Talk:Home canning

Bottling?
I've never heard anyone refer to home canning as "bottling". To me, "bottling" means something completely different. If this is a regional or archaic usage, it should be labeled as such. --Chapka (talk) 20:32, 5 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I've been canning all my life, and refer to it as 'bottling' all the time... Nothingofwater (talk) 01:03, 6 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Interesting...looking into it a bit, it appears that Europeans always refer to "bottling" and have never heard of "canning". Here on the east coast of the U.S. I've always heard "canning" and never "bottling," which to me is the process I use to package beer or wine.  Canadians seem to use both terms interchangeably.--Chapka (talk) 16:25, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

If anything I would say that "canning" is a regional (ie USA) usage and i've been doing this since the war210.23.130.14 (talk) 00:49, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Debbish (talk) 15:17, 24 September 2011 (UTC)

Pressure cooker nonsense
In the North America section we find the following statement:Ordinary pressure cookers are not recommended for canning, as their smaller size and the reduced thickness of the cooker wall will not allow for the correct building up and reducing time of pressure, which is factored into the overall processing time and therefore will not destroy all the harmful microorganisms.The given source is National Center for Home Food Preservation, Burning Issue: Canning in Pressure Cookers. ''This statement is patent nonsense, regardless of the apparent impeccability of the source. It violates the known laws of physics. All that is needed is to put more water into a regular pressure cooker to increase the thermal mass and thus lengthen the heating and cooling times. Most regular pressure cookers are used with 5-10 mm of water in the bottom, and even then, they will cook for well over half an hour at medium heat. The heat source can also be maintained for a few more minutes to simulate the behavior of a large, thick-walled canning pressure cooker.'' &mdash;QuicksilverT @ 00:25, 7 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Although you state the statement is patent nonsense, it is nonetheless true. Although it would be possible to do as you suggest, such testing has not been done, and until it were done, the safety and efficacy of the change you suggest would not be proven.  The testing has been done only for certain configurations, not for the configuration you suggest.  Also, the specific heats of glass and metal are not the same as water.  Also, the rate of heating is faster for a light walled pressure cooker than for a heavy walled pressure canner, such that the risk of glass breakage/cracking is also higher in a pressure cooker.  It is best to stick to the recommendations, if one doesn't wish to become part and parcel to an experiment with potentially fatal outcomes.  I personally follow the guidelines exactly.  YMMV.  Miguel Escopeta (talk) 03:17, 7 October 2009 (UTC)

IMPORTANT: The important difference to note between a regular pressure cooker for cooking, and a CANNER or CANNING pressure cooker, is that the one used for cooking usually has no guage, and only allows 5 PSI to build up in the cooker, therefore it's only for cooking under pressure. Whereas a CANNING pressure cooker can be set to build up to a maximum of 15 PSI, with different steam vent weights, is usually used at 10 PSI,say for meats and low acid vegetables, is monitored constantly by watching the guage and adjusting the temperature to keep the pressure at the desired PSI. I've been successfully cooking and canning with both pieces of equipment, according to their instruction manuals for over 30 years. See Mirro Pressure Cooker, Presto Pressure Canner, All American Pressure Cooker and Canner. Debbish (talk) 15:17, 24 September 2011 (UTC) Debbish