Is there a difference between a pressure cooker and a pressure canner?
Can you use a pressure cooker on a gas grill?
NWF gal, you can cook in a canner but you can’t necessarily can in a cooker. (s) Often, you can do both, but as cookers tend to be smaller, they can’t do much at a time. Read the box carefully to see if your cooker can can. (What a funny image that evokes!)
As to your second question, I don’t know. I personally would do if it I didn’t have other options.
I don`t see whu you couldn`t use a gas grill. I`ve used mine to cook over a campfire.You just need to be able to keep the heat low once you get the weight jiggling.
Along with what the others said, here’s a little more information…
There may be some manufacturers that state their brand of pressure cooker is acceptable for use as a pressure canner, but most canning experts will tell you not to use a regular pressure cooker for pressure canning purposes. The pressure cooker can however, be used for batches of water bath canning.
Pressure cookers are NOT recommended for pressure canning because a fully loaded canner, that is specifically a pressure canner, takes a longer time for heating and cooling than a pressure cooker does. Pressure cookers have less metal, are smaller in diameter and use less water than traditional pressure canners. Bringing the pressure up, and depressurizing the canner in pressure cookers takes less time than in the pressure canners. The *up* and *down* pressure times are part of the TOTAL processing time that is scientifically established for margins of safety. These time tables are laid out for the dynamics of how the pressure canners are built, not for the pressure cookers. The smaller pressure cookers have smaller loads, and this causes them to heat and cool quicker than a pressure canner. This causes problems with accurate timing, which in turn (IMNSHO) produces an inferior and unsafe product.
Anyway, just a little more detail as to exactly why a cooker is not advisable vs. a canner.
Shad.
Shad
If I have a canner I can cook in it. Correct?
Thanks.
Yes…there’s no reason that I can think of at least, that would prohibit you from cooking in your pressure canner.
Shad.
You sure can---cook in a pressure canner. Before I got my giant stock pots; I always cooked in one pressure canner while I was canning in the other. I had a double canner at the time, and that was the only way I could keep up ! LOL !
When someone is sick; chicken soup only takes 20 minutes to cook, once it comes to pressure. I sometimes feel like it’s cheating but it sure cuts down on the time.
Aldi’s is running a stainless steel pressure cooker on sale now (10/25/06) for $35. A comparable one at Kmart costs $50, at Ace, $55. I got 2, one for a gift, and will let you all know if it’s as good as cracked up to be. (I don’t cook in my beloved All-American 921. What, get it dirty? My preciousssssssss….)
Reporting back on the Aldi pressure cooker: Amazing! It’s one of those “How did I get by without it?” kind of things. I’ve done soups and vegetables in it, and a mix of carrots and potatoes was literally done in 3 minutes, before the meatloaf cooled.
If cooking fuel is an issue it will be invaluable. Of course, if cooking fuel is an issue there probably won’t be much in the way of fresh food to cook. There’s always possum stew I suppose! ;-}