Newbie needs help with canning!

[Illine]

I have a brand new canner (22 qt. Mirror) and ran out and purchased 10 lbs. of snap green beans to can. Came home, got out the new canner read all the directions. Did a "test" run like it said to. It told me that the "jiggler" would begin to jiggle and then I would need to reduce heat for a continued gentle jiggle (low or medium heat).

Well, I never got a continued gentle jiggle. The canner I have has the three seperate (5, 10 and 15 lb.) pressure controls. The book said to use the 10 lb. control. I did everything the book told me to (1 tbsp. of vinager and 2 quarts of water). It would come up to pressure then release steam and quit jiggling.

Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated... I don't know what to do now! I'm afraid to just turn the heat down to low or medium and let it continue to come up and let steam out.

Also, I have a pressure cooker and with it I was told to use two separate burners since I am all electric. One on high to bring up the pressure and the other one on medium low to continue cooking on (something about electric taking longer to cool the burner off). No where in my new cooker book is this discussed.

HELP PLEASE!

Illine

 

[mcnerd]

The was responded to in another board, but will be copied here for the benefit of this forum viewers.

"I'm confused by your confusion, so let me go through the motions.

1) Once the lid is locked on -- without the 3-piece weight -- you should put the stove on HIGH and bring the canner up to the point that the safety value first pops up, then LOTS OF STEAM starts coming out of the open vent. This takes quite awhile. Be patient.

2) Let the Steam flow hard for a good 10-15 minutes so that all air from inside the canner is expelled.

3) Carefully place the rocker weight (10#) on the vent that the steam is coming out of.

4) Again be patient. It takes a long time before pressure builds inside and the rocker weight starts moving and it will start moving back and forth RAPIDLY.

5) Reduce the heat to Medium-High and see how much the rocker slows down. If it is still moving rapidly, drop the heat down to Medium. That will usually do it and the rocker will slowly rock from side to side.

6) Start counting your time.

7) At the end of the required time, remove the heat and allow the canner to cool down on its own. Do NOT attempt to make it cool faster. It may take an hour to cool down. When the safety valve drops, that will mean that pressure has normalized and you can carefully remove the rocker weight.

DO NOT REMOVE THE LID YET. Wait 15 minutes for the canner to further cool. The jars and contents are super heated and this delay helps reduce the shock (and potential breakage) when jars are exposed to normal cooler air.

9) Carefully remove the lid away from you so that escaping steam does not burn you. Lift the jars out of the canner and place on a wire rack or towel -- do not tilt the jars to remove trapped water. It will evaporate. You may or may not hear a bunch of 'pings' at this point as the jars cool down. Leave them alone for 18-24 hours.

Note: The super-heated food inside the jars may continue boiling for a long time. This is normal.


If you still have questions, come back and ask again. BTW, I have an electric stove and have no problem heating my canner.

 

[sparrowgrass]

The only thing I would add is to adjust the heat slowly--s-l-o-w-l-y!!

Jiggling constantly is not really a problem--you are wasting a little energy, but the canner will not explode, as long as the jiggling continues. If you turn the heat down abruptly and then have to crank the heat back up because you set it too low, you may lose liquid from inside the jars.

 

[Illine]

Customer Service with Mirro told me that the thing doesn't "jiggle" on a continuous basis at all anymore once it releases its pressure. I told them I was concerned and got this message back:

"We thank you for your email via WearEver.com. We do apologize for your frustration. As you were advised when you called, you should put canner on high until steam starts coming out of the vent tube (about 10 minutes), place pressure control on vent tube and turn heat down. You should start timing from this point for whatever food your are canning. Pressure control does not always jiggle but may gently rock or tip to side with short burst of steam-about every 30 seconds. You may have to adjust the heat until you able to regulate for the intervals needed to maintain pressure."

Does this seem acurate to all of you?

Now I have another concern. Yesterday I canned some green beans and followed the instructions given on the phone via Customer Service. I let steam release out the vent tube for 10 minutes, put on the weight, got steam and jiggling, then turned heat down to medium for 20 minutes. Once I turned heat down to medium my timing was nearly 2 minutes between bursts of steam/jiggling. Do I need to re-pressure those beans at a higher temp and if so, do I need to replace sealing lids or can I re-pressure them as is.

Are all ranges different as far as the temperature is concerned?

Thanks to those who are answering my newbie questions but I just want to do it right and not poison anyone!

 

[bigdaddy3k]

Go with mcnerd's advice and technique. He is our local guru and will not steer you wrong. All hail mcnerd! May he bless our harvest!!!

 

[mcnerd]

Sheesh! Mirro Canners were on my not recommended list, but now it will go on my do not purchase list. Those instructions are unbelievable to me since there is no way at any given moment to know your canner is at the proper pressure. I would be very nervous if that rocker did not move back and forth at a regular pace. This definitely does not appear to be any fault of your stove.

As long as you were getting (occasional?) steam coming out I will believe that your beans are fine.

I would, however, suggest going through a couple empty runs -- no jars in the canner -- with just 2"-3" of water and let the canner go through its paces, first with the heat on high the whole time so you can see the maximum reaction. That way you will become more familiar with this canner's "quirks".

 

[Illine]

Thank you all soooo much for the input. Believe me... I WILL NEVER RECOMMEND THIS CANNER TO ANONE! And, I will ditch it as soon as I can afford a better one... This one makes me sooo nervous. I will try testing a couple more times like you suggested Mcnerd and will use it when I can get it to steam/jiggle more... However, after my first test run it appears that it will be on HIGH the whole time!

Thanks for the input on my beans, too. I pray they are fine and that no one gets sick from them!

Illine

 

[n2cookin]

Thanks for the input on my beans, too. I pray they are fine and that no one gets sick from them!

Illine

If in doubt of the safety of the beans you can store them in the refrigerator. That I was told by the local county extension office, when my beans were floating at the top. It was my first time canning and I did not know if that was normal for them to float sticking out of the liquid. I processed the beans in a canner with a rocker and gauge on top for the recommended time but the beans floated in the jar.

 

[Illine]

Thanks for that tip. I think I may just do that! It certainly could not hurt.

Illine

 

[joesfolk]

I have a 22 qt Mirro canner. It is really old. It's so old it is hard to get replacement gaskets but it is in excellent shape even after all of these years of use. As far as your jiggle goes, well, I never worry if it jiggles too much just if it seems too slow. I find it's best to lower the temperature slowly, and yes every stove is different. On my gas range I find that if I lower the temperature knob to about 5 I get a fairly constant jiggle without ever getting too few jiggles per minute. Since you put vinegar in your beans and since you did pressure can them I wouldn't worry about your batch spoiling. After all in days past people used hot water baths to can green beans. However if you find that the lids bulge or pop off by themslves or if there is an off smell when you open them play it safe and toss them out. Don't get too freaked out about the "difficulty" you are having. After a few times at the canning stove you will be much more comfortable with the whole process. And the psychic rewards of home canning are worth the effort to learn how to do it. To me there are few things as satisfying as hearing that little ping that indicates that the jars are sealing or the tantalizing picture of those colorful jars sitting on my shelves. Best of luck with your new endeavor. Oh, and by the way, food often floats to the top of the jar when it is still hot but it usually drops back down after the food has cooled. I have never had any problem with eating floating food.