Food Prep - Testing the All American

I am so much more comfortable with a jiggler for pressure canning, and I have used the All American canners for years...but it is still good to do a test run with any new pressure canner.

First I washed it, then checked the vent and made sure all of the wing nuts were working smoothly.

Then, since all american's are machine tooled (metal on metal seal with no gasket) I ran my finger over the seal on the base, and lid...In BOTH directions, to be sure there were no burrs that could prevent a good seal.

Then I added 3 inches of water, ran my finger over the base seal with a little olive oil, put the lid on...and added heat.

This is a smaller canner than I used to have, but there are only 2 of us now, and smaller is better in the RV...I don't mind canning more often if I need to.

So the seal is good, it's steaming well...

Dropping the jiggler on at 15 lb...

Letting it slowly build up pressure. The gauge on it works fairly well...I noticed it reads 2 - 3 lb under. BUT the beauty of the jiggler is that the gauge doesn't Really matter. I can tell if the gauge is accurate by what it reads when the weight starts jiggling and don't have to rely on an accurate gauge! Let me tell you, when I was trying the Presto, my stomach bottomed out when I saw that gauge fill with moisture.

Anyways, with the jiggler, that is all I need to know when the pressure is right...once it gets jiggling good, you just slowly drop the heat a little, wait...count the jiggles per minute and then reduce the heat again until you get 4 to 5 jiggles per minute and you are good to go!

Once I got it to 15 lb, it was easy to find a constant flame height to keep it there.

I was really nervous bringing the Presto up to 15 lb, but not at all with the All American. The metal is so much heavier, I had No concerns about it bowing under high pressure.

This photo was not at 15 lbs, clearly...but the gauge works.

So now I am a happy camper...I will get all the soups canned, and re-canned so I can get them in the pantry shed...tie the jiggler onto the lid handle and call it ours.

Yay :D