Posted on 09/16/2023 3:07:53 PM PDT by CottonBall
This is an ongoing thread – meaning come back to chat, post information, or ask questions any time. Hopefully the thread won’t stagnate and I’ll do better at posting weekly (or bi-weekly) topics than I have in the past. (anyone willing to post a topic now and then we'll be highly praised and appreciated).
We are in for some bumpy rides, and prepping can only help. If for peace of mind, if nothing else. We have a wonderful gardening thread and a current-events survival/prepping thread, and hopefully this one can piggyback off of those, maybe having a longer discussion about certain topics or … whatever. It's your thread, do what you like with it! (civilly, of course)
Here are granny’s threads, if anyone wants to peruse them:
nw_arizona_granny’s Thread #1
nw_arizona_granny’s Thread #2
nw_arizona_granny’s Thread #3
What was your old one?
I thought about a mockmill also. With everything on backorder I just picked one that I wanted without being worried about when it showed up. I didn’t really expect 4-5 months though!
It sounded like the mockmill had the same engine and the same warranty, without the big price tag.
“It’s oxygen that makes things deteriorate”
I thought about putting them in mylar with an oxygen absorber, but then I realized it would take a lot of space to store it. Unless I’m putting fine grains in mylar, it’s not a very compact package.
What are the oldest that you have used your lids and they still work?
That’s strange because the risk of leaking jars and steam burns is very high at that point.
You have to wait to take the weight off until the pressure drops to zero, otherwise the jars will leak. Also I would think the lid would be thrown off and that is dangerous as well as the risk of steam burns.
The pressure in the jars will still be high for a sudden drop in pressure like removing the lid quickly.
My old one is a Magic Mill. Probably over 25 years old at this point, which is another reason I wanted a new one. If that one gave up the ghost, I’d be in a world of hurt with the grain I have.
I’m guess 5-6 years.
Did you post an image to you All American Canner? Or a link to it?
If it’s like mine, I cannot fathom it creating a vacuum because the weight on the vent is what controls the pressure.
I have a couple or three Mirro canners. I don’t use the tattlers anymore. I use some for storage and fermenting but that is it. They work just fine for that so not a total loss.
I live among the Mennonite’s in central Misssouri. I can buy a gross sleeve here and they are carrying superb and Ball lids in some stores. They had lids available longer than Walmart in 2020.
“If that one gave up the ghost, I’d be in a world of hurt with the grain I have.”
I hear you. I have super pails of the stuff. It would be hard to deal with without a grinder! LOL. We would have a lot of boiled wheat cereal.
When I first started into this I wasn’t sure I would like it. So I got a cheaper grinder and a cheaper canner. But I love both of it so I wished I had gotten the more expensive one from the beginning. Now they’ve gone up quite a bit in price.
I got the 9:15, it’s a smaller one and you can’t Double Stack it. I’ll try to find a link. But it sounds the same, when the pressure goes to zero then you take the weight off. And then it says to open the lid right away, or not to wait more than 3 minutes, maybe 5 minutes, I can’t remember the exact directions.
“I live among the Mennonite’s in central Misssouri”
nice!!!!
The Mennonite store we stop at in Seneca Falls is the one that had wheat berries for grinding. I like the hard white wheat better than the hard red wheat. It makes a lighter, finer grained loaf of bread that is a really pretty golden color.
That store, however, ran out of canning supplies when the lockdowns hit. They did have them a little bit longer, but by July or August, you could not find them anywhere to save your life.
And yet, God showed me He could provide. On the very rural country road, I saw a box marked *Free* and what looked like glass in it. I stopped, backed up, and sure enough there were canning jars in it. Obviously had been in a barn for a while, but Easy Off can be a girl’s best friend.
I’m very happy to be wrong! I got this from the All-American website. I was looking for written diretions because I didn’t want to post a video, that’s always a pain to watch if you’re just looking for a little bit of information. Now the video I did watch I thought came from the All-American website, I’ll go back and check but I would trust written directions better.
So the way I read this is what you said, as long as you remove the pressure regulator there won’t be a vacuum.
“When the pressure regulator
weight is left on, a vacuum may
form inside the cooker making the
cover difficult to remove. To avoid a
vacuum, which will cause the cover
to be drawn to the bottom very
tightly, you must remove the pres
sure regulator weight from the vent
pipe as soon as the pressure gauge
indicator reaches zero P.S.I. and then
remove the cover. The longer you
wait without removing the pressure
regulator weight, the more vacuum
will form, pulling the cover tighter
and tighter to the bottom.
Another reason that a cover sticks
to the bottom is that the metal-tometal seal has been permitted to
build up a coating of foreign material
such as dried grease, lubricating oil,
etc. Please refer to page 7 under the
section “Metal-to-Metal Seal,
Cleaning and Maintenance” for
complete instructions”
“I’m guess 5-6 years”
I probably ought to be storing mine in mylar now. I bought a bunch a little after we moved here and it’s been about 8 years. I’ve been using primarily Tattlers so I have a whole bunch of Ball lids. I only use those when I’m going to give a jar away.
I have the 921 and just read the instruction book.
https://www.allamericancanner.com/All-American-21-Quart-Pressure-Canner.htm
There is no advice to remove the lid quickly after it is cooled enough to remove the pressure weight. Sometimes, if I’m only doing one batch, I’ll let it cool overnight. Never had a vacuum form because the vent that the weight sits on allows air in, but also the black safety plug leaks air as well. I’ve noticed that as my canner leaks steam as it’s coming up to temperature around the black pressure relief plug. But once it’s up to pressure, that stops.
I just regularly check the temperature gauge and watch it while it’s processing. I never leave it unattended for the whole time of the canning. I’m always around listening for the rattle of the weight and occasionally checking the gauge.
I see what they are saying.
You need to remove the WEIGHT to prevent the vacuum and that makes sense as it could block the air flow back into the canner.
And I can see why that needs to be done as soon as the pressure is at zero. Sometimes I just lift it a little to see if there’s any hissing or other indication there’s still pressure inside.
It’s not removing the lid that needs to happen right away.
“I’ll let it cool overnight”
Wow. I forgotten all the liberties we can take with the metal lids. That wouldn’t work with the toddlers, but it’s nice to know it can happen and no vacuum.
I’ve been going through the videos I watched to see where I saw to remove the lid quickly. I can’t find that one but I saw one that said wait 2 minutes after removing the weighted gauge. That’s not on the All-American website at all.
Looks like lots of video makers Are adding in unnecessary steps!
I’ll stick with the All-American pdf.
“Sometimes I just lift it a little to see if there’s any hissing or other indication there’s still pressure inside.”
I added that to my directions. Thanks so much
Just one more thing on that. I do it once the pressure/temperature gauge looks like it’s all the way down, at zero.
Lifting it slightly would verify it is or not and yet, if the canner still had a little pressure in it, wouldn’t be enough to make the jars leak.
I have found from experience that trying to take the cover off the canner too soon is just felt too risky. Never got burned but it just was too hot for me to feel comfortable trying it when it was that hot, even with potholders. The potholders were just too bulky to be able to manage unscrewing the knobs anyways.
I’ve seen people making the videos even advocate reusing canning jar lids.
I don’t. I’m just not comfortable with that thought even though I do know people who do it and claim to do it successfully.
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