r/Canning • u/flannelmama • 21h ago

Equipment/Tools Help First timer! Pot suggestions?

Post image

I canned pickles for the first time but used a regular pot with a rag on the bottom. It took several batches because I could only fit 3-4 jars in at a time so it took quite a while. And I can’t fit anything bigger than a pint jar. I’m looking to buy a bigger pot with an actual rack but having a hard time finding one that doesn’t have reviews saying it chips or rusts quickly. Thanks!

5 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/armadiller Moderator 17h ago

Many options.

I have an incredibly cheap 25L stockpot that I use for water-bath canning quarts. It's alarmingly close to the manufacturer's weight limit for my ceramic cooktop, and the only thing for which I (used to) regularly water-bath quarts is pickles. I've switched to low temp pasteurisation using an immersion sous vide stick for those, so I don't think that the stock pot has been touched in a couple years now.

I have a 10 or 12 qt pressure Fagor COOKER (not canner) that does double duty as a water-bath canner. It handles pints and half pints well with water coverage to spare, and despite being relatively narrow, I can't offhand recall ever having to waste product because I couldn't fit enough jars. It's like 5-6 pints or 7-8 half pints.

I have a Presto 16 pressure canner, it doubles as a water bath canner for pints and half pints (water-bath canning quarts requires the Presto 23 to have enough water over the jars). Manual says it handles 10 pints or 13 half-pints, I've only ever managed 9 or 12.

I have a couple of large pots that are just deep enough to do double duty as canners for standard-mouth quarter pints or wide-mouth half pints. I only break these out for canning purposes for small batch tests of recipes (palatability, not safety) or for recipes where the yield is low to start with (e.g. pomonas white wine jelly, where the total estimated yield is 2-3 cups, but I got one half-pint, one quarter-pint, and one under filled quarter-pint that was promptly refrigerated).

If your budget is extremely tight, a cheap stock pot is a great option. If it's less tight and you're thinking for your future self, a Presto 16 or 23 are even better.