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Pressure canning on a woodstove


Christy

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Yep, a tricky one. Has anyone succesfully pressure-canned on a woodstove?

I'll be going back to the smallhold soon enough and am considering taking the Presto with me. Just in case a deer wanders carelessly into the yard and is in desperate need of canning :D

Maintaining a fire just underneath the cast-iron top should be easy enough. It should get hot enough to bring things to a rolling boil inside the canner.

 

Does anyone know of a reason why this should not be done? If so, please say so.

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I'd like to know too. I have a woodstove i have cooked on, iced in for 2 weeks one time with no warning...The stove was a lifesaver. But, during the winter when its going heating the house, wouldnt it be grand to do some canning at the same time....

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If you can keep the fire hot enough and the pressure maintained, it is no different than using a gas or electric stove. The secret is not getting distracted and letting the fire cool down.

 

do you have a woodstove that isn't insolated so that it can get that hot?

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It's a kitchenstove with a cast iron plate. About 10cm (3in?) underneath it is a grate for wood and/or coal to burn.

So it should get very hot.

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It's a kitchenstove with a cast iron plate. About 10cm (3in?) underneath it is a grate for wood and/or coal to burn.

So it should get very hot.

 

Have you tried just boiling a pot of water for an hour at a rapid boil? That would give you some idea what was involved in keeping it hot enough.

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Have you tried just boiling a pot of water for an hour at a rapid boil? That would give you some idea what was involved in keeping it hot enough.

Ah now there's the snag :D One of the very kind neighbours in Germany is giving me the thing. It'll probably be picked up from her on friday and taken to our retreat.

Since the chimney at the BOL was finished only last week and the stove still needs to be attached, there is no way to know how hot it'll get.

Judging by the tiny woodstove I have here at home, where the fire is much lower beneath the plate, it gets very very hot! In winter we heat the house with the woodstove and find it boils water faster than the natural gas stove we have.

So here's hoping.

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Christy,

 

Get yourself a cooking thermometer, infared if you can. This will tell the temp of your stove at home, the boiling liquid, etc. THEN do a comparison at the woodstove.

 

Would this help?

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C4C, didn't know that sort of thing existed. Only cooking thermometer I have is a metal stick with a reader at the top.

 

Yikes, just googled them and it's the sort of thing I hope my friends chip in for my birthday or something. Very nice device though and it's easy to see how useful this would be.

Will take notes and see if one can be pooled for a birthday.

Thanks for the tip.

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There is no reason you can't do this. If you can boil water in a large pot and simmer it on your stove, you can pressure can on it. As long as you maintain pressure or the jiggly thing keeps jiggling, you have nothing to worry about. The caveat is--do you know your stove well enough to be able to maintain the heat for the processing time?

 

My mother used to pressure can with a wood cook stove.

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  • 1 month later...

As far as canning on a cookstove, I know someone who has done it, but she prefers using a propane stove. Hers did overheat once on the cookstove and the canner got red hot. Pressure canning requires a steady temperature for safety reasons.

 

Canning is hot work, so canning outdoors on a sturdy propane stove is a nice way to go about it. Best to make sure it's not "kid accessible" of course.

 

Thanks for that BackWoodsHome link, Scrubbie. ;) I really recommend the two posts by Mother and Daisygirl at that link Leah posted - good stuff!

 

 

 

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So I really can use my propane stove to pressure-can too???

I"ve been using it for my water-bath canners, but was a little worried about pressure caning that way.

 

That would just be aweome!

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