Have you read through the manual? It sounds like you may be comparing it to a water bath process. I don't have the All American (my larger canners are vintage Mirro) but the jar capacity with the second rack and layer is for pressure canning - the jars don't need to be covered with water for that processing. Approx 3" or as described in your manual should be plenty of water for even those things you are processing longest, like fish/meat. Here is a link that might be useful: NCHFP - canner operation...See MoreAll American canner/canning
Comments (2)All-American canners are great but heavy. Be sure your stove can handle the weight of a fully-loaded canner. If you have a stove that has a ceramic (glass-like) top, check your manufacturer's website or your stove's owner's manual. The manufacturers of some ceramic top stoves specify that using heavy pressure canners (or, sometimes, any canner at all), is not recommended and voids the appliance's warranty. There also can be/may be safety issues because of the way the burners on these stoves work. If you have a standard electric stove with coiled burners, sometimes you have to buy a heavy duty burner made to hold the load of a full pressure canner and replace the burner that came with the stove with the heavy-duty one. If you have a gas stove, I cannot advise you because I've never canned on a gas stove, and I also know nothing about canning on a stove with induction burners. The Harvest Forum here at Garden Web/Houzz is where the true canning experts tend to hang out, including several folks are are certified canning instructors or certified master canners. You might want to do a search there and find old posts on this topic and read them, and then if you still have questions, post your questions on a new thread there and await lots of wonderful info from the expert canners. I know some of the folks there have answered questions about the weight of All-American canners in the past. There are alternate ways to can if you have a ceramic top stove and don't want to void your warranty or to have safety issues. They are discussed at length on the Harvest Forum and include using stand-alone burners and canning outdoors on camp stoves or grills. I do a lot of canning, but only do boiling water bath canning nowadays on my ceramic-topped stove. I haven't pressure canned in a long time because we prefer the texture of frozen veggies from the garden over the texture of home-canned veggies from the garden, except for a few things like salsa, other tomato products, jellies, jams, fruit butters and pickled foods, all of which are canned using a boiling water bath. The website of the National Center for Home Food Preservation is the source for government-approved, research-derived safe canning procedures and is another great place to get accurate canning information....See Moreekgrows
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