https://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/publications_usda.html Guide 01 Principles of Home Canning - page 1-19 talks about pressure canners. They mention the disadvantage of jiggler type being that you can't make small adjustments for altitude. I'm at 1,100 feet and anything over 1,000 feet, you add weight/pressure.
The jiggler with no weights is 5 pounds, jiggler plus one weight is 10 pounds and jiggler plus both weights is 15 pounds.
For my 1,100 feet altitude, using a dial gauge canner, I would do tomato juice 15 minutes at 11 pounds but using a jiggler type, they say do 15 pounds due to the 5/10/15 selection.
I cheat. I weighed a jiggler weight, divided by 5 and added a washer that weighed that amount. That way, I can use one weight plus the washer to get my 11 pounds instead of having to use both weights for 15 pounds. Works in my mind LOL. My house is at 1,100 feet but the other, low end of the property is 1,000 feet.
Only a few recipes are like that. I mostly do low acid foods which are all pretty much 90 minutes at 15 pounds. Covers meat, stock, non-tomato veggies, soups etc. Tomatoes are a special case. Some varieties have enough acid for water bath but others don't so tomato based canning recipes always have you add some acid. Lemon juice, citric acid. Recipes that have vinegar as an ingredient are usually considered acidic.
Old canning recipes really shouldn't be used. I lost a bunch of canned tomatoes one year because I did a joint canning session with a neighbor. She did what she thought was her grandmother's method, water bath and I used my pressure canner. The head space she left was all over the place, 1/4 inch to over 1 inch when it was supposed to be half inch. She didn't add any acid. We both got done and put the jars on the counter to cool. I went home for a little bit and when I came back, they had rearranged and mixed up all the jars and she pulled out half but not necessarily her half. I didn't trust what she had done and had no idea which ones I ended up with that she has done, aside from a few obvious ones where the head space was totally wrong. I used a few jars right away and ended up tossing the rest after a while because I didn't trust them.
There are plenty of recipes that were developed in test kitchens and tested for safety. Ball Blue Book, the above USDA recipes etc are safe. Misc canning recipes found on the web or recipes from old books, ymmv.
That Guide 01 Principles of Home Canning will tell you all you need to know about the methods and equipment. You can buy a water bath canner as a kit with accessories like a jar lifter, head space gauge, jar funnel and it's just about as cheap as buying the accessories by themselves plus you get a big stock pot when not using as a water bath canner. Depending on your selection of stores, you might find an accessory kit without the black kettle. The kettle with accessories is what I found at the time/place we were at.
I always hot water bath can my tomatoes and have only tried adding lemon juice one year, but have never had any problems.
But I use my sauce for pasta sauce so I cook the snot out of it after opening it anyways.
I got a tomato variety called Old Brooks from Totally Tomatoes that is an older variety and tends towards the acidic side. It’s supposed to be resistant to blossom end rot and early and late blight as well.
Two of the varieties I didn’t check well for size and it turns out they are cherry tomatoes, so I will give those away to friends or garage sale them.
Canning is a lot of work. I remember my father and mother doing it. Its a good way to store your garden produce.
I chose what I hope are high yielding determinanate varieties with good disease resistance. Hope to get enough to do a little canning.
Thanks for the discussion! You also have information in the links on your home page?