Using an Electric Pressure Canner

Perfect for Beginners (and Experienced Canners, Too!)

Pressure canning can be intimidating, especially for beginners.  I remember the first time I turned on my big stovetop pressure canner;  I was on pins and needles the whole time it was running, worried it might blow up.

Now that I’ve been canning for more than a decade, I’m familiar with every step of the process, and it’s down to a quick routine.  Still, it took a long time for it to get that way, and I often forgot steps along the way.

My husband still reminds me about the time when we started the canner with the caning weight inside the canner…and when the canner came up to temperature, we spent 10 minutes frantically looking for it…before cooling the canner and carefully unloading it and starting all over again.

Oops.

When the instant pot was released in 2010, the world fell in love with pressure cooking.  It was all effortless, and that little countertop machine could cook just about everything at the press of a button. 

Unfortunately, while the instant pot is a pressure cooker, it’s not a pressure canner.  (Here is why canning in the instant pot doesn’t work.) 

The main reason is that it doesn’t maintain the precise temperatures required for pressure canning, and it doesn’t vent the chamber before cooking to ensure even processing.  Sadly, you cannot pressure can in an instant pot.

However, to the delight of canners everywhere, the world’s first digital pressure canner was recently developed by Presto!  It works more or less exactly like an instant pot, with everything at the press of a button…but it has the added bonus of accurately maintaining ideal canning pressures automatically.

Here’s where you can read my full review of the new Presto Electric Pressure Canner, with all the pros and cons.

It prompts you for every step in the canning process, meaning you can’t forget anything, and then maintains the pressure all on its own, without any fuss.

I’m a passionate home canner; believe it or not, I actually own already own three different pressure canners.  I put up food multiple times a week for my family, amounting to over 1,000 jars a year, so I’m definitely not a beginner…and I’m in love. 

This canner is going to completely revolutionize home canning, and introduce food preservation to a whole new generation.

I know that many of you have been considering getting started with pressure canning, but you just don’t know where to start. This is it!

It takes all the “scary” parts out of pressure canning, and you just get perfectly preserved food every time.

Canning Red Lentil Dahl in an electric pressure canner. (Don’t worry, that recipe’s coming soon.)

I’ve been working with mine for a few weeks now, putting it through its paces.

Honestly, I didn’t expect to love this thing. I figured it’d be more of a cute novelty than anything else, but this baby is going to be my go-to canner for preserving small batches and weeknight leftovers from now on.

Unlike other pressure canners, it’s completely silent, and you hardly even know it’s running. It’s well insulated, so it doesn’t heat up the house…perfect with warmer weather coming up. It doesn’t take up stove space, which is always a problem in our house…when canning time runs into dinner time.

And best of all, it maintains accurate pressure without a fuss, so you can set it and then go about your business.

If you’re just wondering how it works, here’s how to use an electric pressure canner.

For those of you that know nothing about pressure canning, here is my beginner’s guide to pressure canning…and I’ll be updating the article to include this new electric canning option toon.

Pressure Canning Recipes

If you’re wondering what a pressure canner can do, I have a list of more than 50 pressure canning recipes on the site, including:

• Canning Beef

• Canning Potatoes

• Canning Pumpkin

• Canning Sweet Potatoes

• Canning Corn

Pressure canners can also put up soup, and I have dozens of soup canning recipes too. Try these for your pantry:

• Sausage, Potato, and Kale Soup

• Carrot Soup

• Split Pea Soup

• Chicken Soup

The ultimate homemade convenience food, these meal-in-a-jar canning recipes are perfect for busy weeknights.

• Boston Baked Beans

• Thai Curry Duck

• White Bean Chicken Chili

• Cajun Red Beans and Sausage

What are you harvesting, preserving, building, or exploring on your homestead this week? I’d love to hear about it!

Leave me a note in the comments…

(Comments only, please. Emails tend to get lost in my inbox, and as much as I’d love to get back to each and every one, my screen time is very limited…and things fall through the cracks, and emails get buried in my inbox. If you comment here, they’re all in one place, and it’s much easier to get back to every single one.)

Until Next Time,

Ashley at Practical Self Reliance