Anyone ever use pressure canner on a woodstove?

[homesteadforty]

Has anyone ever done any pressure canning on a woodstove? Is it even possible? My first thought is that it would be difficult - impossible to maintain an effect/safe temperature... thoughts anyone?

[Valduare]

there is a show on discovery channel right now called the alaska experiment they are all using pressure canners (each of the groups) on wood stoves in the cabins.

[ladycat]

Yes, it can be done. It takes experience to keep the temps right.

No I've never done it, but I've known old timers who have done so. And some of the homesteading-type magazines have had articles explaining how.

[neolady]

I haven't used the pressure canner on my woodstove, but have had no problems with my regular pressure cooker. I use a regular airtight woodstove, not a cookstove. I hve to move the pot around sometimes on top of the stove to a slightly cooler spot.

[Freeholder]

Yes, I've done it, and so have my mother and grandmother. They've also canned over an open fire outside (cans of salmon or moose meat, usually, in camp).

Kathleen

[homesteadforty]

Thanks for the responses everybody.

My garden seems to be really taking off this season so I'm looking forward to lots of canning. I have an electric stove and a small woodstove where I live now... with the price of electric I thought I'd give the woodstove a try but wasn't real sure about it.

Next year (when I finally get to move to the homestead I'll only have a woodstove so I guess now is the time to give it a try.

Thanks again,
Tim

[ozark mike]

while growing up we had no electric power in our house or running water, a pump outside.. every year i carried countless numbers of quarts and pint jars down a narrow stairway to the celler under our house, all canned on a woodstove, an old "Monarch" with a warming oven and a warming shelf above the oven........lived that way til i was 17. never once do i remember any of the canned goods going bad

[wy_white_wolf]

Grandma had an old wood cookstove setup in the front yard just for canning. Kept from having to heat the house up.

[turtlehead]

I have my Grandma's canner and instruction book. It talks about canning on a wood stove.

It also talks about 2 piece lids, zinc lids, and rubber rings with glass bails.

I've never done it before, but in the early 1940's it was common enough to be included in the canner manual.

[Forerunner]

The key to getting a canning heat is to get flame in direct contact with the bottom of the canner.
The trouble with most wood stoves is that there is a quarter inch plate of steel between the fire and the bottom of the canner.
That quarter inch absorbs and dissipates a lot of heat, requiring a roaring fire inside the stove to get enough heat to the canner.
You would be better off setting up a cooking grill type assembly, possibly under roof, like a summer kitchen, so that you can get flame to the canner, rather than depending on the home heating stove to do the job in August.
*pant*

[haypoint]

You just have to watch it closer. Mine has 6 eyes (those removable discs on the cooktop) plus the area over the water res. Just move the pressure canner left or right to keep the temp. right. Too hot and it'll all boil out. I did that on a batch off apple sauce pints. Real mess. Some of the older (or cheap newer stoves) leak so much air, temp control is difficult.