Pressure Cooker vs. Pressure Canner

[steffpeck]

What is the difference?? Thanks for explaining this to me.

Steff

 

[Opa]

Just different terms for the same thing.
There are two type of canning. A water bath method where your jars are filled, lids and rings installed, and then place in a large canner (pot) and covered with water. This is brought up close to boiling and held for the proscribed number of minutes for the size jar and contents according to canning guide. Bell Blue Book is one of the best. A variation of this method is a steam canner. Shallow pan with high dome lid made specifically for this purpose. The advantage is that you are not heating so much water, and so it is much faster. This method is commonly used for high acidic foods, ie tomatoes.
The second method, your jars are place in a pressure cooker and brought up to the proscribed temperature and pressure as recommended by the canning guide. I constantly hear tales about someone who knew someone who knew of a neighbor to their cousin's sister in law who had a pressure cooker explode. Bull. Pressure cookers are completely safe. There are built in safety devices and the method in which the lid is secured to the pan makes it doubly safe. I have been canning for over sixty years and my mother and grandmother for many more years without any problem.

 

[lovemychix]

Basically they are the same thing....one is bigger. I use my canner for canning and my pressure cooker for making soups ect....

 

[roosmom]

I started out with a pressure cooker. They are much smaller than a pressure canner. A medium size roast will fit into a pressure cooker. If you put the same roast into a pressure canner it would be dwarfed. That is one difference.
The other difference is the jiggler. The OLD pressure canner I have does not have a jiggler at all.
My pressure cooker has a jiggler that is basically shaped like a cork with a stem to grab onto on top and a hole in it. You put it onto the middle of the lid vent screw and it will jiggle to release built up pressure. There isno way of knowing the pounds of pressure being used.
I hope this helps.

BACK IN THE OLD DAYS......they did not have the safety features they do now. As long as you follow the directions that come with the booklet, you will be fine.

 

[Tuffoldhen]

Quote:
Pressure cookers are to cook meats quicker than slow cooking on a stove, that's the only thing I have ever cooked quickly in a pressure cooker. Pressure canners are to process the canning of vegetables and meats in a shorter time limit than using a water bath canner. Hope this helped. A canner is quite larger than the cooker.

 

[eggzettera]

Quote:
No you got it wrong it was my third husbands, next door neighbors, third cousin who is of course........ Kevin Bacon

 

[lockedhearts]

Quote:
No you got it wrong it was my third husbands, next door neighbors, third cousin who is of course........ Kevin Bacon

 

[JennsPeeps]

A pressure canner can be used to cook and can. It's got the special pan bottom for canning and is big eough to accomodate jars. To be able to can, you must be able to change the pressure (5/10/15) with either weighted guage (preferable) or dial-gauge controls. They start out around 12 quarts in size (thereabouts).

A pressure cooker can only be used to cook items. Its internal pressure may or may not be adjustable. Pressure cookers can start out quite small in size (~4 quarts) and tend to taper off where the pressure canners start in size.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pressure_cooking

Look at amazon.com for pressure cookers & you'll see the difference between a cooker, which is pretty simple, and a canner, which has more dials than a steam locomotive!

Cooker (note: small size, about the same as a sauce pan, no gauge):

Canner (note: gauge on top to indicate the pressure):

Wish I'd found this page - http://www.coopext.colostate.edu/TR...pext.colostate.edu/TRA/cfs/food/pressure.html - when I first got my 3-weight "automatic" canner. It took me forever to figure out how to regulate the pressure. One I did, it's super easy... easier & more predictable than a dial guage.

 

[peeplessinNC]

One point not mentioned: a pressure canner is needed for low acid foods like green beans, potatoes, corn, meats, etc. in order to heat the food and liquid in the jar to a high enough temperature to kill any possible bacteria - like the botulism bacteria that can kill you! Many people insist that they are able to can vegetables in a boiling water bath, but I would never advocate that. Proper canning, jelly making, and freezing all have their necessary procedures for a reason - to safely put food by and to help prevent waste of said food.

 

[spatcher]

Pressure canners can be used for pressure cooking, regardless of size!