Just don't leave it unattended - even for a moment. Make sure you exhaust the pot for at least 5 minutes before closing the petcock. Leave the petcock open so the steam comes out in steady stream. Once it starts to pressurize, turn the heat down and try to run it at the lowest setting you can without the pressure dropping. What are you cooking and for how long? The long runs tend to increase in pressure so you have to keep turning the heat down.
Does it have the safety pop off? Being as old as it is doesn't worry me, as that old stuff was made better like on so many things. The only qualm as I said is if it doesn't have the safety pop off, because without that it potentially could be dangerous. My mom got a learning and luckily nobody got hurt because of a pop off. She thought you just ran the pressure cooker full tilt heat all the way through the process. The canner was venting properly but couldn't handle the excessive heat and pressure and luckily was new enough that it had a pop off. There is still a small piece of pop off embedded in the kitchen ceiling somewhere.
I am doing a batch of venison stew today. Venison shank and other tougher cuts Garden zucchini, onion, potatoes, garlic 1/2 tsp canning salt top off with red wine Pressure can at 10lb for 110 minutes.
I ended up with 19 pints and one 1.5 pint repurposed Classico spaghetti sauce jar. Also I did experiment with using one previously used lid from a sumer canned jam. I wouldn't reuse it again, but considering the current lid shortage, I am saving all water bath canned lids for another use.
For anyone interested: When I realized that the canning lid shortage was going to continue to linger for the foreseeable future, I started saving all Kerr and Ball lids from water bath canned foods, and have been testing them for a second round. So far all have sealed and have stayed sealed (over 24 so far). The few cheapo Empire lids that I decided to buy years ago now were unreliable to begin with, so I will not be using them any longer, either new or otherwise. I haven’t saved any pressure canned lids, and don’t plan to do so. I probably won’t save any lids for a third round at this stage of the shortage - but I wouldn’t be surprised if one could get three rounds out of them for water bath applications. Luckily I still have a large stash of new lids, but since I still don’t see any lids for sale around here, I am going to save all water bath lids as a back-up plan.
I have been able to purchase lids with bands for a month or so now. Just last week got I was able to buy lids only. Maybe things are getting better.
That is good to hear. Do you recall prices? Or if not the exact price, did it seem out of line? I will be buying what I need for 2-4 years out when available, but am curious to know how much they have gone up from a few years ago. From what I recall I was paying between anywhere from around $1.89 to just under $2.50 per 12 when on sale.
I don't remember what I paid for just lids. and didn't care. I just made it through last year scrounging all my lids around here. Made up my mind it was going to happen again. I believe lids and bands were in the neighborhood of $8 per 12.
Many years ago, I tried reusing Spaghetti sauce and commercial jam jars lids over again. You know, the ones that go pop when you open the lid of the jar. As long as it was high acid food and water bathed, they seem to work fine. I used them for pickles and relish.
We just made a purchase of some reuseable lids. Only got a few, and will need many more if we continue that path. Every time one of us here goes out and sees domes, we're to purchase them. They still run out at our regular stops, but once in a while we score. Canning was a hobby till covid. Now we're realizing that it is critical infrastructure here. We don't can much, but learned to "dry can" a lot of stuff, particularly garden produce that went thru the dehydrator. Sca
Dehydrate, and then dry can. Works for: corn, summer/yellow/zucch squash, beans, tomatoes, peppers, tried and failed at kale....user error, .....dried beef strips.... Typically these go in soup, either tossed in, or blended as with broccoli soup. Sca
I will look up dry canning. Dried kale....back a few years ago when kale was the rage, we made "kale chips". That was a waste of resources and power...tasted like azz...
But.....dried, and then dry canned, they should last a winter, minimum, and can be tossed in soup. Or simmered and add3d to scrambled eggz. Chop or shred based on how you'll use them out of the jar. A smaller jar might be good if you don't use a lot at once. Spinach, dandelion greens, whatever else grows in your yard... Sca
I found lids at Walmart a month or two ago at regular prices . $3 for 12 ? I bought the four packages on the shelf. Now I wish I had gone back to see if they got more. Just checked the web site and stupid prices again.
The web site not worth anything....leads you to other sellers, hawking items for greatly expanded prices. Got friends or family looking on your behalf? Sca
When we had those power outages here...7 or so years ago, we focused less on freezing, more on other methods. We knew the storms were coming, so turned it all the way down well in advance, stuffed it to the max.....we lost nothing, but we did some hasty canning of some top layer stuff (fruit iirc) once the juice came back on. Sca