Canning is the process of preserving food in a vacuum-sealed container. Despite the name, though, it doesn’t necessarily need to be a tin can.
Jars are often the preferred option for this, especially for those individuals who are performing the canning process at home. It’s a great way to preserve food for extended periods of time while there is an assurance that the food content is sealed in a tight and durable container.
To do this, one of the most important pieces of equipment you need to have is the pressure canner. This nifty kitchen tool is intended to kill the bacteria that could contaminate the preserved food and promote vacuum sealing. If you are interested in canning at home, these five pressure canners featured are the answer to your dilemma.
Best Pressure Canners Comparison & Rating
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Before you decide which pressure canner to buy, you might want to find out more about the best options available. This is to make sure that you will absolutely enjoy the pressure canner that you would get for your kitchen. Also, be sure to click the yellow buttons below to see their best deals on Amazon! With that, here are five of the best options that we rounded up especially for you.
Presto 01781 23-Quart Pressure Canner and Cooker
Specifications | |
|---|---|
Dimensions | 15.4 x 15.1 x 14.8 inches |
Weight | 12 pounds |
Color | Silver |
Material | Aluminum |
This is a truly excellent pressure canner that is proven and tested. It can withstand a considerable amount of pressure due to its durable construction. You can use this for any kind of canning project, as well. It’s great for fruits, vegetables, fish, meat, poultry, and more. The tool itself is relatively simple in design and is straightforward to use. Once you’re done with it, cleaning can be done in a jiffy.
Nesco Carey DPC-9SS Smart Pressure Canner
Specifications | |
|---|---|
Dimensions | 14 x 15 x 14.5 inches |
Weight | 17.6 pounds |
Color | Black |
Material | Stainless Steel |
This is a fantastic multi-functional pressure canner, pressure cooker, and steamer. You will find that this is much more convenient than your regular pressure canner. It has neat command inputs that are simple to understand. With the digital timer, you don’t have to worry about forgetting that you are pressure canning. This is quite safe to use, as well, since it was designed with preventing injuries in mind.
Granite Ware Pressure Canner
Specifications | |
|---|---|
Dimensions | 14.5 x 14.25 x 13.38 inches |
Weight | 10.5 pounds |
Color | Black |
Material | Aluminum |
This is an incredibly simple and effective pressure canner. You can easily understand how it works due to the simplicity of the parts. This makes it far less likely for something to go wrong. You can start your pressure canning right away thanks to the canning and steaming racks that it comes with. The pressure builds up quickly and dissipates just as fast when you are done.
Instant Pot Max 9-in-1 Pressure Cooker
Specifications | |
|---|---|
Dimensions | 12.2 x 12.6 x 13 inches |
Weight | 15.7 pounds |
Color | Silver |
Material | 18-8 Steel |
This is quite the nifty multi-purpose pressure kitchen device. It can be used for pressure cooking, for sous vid, and for pressure canning. It comes with a ton of convenient and time-saving presets. You can also rely on the pressure to be constant when you are using it. This machine comes with some neat safety features, as well, which prevents you from getting injured.
T-Fal Pressure Cooker / Pressure Canner
Specifications | |
|---|---|
Dimensions | 19.33 x 15.39 x 16.26 inches |
Weight | 14.77 pounds |
Color | Silver |
Material | Aluminum |
This is a solid, well-built pressure canner that you can rely on. You can be the one to control the pressure that you want to use when cooking or canning. The locking system ensures that you won’t get accidentally burned by the steam if the pressure is still too high. If you want to keep that pressure at 15 psi, this is exactly what you are going to get. Whether you are canning or cooking, you are always in control.
Pressure Canner Buyer's Guide
One of the most important factors to consider when you are considering buying a pressure canner is its durability. This will be affected by its materials, design, thickness, and build. When all of those aspects are working synergistically, the pressure canner will be able to withstand a considerable amount of pressure. This then makes it safer, more convenient, and more efficient.
Knowing the capacity of the pressure canner you are going to buy is extremely important. To start with, it will let you know how many jars of preserved food you will be able to make. You will also know how much water you will need to put and how much space there will be for the hot vapors to move around. If the pot is too big, it would take longer to build pressure.
Using a pressure canner comes with a lot of risks and mistakes can lead to serious injuries. In order to reduce the chances of accidents from happening, the pressure canner should be easy to use. The fewer the steps involved, the less likely you are to make a blunder. This is especially important if you are new to using a pressure canner.
Safety is a big concern whenever you are using a pressure canner. Among the most common injuries sustained from this kitchen tool is burns from the heat steam. As such, the pressure canner should have reliable features for relieving the pressure safely. Random leaks, cracks, and accidental openings of the lid should also be addressed with safety protocols.
While the whole point of using pressure canners is to kill the bacteria that could contaminate the food you want to preserve, the risks would be far lower is the kitchen tool is clean. As such, it should be easy to remove all the remaining stains and residues after using it so that it’s ready for the next batch. This applies to the lid, the rubber seals, the pressure valves, and everything else.
FAQs
Pressure canners are essential pieces of equipment when you are canning non-acidic items like vegetables and meats. The reason for this has to do with Clostridium botulinum, which is the bacteria that can cause botulism. While high temperatures can kill the bacteria itself, the spores will survive. This then gives them a chance to spread later on, thus contaminating the canned food.
When canning acidic items like oranges, grapes, apples, and tomatoes, a pressure canner is not necessary. It would be advised, but the risks involved are significantly lowered by the presence of the acid. Consequently, items that don’t have acid like fish, green beans, carrots, and others will risk contamination. So if you are thinking about canning things like those, you do need a pressure canner.
Pressure canners function in similar ways to regular pressure cookers. You fill it up with enough water, place the jars in the jar rack, and then place the rack inside the pot. Once that’s done, you cover the pot with the lid and seal it tight while making sure that there are no gaps. You then bring the water to a boil and once it starts hissing, you start counting down. After the appropriate time has passed, you release the pressure, wait for the pot to cool down a bit, and then extract the jars.
Some pressure cookers can actually function as pressure canners if they are designed to work that way. However, if you only have a regular pressure cooker, you could still use it to much more limited effect. While pressure cookers are only intended to soften tough pieces of meat, pressure canners are actually intended to kill extremely small and alarmingly resilient bacterial spores. As such, it’s much safer to use either pressure canners or pressure cookers with the right features.