Melanie from Road to the Farm shows us how to double stack a pressure canner for the most efficiency.
How to Double Stack a Pressure Canner
Video Transcript:
I am getting ready to go out of town for a couple days. I’m leaving a couple kids with daddy and taking a kid or two with me. I’m getting some things ready so that food is easy for them while I’m gone. We’re going to can up some beans and meat so that way daddy has meals ready to go. It’s super easy so I thought I’d show you how I’m going to do this so quickly. The secret is I’m going to double stack a pressure canner and put the beans and meat in the same container.
I have stew meat that is all defrosted and ready to go. This is seriously all you do to can meat: you put it in the jar. You don’t want fatty pieces of meat because over time the fat can take on a rancid flavor when it’s sitting on the shelf. It won’t go bad. It won’t hurt you. It’s just not the yummiest flavor. I usually try to smash as much as I can into there. It looks like we can fit about a pound of meat into a pint jar. I didn’t defrost enough to run a whole canner load but I wanted Jesse to have some on the shelf that he can easily feed the kiddos. You want it to be right to the line on the neck of the jar. You don’t put any water in it. You don’t put anything else in the meat but you can put salt and pepper and things like that. Next, you have to do just put the lid on it process it.
Right now, during winter, we’re not harvesting anything. It’s preserving that needs done, has been done. Now we’re eating through all of it. If you want to, go ahead and add carrots and beans that I had done for my husband earlier and that I could do is I could take them downstairs in the box and put them on the shelf for when I’m ready to do carrots again or I can take them downstairs all full of beans.
So we can eat through those but what my goal is to put those on the shelf so that we can have easy dinners through summer and that way when I bring in all that yummy garden produce I have something I can pair it with real easily for some protein. It makes a nice summer meal. So that’s my canning cycle.
We have got all the jars in the pressure canner. They are fairly evenly placed and then we’re going to an additional rack in do we can double stack the pressure canner. I just try to make sure it’s sitting fairly level and stable then the remainder of the jars just go in on top of that rack. You can only do this if you have a 23 quart canner. You can’t do this in a 16 quart canner.
We have meat, black-eyed peas, adzuki beans, and some garbanzo beans double stacked in the pressure canner. These are all going to process for 70 minutes. You can get detailed instructions on all of this on my canning beans video so that you can see the step-by-step process but that’s all there is to it. I’ve got three quarts of water because that’s what my canner calls for and I’m going to turn it on and process it. I’ll show you what it looks like when it’s done.
Okay friends, there you have it. There are three different kinds of beans and one jar of meat that all just came out of the canner. They look fabulous so in a couple hours time, I have meals on the shelf for my family while I’m gone.
Canned meat can kind of look like some kind of strange science experiment but when it cools down and you know your seal is good and sealed let me take the ring off and then just give it a really good shake and pretty much what you are left with is roast beef in gravy. You can see it creates its own broth and the flavor is just absolutely incredible. I don’t put any salt or anything in it but you could if you wanted to I just season it it when I use it.
Because I know this question is coming, yes, I do can on my glass cooktop but you need to consult your owners manual before you give it a try some of the newer models you can do that with. Most of the old ones you cannot so make sure you check before you do it so you don’t end up shattering your glass. Alright, friends hope you give this a try- it’s super awesome!
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