Pressure Canner

[Ananke]

I've been looking at these for a couple of years now and always talked myself out of buying one because the initial outlay is a wee bit steep.

Tonight my hubby ordered one for my birthday along with some jars, a preserving book and some accessories, I'm absolutely over the moon and can't wait to get started.

If any of you grapes use one of these, I would love to hear what recipes you use and what has worked/hasn't worked for you.

[lottie dolly]

Cannot help with use of of,but what a lucky girl you are,plus a thoughtfull hubby,a gift isso much better when it's useful good luck with it,come to think of it,am sure there is already a thread on the very subject of canners,PW springs to mind

[SarzWix]

I have one, and I think Alison and PigletWillie both do too. I bought 2 books with mine; Canning for Dummies, and the Blue Ball Book of Canning and Preserving. I still make up my own recipes for things like pasta sauce, and find the closest recipe in those books and follow the timings, usually adding on 10 minutes to be 'on the safe side'. PW posted a link to a US gov't website which has loads of information, I think it was stickied at the top of this board? Or might have been the preserving board... Hang on, I'll have a look...

[SarzWix]

National Center for Home Food Preservation

[Alison]

I mainly do pasta sauces and the like - funnily enough I'm doing a bit batch this weekend as the freezer is half full of tomatoes and I really could do with the space for other things I have a couple of books but I'm not at home at the moment and can't remember what they're called.

[bazzaboy]

Happy Birthday Ananke! Can I ask what sort of Pressure Canner are you getting and where from? There are several threads on this topic which usually cite that it's very popular in the States but less well serviced in the UK. I tried for ages to persuade Lakeland to stock a range, they investigated at length (took ages...) and then decided against it; similarly smaller outfits. It is possible to order units from the States (e.g. via Amazon.com) but you have to pay quite a hefty carriage charge and possibly various import duties so can get complicated; some grapes seem to get them via eBay. A local supplier of a range would prove very popular....

[Ananke]

Thanks lottie dolly, i'll have a rummage.

Sarz, it's the Ball Blue Book he ordered, I'll maybe get the For Dummies one for Christmas lol. Thanks for the link, loads of information there to get my teeth into.

Alison, pasta sauces will be top of my list along with soups, stews, currys etc

Thanks Bazza, I wanted the All American but it was out of our price range so we got the Presto 01781 23-Quart from Amazon. There were two there one was £113 with around £95 carriage and the one we got was £140ish with £3.99 carriage.

I didn't give import duties a second thought.....or even a first thought for that matter, wonder if it was included.... oops!!! It's due for delivery today so i'll soon find out.

[bazzaboy]

Well done Ananke, I cannot begin to tell you how useful I think your actions and progress on this....! I have pages and pages of letters to UK companies trying to persuade them to stock these items and the only one that was remotely sensible at that time was Amazon USA... Trust Amazon to see a hole in the market!

The thing in the Amazon UK entry detail you probably didn't notice but was writ large for me is that they've only just started this service/product in the UK (April 2012), before then it was gobble-di-gook to most... I feel like writing to all those UK companies now "Na-na, told you so!" - but I won't bother, will order one for Christmas instead.

You shouldn't have to worry about additional import tax because these items are now being supplied by Amazon UK (from Amazon USA) so any import duties will have been paid and incorporated. (The alternative prices you cite of £95 carriage sounds like a throw-back to the pre-April 2012 situation when additional taxes evidently could apply...)

Now, what can I can? Laughter might be good!

Many thanks Ananke, with easier access to these gadgets I suspect a new age is about to dawn, many others will follow your lead! Look forward to hearing how you get on with it.

[Ananke]

I'm glad it's been useful to you and you definately should write to those companies.

I can't believe how quick the delivery was, especially as it included a weekend...

Destination Address:GLASGOW, LANARKSHIRE, GB
Tracking history
05/11/2012 08:40 GLASGOW, LANARKSHIRE G326QR, GB Delivered
04/11/2012 21:02 CUMBERNAULD, ST G68, GB At local FedEx facility
03/11/2012 14:49 STANSTED, ES CM24, GB In transit
03/11/2012 14:49 STANSTED, ES CM24, GB International shipment release - Import
03/11/2012 10:47 STANSTED, ES CM24, GB At destination sort facility
03/11/2012 03:29 MEMPHIS, TN 38118, US In transit
03/11/2012 00:03 MEMPHIS, TN 38118, US Departed FedEx location
02/11/2012 22:33 MEMPHIS, TN 38118, US Arrived at FedEx location
02/11/2012 17:45 OREM, UT 84057, US Left FedEx origin facility
02/11/2012 14:12 OREM, UT 84057, US Picked up
02/11/2012 10:51 Shipment information sent to FedEx

I'm still reading the instruction book but I did take it out of the box to gaze at lol I'll keep you posted

[bazzaboy]

Wowee, it's a modern world, Ananke, not only a pressure canner but a tourist schedule as well! Utah’s Salt Lake Winter Olympics, Memphis Tennessee Birthplace of the Blues, Home of Rock & Roll… it’s a holiday!

Incidentally because canning is such a popular American pastime there are any number of explanatory clips, tips and demonstrations on YouTube worth watching.

Happy Christmas!

[bazzaboy]

I'm glad it's been useful to you and you definately should write to those companies.

I can't believe how quick the delivery was....
I'm still reading the instruction book but I did take it out of the box to gaze at lol I'll keep you posted

Mine arrived today, Ananke - took 10 days, not bad is it? On the assumption you know what you're doing I ordered the same model. Have you used yours yet, maybe November not the most productive period for "canning"?

On contacting other UK companies, I haven't worried the smaller ones, have mentioned to Lakeland who simply acknowledged receipt, fair enough. They said over a year ago they were investigating it but were now of such a size they doubted anything would be in place for this autumn.... so maybe 2013? Meantime for anyone wanting to investigate it, it's difficult to better the current Amazon arrangement which is such a vast improvement on the former situation.

[Ananke]

Congrats Bazza, I had a few practice runs with mine as I have an induction hob and I wanted to make sure I could maintain pressure.

Today was my first practice with food and I am now the proud owner of 6 pints of homemade chicken stock, and quite proud of it too lol.

Tomorrow I plan on doing pork steaks in stock with onion, seemingly you can't use thickeners so I'll just use cornflour to thicken the stock to make a gravy before serving.

Pity the tomato season is over for pasta sauce but i'm still gonna do it with tinned toms, Farmfoods are doing 3 tins for £1 so that will be a cheap way of testing out the recipe for now.

[Ananke]

You shouldn't have to worry about additional import tax because these items are now being supplied by Amazon UK (from Amazon USA) so any import duties will have been paid and incorporated. (The alternative prices you cite of £95 carriage sounds like a throw-back to the pre-April 2012 situation when additional taxes evidently could apply...)

I hate to be the bearer of bad news Bazza, I got a bill from FedEx this morning £29.odd for Taxes/Duty. I'm a wee bit miffed at it as I think it should be mentioned somewhere on Amazon during the purchase process.

[SarzWix]

I bought mine 3 years ago from eBay.com, shipping cost £40, canner (a Presto) about the same. No import duties to pay, but it wasn't Fed-Ex-ed, it just came through the ordinary post.

One tip; no matter how tempted you are, when you're waiting for the pressure to drop enough to open the lid, DON'T attempt to hurry it along by pressing down the little pop-up doofah, or you'll get lids popping off jars on the inside, and a big old mess


Oh, and I pestered Lakeland loads to stock these a few years ago, but got no response whatsoever

[Ananke]

I'm too scared of it to hurry it along lol.