CANNING 101 SERIES: Steam Canning

that's the main reason why I prefer it over a water bath canner. This is a steam canner. Welcome back to my series, Canning 101, where I go over all of the canning basics so you can feel more confident canning. And today I'm going to show you my favorite thing to use instead of a water bath canner. This one's from Concord. Some steam canners have a gauge at the top that let you know when your processing time starts, but this one doesn't. The way that you know your processing time is ready to start is when steam comes out of this vent and it should be a consistent, steady stream of steam, six to eight inches. Now the way that this works, you have your grate here that your jars go on top of, and this is the base of the canner. So there's only this much of a reservoir to hold water. Because it heats up much more quickly than a water bath canner. Like 10 to 15 minutes versus 35 to 40 minutes. That's the main reason why I prefer it over a water bath canner. There's little measurements inside for two, three or four quarts, depending on how long my processing is. If I'm canning jam, it's only 10 minutes plus the warmup time. I'm not gonna need that much water. It really doesn't matter how much water you put in it as long as you don't run out of water. If you run out of water, you can warp the base and you don't want that. So first, you're best bet is to just fill it to the four quart line and then you get used to it and know how much water you need to add for future. It's water, you put the top, your grate on top and your jars go on that grate. It'll fit quarts, pints, half pints, even quarter pints or half pints if you had another rack for the middle layer, because you don't want them touching. Once your jars are all in there, you'll put your lid on. Then move this over to other steam water. The other reason I prefer the steam canner over a water bath canner is because it's easier to transport back and forth. It doesn't have as much water, it's obviously lighter. With all canning, you don't want too drastic of a temperature change, so you bring this up to temperature over medium to high heat. Once you see that steady stream of steam, you start your processing time. Say it's for 10 minutes in a water bath canner, it'll also be 10 minutes in a steam canner. Anything that can be processed in a water bath canner can be done in a steam canner, with one exception. That exception is that this has a max processing time of 45 minutes because of how much water you can add to the bottom of the canner. So for all of my rebel canners out there, if you're water bath canning meat for three hours, you cannot do that in a steam canner. I've had this steam canner for almost a year and I have not used my water bath canner one time since getting it. For me, I definitely think it's worth having. And honestly, I don't know why more people don't talk about it. But if you have any other questions about the steam canner, go ahead and drop them in the comments below. Make sure you're following my page so you don't miss an episode of this series. Okay, love you, bye!