Pour les emigrees

[bobleponge]

To all the French residents, and visitors to this wonderful place.
I want to buy a canner. I have read all the entries given to me by the search facility (I'm learning Two Sheds) but everything seems to tell me that my quest is leading me to the USA.
Has anyone seen them for sale in France, anywhere?
I cant believe that with the French so big on preserving and storing stuff that they dont sell them, I know they sell the jars, but I've never seen a canner itself.
All help happily received.

[Two_Sheds]

Pigletwillie does canning, doesn't he?

[bobleponge]

He does, as does Sarzwix but they both (as I read this morning) got theirs from the States.

[Two_Sheds]

I can't find an actual canning machine itself, just a kind of pressure cooker. Perhaps you don't need a machine at all?

[bobleponge]

From what I have been reading, its like a pressure cooker, but with dials and stuff to avoid poisoning yourself.

[Two_Sheds]

I just did a search for Jam Making and got this...Tefal® Electric Jam Maker- Lakeland, the home of creative kitchenware

any good?

[Two_Sheds]

and there's all kind of gadgets on here: Just Preserving - Suppliers of quality preserving equipment.

[bobleponge]

Thanks for that TS. The honest answer is I dont know. I hope that PW and/or Sarzwix will catch this thread later and give their opinions too. I'm a bloke, I cant make decisions on my own.
Plus if any Frenchies are looking, they may be able to tell me if they have seen them. I just cant believe that the French dont sell them, they do sell all the rest of the stuff that goes with it.
The problems with buying stuff in the UK to use in France is that if anything goes wrong then its a mare to get it back and sorted etc.

[bobleponge]

and there's all kind of gadgets on here: Just Preserving - Suppliers of quality preserving equipment.

Great website, I like it a lot. I typed in canning machine, and canner though and got nothing.
From what I was reading this morning, it appears that the actual canning machines (big pan with dials) just arent available in the UK, but I dont really want to get one from the States.
However if thats my only option then I spose I must.

[Nicos]

I'll ask around for you...is that canning or bottling???- I'm presuming that a canner would do both and a bottler wound be a lower temperature....or have I absolutely no idea what I'm talking about????

I need to get my question right- cos I get enough blank stares when I start to speak French!!!!

[bobleponge]

Thanks Nicos. I dont really know too much about it myself. I was reading this morning that a canner is basically like a pressure cooker but with temp dials and stuff so the correct temps can be reached and held negating the risk of botulism and other such things. I know the machine is called a canner or a canning machine in the States, but I think its for glass bottles (only in America?) or I may have got that totally wrong.
I was given a jar of pate in a glass jar with the brass coloured lids, one that goes "pop" when you open it, so it must have been sealed somehow, but the people that gave it to me have, I believe, taken sides after me and ex split, so now cant ask them.
I will also ask my neighbours when I get back, but I cant believe they arent sold at home somewhere.

[Rodley]

The only apparatus I have seen around here in (Dept 47) is a large drum-like apparatus in which you place bottles at different levels and steam them to sterilise/pasteurise and seal under a vacuum. A friend of mine here has one - but I am not sure that this is a canner. If you want I can find out more from my friend.

[pigletwillie]

A pressure canner actually bottles stuff in Jars like bob mentioned with the "pop" lids. In practice they have a screw band as well.

A pressure cooker is a deffo no no unless you want to kill yourself.

I tried everywhwere Bob and had to resort to the States as despite several holidays a year in France and me being a kitchen shop monster, I have never seen one.

This http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PRESTO-23-QUAR...1%7C240%3A1318 is the one I have.

[smallblueplanet]

http://www.foodsafetysite.com/consum...s/canning.html

How Canning Preserves Food
To can means to heat process food in a glass jar with a lid in place. Heat processing kills microorganisms -- bacteria, yeast, and mold -- that can contaminate food and cause food spoilage and/or foodborne illness. Processing can be done in a water bath canner or a pressure canner, depending on the food's acidity.

Two types of canners
Use a water bath canner to process high-acid foods. A water bath canner is a large deep kettle that has a cover and a rack to hold jars. You can also use a big, covered pot that is deep enough to allow water to extend 1 to 2 inches over the tops of the jars with enough room for the water to boil briskly. Also add a rack to keep the jars off the bottom of the pot.

Use a pressure canner to process low-acid foods. A pressure canner is a deep, heavy kettle that has a rack on the bottom for jars to stand on, a tight-fitting lid with a gasket, and a pressure gauge. The gasket keeps steam from leaking out around the cover. If the casket is worn, stretched, or hardened, replace it. There are two types of pressure measuring gauges, a dial gauge and a weighted gauge.

A dial gauge has a needle that moves along a numbered scale to indicate the pressure inside the canner. Each year check the dial gauge, old or new, for accuracy and during the canning, season if heavily used. Call your county extension agent who has food safety responsibilities to find out where testing can be done.

A weighted gauge fits over the air vent tube. It permits pressure in the canner to rise to the desired point and then releases excess steam by "jiggling" or "rocking" tokeep the pressure from going higher. Weighted gauges do not need testing for accuracy, but they do need to be kept clean. Check the vent tube to be sure it has not been bent or damaged during use.

[bobleponge]

How tediously tiresome. Thanks all for the responses and the offers of neighbourly interrogation (I shall omit the obvious references) but it looks like I shall have to purchase my canner from the good ol U S of A.
The French do it somehow though, I know they do. I've never seen one either PW, although never really carried out a thorough search as yet.
Reading the previous posting about your machine PW, you speak very highly of it, so I shall probably take the plunge and get that one.