beans canning

[aNDY9999]

they say that pressure canning is needed to preserve beans- possible botulinum
Which canner should I buy ???
All American 921 All-American 21-1/2-Quart Pressure Cooker/Canner
or
Presto 23-Quart Aluminum Pressure Canner
Is it worth it - to spend more money for the first one.

[TnAndy]

Either canner is fine, both will do the job. The only real difference in the Presto and AA is the AA doesn't use a seal, which will need replacing at some point on the Presto, but you're talking 10-15 years before you'd be doing that.

We have both, plus an old, heavy duty National brand ( c. 1950ish ) that my wife inherited from her mom. The Presto is my backup canner, never even gotten it out of the box.

My suggestion is START with the Presto to give you an intro to canning w/o spending big bucks, then if you REALLY get into it, go for the 941 All American were you can double stack quarts (about 20) and triple stack pints (about 30) to run a real production line.

When you see canner capacities, that is actually liquid if you were to fill one up ( which you never do.....only takes couple inches of water in the bottom to pressure can....NOT LIKE WATER BATH ).....both those you mentioned will hold 7 quart jars, max, and probably the same on pints. ( but you might be able to stack pints.....and get a few more in )

What we find too is depending on how bean/etc are coming in from the garden, we may just have enough on one picking to do a small canner load....so we whip out the old National ( does 7 quart or pint jars ) on the stove top and get it done quick.

BUT if I've planted a BOATLOAD of something, like beans/tomatoes/etc, and they all come in at the same time, we'll switch to the 941 AA, and maybe have the National going as well, so we can crank off 27 quarts at a run.

Two notes of caution about the 941....it REALLY needs a high powered burner......it won't even fit on our gas counter cook top and clear the overhead hood it's so tall.....so I use it in the garage or the "man cave" auxiliary kitchen I built on a free standing propane fired "turkey cooker" (Home Depot)....puts the rim of the canner right at waist level, and easy to load/unload.

Second, it takes MUCH longer to heat up and cool down per cycle than a smaller canner like the Presto.




Green beans are a GREAT first start on canning.....you almost can't screw them up if you do 20 minutes at 10PSI. Clean, string, break into pcs, dump them raw in the jars, add little salt if you prefer (we do), fill with hot water to within 1" of top, and screw a sterilized lid/ring on, stick in the canner, process.

[aNDY9999]

Thanks TnAndy
Your advice is priceless as always.
Picture below is from 4 years ago ,10364right now I tripled the number of jarrs

[TnAndy]

EIIIIIIIIII...chiwhawha........makes my mouth burn just to look at that pic !

But it sure is pretty !

[JohnPA]

My AA was well worth the price as the first pressure canner we purchased. At this point I sometimes wish we had gotten the larger size to double-stack quart jars. Just the other day we put up 6 quarts of home grown beans (easy) and 7 quarts of ratatouile ( mostly home grown veggies. Use the Ball Blue Book as your first reference source. Cleanliness is imperative. Hope this helps.

JPA