Recent content by Diana Walstad

PhilinYuma, Thanks very much for your kind words. Uplifting. I had despaired of finding an open mind on this website! Yes, Mr. Alton Brown suggested 45 min of pressure cooking to cook chickpeas. This is the kind of outrageous cooking advice that I constantly see in the "cooking world"...

I have relayed my experience, not advocated anything. By the way, my book Cooking and Experimenting with Pressure Cookers has already been published. It has two small sections on canning fruits and meat stocks. I go into the food safety science (F-value) in a way that intelligent people...

My experience with lids that don't seal is not because the lids are reused, it's because I didn't tighten the rings enough or didn't allow enough head space. Reused and new lids seal about the same. If a lid doesn't seal within 5 min of opening the PC (pressure cooker), I open the jar and...

I noticed that there was a flurry of reaction to my reusing canning lids on another thread ("peach canning"), so I started this new thread. A lid -- whether reused or brand new -- either seals or it does not. If a reused lid seals and stays sealed, there's no reason for it to cause problems...

Thanks for the information. I would love to see the documentation on the 1970's outbreak. That said, there's no botulism risk from canning acidic foods like peaches. Peaches have an acidic pH (below pH 4.6) that does not allow the spores of Clostridium botulinum to generate. Therefore...

I always reuse lids. Either they seal or they don't. However, I carefully remove the lids so as not to dent the edges. Only when the gum layer gets really thin do I stop reusing lids. I have reused Ball's lids at least five times without any sealing problems. Also, I don't sterilize lids...