Help re Canning.

[Wychwood]

My son upgraded his kitchen recently and had an induction hob fitted. Obviously this does not work with my Presto Aluminium pressure canner. So I'm considering getting a portable ceramic hob like this.....

 

 

Double Hot Plate, CUSIMAX 2400W Electric Hob Ceramic Hot Plate, Portable Double Camping Hob Infrared Cooktop with Dual Temperature Control, Easy to Clean, Black Stainless Steel : Amazon.co.uk: Home & Kitchen

 

Do you think it would be safe to can on one of these?

[Dee]

I have no idea, sorry Wychwood, but I'd like to know the answer to that question too.  I have a glass cooktop with instructions to NOT can on it.  

[euphrasyne]

I had a glass cooktop.   You are not supposed to can on it because:

1 the weight is too much and can crack the cooktop

2 it weighs more than just the items and water because pressurizing adds a LOT of weight which can crack the cooktop

3 the shaking jars vibrate the glass and can crack the cooktop

 

I did do some water bath canning in small batches and it did vibrate a bit.   In the end, I moved and never got a glass cooktop again.  

[snapshotmiki]

2 hours ago, Dee said:

I have no idea, sorry Wychwood, but I'd like to know the answer to that question too.  I have a glass cooktop with instructions to NOT can on it.  

Me too.  I've been using my two Presto's on it at the same time since I bought it.

When I move the full canners, I lift and slide.  Never just pick them up--I'm too short to do that.  LOL

Edited June 2, 2022 by snapshotmiki

[Mother]

I have a glass to and the booklet that came with it actually said you could can on it as long as the pan was sized to the burner.  None of the burners are large enough for the regular canners but I have a small water bath one (really a large heavy stock pot) that will fit.  I’ve used it many times with no problems.  When we remodeled the kitchen to make it handicapped friendly we put in a glass top and a heavy duty gas top both.  DH is now in charge of using the big canners on the gas one.  

[Littlesister]

I have heard there are some glass top stoves that you can doing canning on but most you cannot.  If you ever get a new stove, if you can't get gas or propane ones then I would check to see which options you have for a glass top stove you can cook on. 

I have a gas stove though we used to have an electric stove that had those coils to cook on. I hated them. So, when we remodeled the kitchen, DH ran the gas lines for a gas stove for me. I can use to pressure cookers on it at a time. 

Wychwood, I have a single burner hot plate but have never tried to can on it. I would love to know if you could do that. Would give me another option for canning. Wonder if it would work for water bath canning in small batches. 

 

[Dee]

Wow, that's a lot of reasons why not to try it on the glass cooktop, Euphrasyne.  I've done some water bath canning too.  Makes me nervous but my instructions didn't tell me not to do it soooooooo  I tried getting gas run and getting a new stove but the only thing using gas (propane in our circumstances) was the furnace and the pipe wasn't 1" like the guy thought it should be to switch over.   

 

Miki, I'm plenty tall but too old.  

 

Mother, would love to be able to put in a gas top.  It would make it all so much easier.

 

I could take my goods to the library and use their gas stove but what a pain having to haul it all to town.  Might try it though if by fall it looks like we better be saving all we can.  One of my friends used the library last year and just left all her equipment there until she finished.  As long as there are no rentals of the meeting room I suppose we could both leave our stuff there.

 

 

 

[kappydell]

I have canned on a hot plate about 15 (?) years ago when the stove in my rental unit started acting wierd.  So I cooked EVERYTHING in the micro except canning, which I did on a hot plate I got at St Vincent DePaul for $5.  It actually worked well, I just had to balance the canner so the burner was in the center.  It got hot under there, so I put a large heavy wood cutting board (plywood would do) under the hot plate (a single electric burner) to protect the counter top.  It took longer than on a stove to bring the pressure up, but once it was up it worked just fine.  

If you can get one with a larger burner the canner should sit on it better. ( I also used an electric skillet to brown the meats before canning them, and even baked in it, so I did not use the wonky stove at all, LOL.)  

Edited June 3, 2022 by kappydell

[Wychwood]

Thanks everyone, it's a help to get other opinions.

The galling thing is that the glass induction hob has an extra large cooking area, but induction doesn't work with aluminium! So the options are to get a steel bottomed pressure canner or try on a ceramic hob like the one in the picture. 

So, what I take away from this is that it's OK to can on a portable ring, but it does get hot underneath, so I will now spend some time either finding out how much an induction friendly canner is or spend some time finding a portable hob with a large enough plate.

 

I have considered an induction adjuster, but I'm wary due to the time the canner spends on the hob. 

 

All this because my son wanted a cat friendly kitchen!

[euphrasyne]

Alternatively....I have a gas stove.   I love it.  I can on it.   I also have a propane grill.  It has a side burner.  See where I'm going with this?  Not the cheapest method, but it does keep the heat out of the kitchen mid summer.   The high last weekend was 91F here.  

[Wychwood]

18 hours ago, euphrasyne said:

Alternatively....I have a gas stove.   I love it.  I can on it.   I also have a propane grill.  It has a side burner.  See where I'm going with this?  Not the cheapest method, but it does keep the heat out of the kitchen mid summer.   The high last weekend was 91F here.  

 

A propane burner was a consideration, getting the bottles of gas is a problem though. 

 

91F!!! I wish! Yesterday it was 64F which is about average for this time of year in these parts. 

[euphrasyne]

We have seriously considered moving to Alaska or Idaho or such to retire.   This summer heat is killing us as we get older.  

[Midnightmom]

On 6/4/2022 at 12:27 AM, Wychwood said:

A propane burner was a consideration, getting the bottles of gas is a problem though. 

 

Make sure that your canner is rated for the amount of BTUs that your propane stove outputs!

[Midnightmom]

On 6/4/2022 at 7:08 AM, euphrasyne said:

We have seriously considered moving to Alaska or Idaho or such to retire.   This summer heat is killing us as we get older.  

My grandmother was a civilian worker for the Navy. When they decided to close the base she worked at they offered to move her (free) to where the new (consolidated)  base was located. Since she was close to retirement age and lived in Delaware (cold winters) she took them up on it and got moved to New Orleans! 

 

Just be sure you're not moving from "the frying pan into the fire."    (The exteme cold can be just as hard on us older folks as the summer can be)

[euphrasyne]

I lived in MS for over 30 years and a decade of it only about 2.5 hours from 'Nawlins and 5 minutes from LA/MS line.   Hot, Humid, could not pay me enough to move back.  It was not any sort of experience I want to repeat.  I am not a fan of The Big Easy even though I personally know several people who live in and around there.   Most of them move out to Kenner at least since living in the city is so expensive and horrid.  Been on the east coast about a decade.  Hot summers, cold winters, still humid.   I hate the beach and love the mountains.   I'd take east coast over south LA anytime.  North LA is not as bad --especially if you get up around Arklatex.    We are hopefully moving somewhere cold and humid.    I'm one of those oddballs who could live in an underground bunker for 20 years and be just fine.  

 

One person's heaven is another's hell.  

 

DH is navy civilian and is seriously thinking about Crane, Indianna.  They would pay him to move there and he could be in the armory for a few years until retirement kicks in.   Alot of our retirement decisions are based on money/politics/local laws/ and what available positions are up on USA jobs in his range in a few years.  Army service sold back counting to navy stuff we've got roughly 30 years in now.  

[Littlesister]

I also have a gas top stove and love it.  Also have a propane grill with a side burner but never tried canning with that. Waiting for sales for propane crab or turkey burners with high BTU ratings to go on sale. Might get a couple of them and a couple more propane tanks. 

 

Euphrosyne, I feel for you with this hot humid weather. going to get up to 100* today and humid as well. I can no longer handle this humidity. That is what gets me the worst. 

Have been for a few years thinking about Montana. Kids and grandkids are all grown and are now living in 4 different states. GS is right now living with me till he can get on his feet, and I am hoping within one or two years he will be there. He loves his job and making good money and is now working on getting his bills caught up and paid off. So, hoping he will really be out of here within a year.

DH and I had talked about moving to the country back a few years after we were married. But he had a major stoke 8 years after our marriage. And that ended that. The Montana thing is something I had been thinking about for over 10 years but never said anything to DH because of his heath and by then a major heart attack. That trip would be hard to do at my age almost 72 but still on my mind.  DH and I did the beach thing because it was what the kids liked But neither of us were the beach sort of people. But love the mountains also. GS doesn't like the beach but loves the mountains. But he is not going to be coming with me if I make a move to Montana. I have been thinking about how this area is growing and getting much worse. I will have to go around and take pictures of what is happening around here. It's really bad. GS was in Washington state for just over a year and when he got back and started to ride around a bit around his old neighborhood and through Smithfield where he went to school, he was shocked. Just up at Carrollton Blvd. the Apts. have already been built and they are not done yet. They have Plans to make Rt. 17 a 6-lane highway from College Dr. to the James River bridge. Tolls will be put on everything here. James River Bridge, Monitor Merrimac, and other bridges will all have a toll. So, I would not be able to go far without paying tolls later down the line. And going all the way to end of college drive and Harborview Blvd. is a nightmare with what they are building. It's like its own little town. They are still working on that so not open yet. Apt; houses, stores, restaurants and so much more. It will be a huge area and Suffolk does not have the schools, roads or anything else to handle all this. Low-income houses are being mixed in with higher priced houses now. I would think that would bring down the cost of the higher priced houses, but that isn't the issue, it's the fact that there are still a lot of country roads and schools cannot handle all the kids coming here from who knows where. Plus, it is already a bottle neck issue here if we ever have to evacuate for any reason. 

Whatever I decide to do I will be making sure I can have natural gas for canning, geothermal heat and air and backup generator and solar. And yes, I still want a wood burning stove. 

[Jeepers]

Euphrasyne, I'm with you on the weather. I can't handle the heat. We lived in Clearwater FL for a few years when I was a kid. It rained every day just enough to make everything more hot and more humid. My mom and I spent every summer with relatives in Indiana to get away from the heat.

 

I know where Crane is. I lived in Bloomington for about 7 years. It can be very hot in southern Indy in the summer too though. You can get into some pretty red neck good old boy country down around there. I have some family in Idaho. They love everything about it out there. That is as long as the influx of Californians keep their liberal politics out of their state. They do fight hard to keep that from happening.  

 

According to my notes, when canning on a camp type stove make sure the BTU's do not exceed 12,000. Also add a little more water in your canner.

 

This posted before I was finished.  

 

Edited June 17, 2022 by Jeepers
Posted too soon.