Canning on a flat-top electric stove - tried it - with pics!

[Smiles Jr.]

Putting up the harvest is a fun time for us here at PlayStation. That's the name of our little farm here in the Indiana outback. We do about half of our canning in mid-summer and the other half in the fall. We usually put up about 60 quarts at each canning session. It's actually kind of fun to set a day aside for canning. We do it out in the back yard at the picnic table under the 100 yr. old oak trees. I mess with the pots, pans, baskets of fresh veggies, propane tank and fryer, and all the produce prep & cleaning chores. DW snaps or cuts the green beans skins and slices the tomatoes, etc. She also plans and grills our lunch or dinner to eat out on the picnic table. If it's a rainy day we move our entire operation into the barn. Some years we have our son and daughter and their families over but that gets too busy most of the time. We're old farts and we move much too slow for the younger members of our family

 

[so lucky]

Over on the Sufficient Self forum there was a discussion on using the glass/flat top range to can on. There is a link to a site that lists most kinds of ranges and what their capacity is. It says that my stove top is safe for canning, but I don't think I will this year due to the canner I have access to not having a good flat bottom, to make good contact with the stove-top. Many of my favorite pots and pans are warped on the bottom. Guess I'm supposed to throw them out and buy all new? I wish I had never bought the flat cook top. It seems to be good only if you never intend to use it. Argh!! It is only about a year old, and I am already eyeballing gas ranges.

 

[curly_kate]

So I tried out the turkey fryer as a canner, and it worked pretty well, except for one thing. When I pulled the jars out of the water, the lids all sealed almost immediately. Is that going to cause any problems? I also don't really like running outside to check on it while I'm cooking inside, but oh well. It had the water boiling faster than on my gas stove, even! Here are some pics:

 

[pebbles]

Yes, the water boils really fast-well you are cooking over a blow torch My lids seal really quick also.

 

[lesa]

I am glad you tried it. Not to worry about the fast sealing. I have had it happen even with the waterbath canner. I am really happy to have all that steam outside in the summer! What did you make? It looks yummy!

 

[curly_kate]

Peach preserves! There are wild blackberries ripening all over our farm, so in the next few days I'm going to go picking those. Then I'll have blackberry jam, too!

 

[lesa]

That is what I thought-Delicious!! Do you grow your own peaches? My next project will be blackberry too. I have a friend who has tons of them- and he is kind enough to pick them and bring them to me!!

 

[journey11]

I like the look of that set up, very sturdy!

We've used the camp stove to scald chickens too. Only thing about it is the canner just fits on there. I think I like your set up better!

ETA: Your pressure canner looks a lot like mine. Is it an Old National #7? Those older ones are built like a TANK. The lady at the extension office who tests them for correct pressure said my old canner would probably out-live me. I got it from an estate sale. Its previous owner was 93 years old.

 

[curly_kate]

@lesa - we don't grow our own peaches yet; we get them from the orchard down the road.

@journey - It's an antique Presto. DH picked it up at an estate sale for me. New gauge, new ring, and a run thru the extension agent, and it's as good as new!

 

[brad]

Just to throw my own anecdote into the mix, we canned for the first time last week and did it successfully on our smooth-top range. We have the 921 All-American canner, and canned 6 quarts (it holds 7) of green beans with no problems at all. Our stove has one of the eyes that can be expanded by flipping a switch, thus enabling it to handle larger items. We used that eye and everything went as expected.

Just FYI...