Got my All American but have a question....

Okay my AA 921 came in. I have a glass top stove and my stove manual says its okay to use pressure canner but the diameter of pot should not exceed over 1/2" the diameter of the burner. Size wise it will probably work but what about the weight? Do any of you have a glass top stove? If I go the route of a separate hot plate what have you found that works well?

My wife has a glass top stove.
The manufacturer (Fridgedaire) was wishy-washy about it. ETA: My wife says they finally gave her a definative - NO

The All American says right on the box in big letters - DO NOT USE ON GLASS TOP STOVE

My wife is on a canning forum, everyone there told her not to use it on a glass-top - some of them have cracked their stoves..
Some of them use a Presto pressure canner on a glass top, but it is a LOT lighter and it has groves cut into the bottom.

My wifes stove is less than 3 months old,
We decided to use a coleman gas cookstove instead.
Works great.

Are you talking about the two burner traditional camp stove or a single burner new fangled propane job??

Wife is distraught thinking she may not get to break it in this weekend!! haha

We just used a regular coleman liquid fuel 2-burner.

I started with a 2-burner propane one, but I don't think it has the BTU's of the liquid fuel ones.

I had the propane on full blast and it was taking forever to heat up, after about 20 mins. it was not past 2.5lbs. of pressure,
so I started wondering if once we got it to 10lbs. if we would have enough fuel to run it 90mins.

ETA: she made a nice roasted hatch pepper salsa which came out quite nicely.

I think since we have to start from scratch as we don't have a camp stove already, I'm going to suggest we just buy a propane fish cooker.

I know the feeling.
Tomorrow, we are canning meatballs.

The stove is an old 413 model. (I am a Coleman lantern & stove freak.)
My wife does not think my collection is so goofy now.

I went to the local Ace hardware and got a $39 fish cooker, works great for the canner.

If you are talking about one of those big outdoor - like for frying a turkey burners.....
the only caveat to that is it might be a little hard to turn it down low enough once you have the correct pressure.

Once the Coleman got that thing hot, I almost had to turn the flame off for the 90 mins.
You do not want a contiuous low of steam and water coming out of the release valve.

ETA: Apparently it will work. (See above)

I'm thinking that the ace hardware type may not have near the btu output as what we southerners think of as a "fish cooker"....

http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1291444&cp=2568445.2598559.2637660

In other words, I think it would be perfect

It isn't what I call a real fish cooker either but it works great for the canner and brings it up to pressure pretty fast.......but hey for $39 it beats replacing a glass cook top, that's why I bought it also..

I will be interested to know what kind of mileage you get with that. (How many hours/20lb can.)

We ran the Coleman for about 2hrs and used very little fuel.

But I am a big fan of propane and propane accessories.

(Just not for grillin' or BBq'n. )

I ran my canner thru 8 batches last year and used less than 1/2 a 20# tank.

Thanks for the input and advice you two! Sounds like my husband has a game plan now!

Fish fryer is the way to go, I prefer doing the bulk of my canning outside or the garage easy clean up, and it doesn't get hot like it does in the house.

My wife and I were just talking about this advantage.
We are using our back deck.

Canning meatballs as I type.

I do all my canning outside as well (thanks Feral). I had to build a wind break for mine, seems like every time I started canning the wind started up....

I don't have a glass top stove, but I have no problem running my canner on the side burner of my grill. Granted, it's a bigger grill and the side burner is probably a higher BTU than some, but....

This is another reason for buying the older and/or All American pressure cookers. The thicker material can take a range of cooking conditions. Heavan forbid I have to use an open fire to pressure can, but if push were to come to shove, the more durrable canners will be the way to go. Pressure canning over an open fire is one of my next projects.......

Please keep us posted as to how that works.

I just suggested to my wife that she use charcoal briquets like the campers use for dutch ovens.... I got a look like this...

Hey now, it didn't look exactly like that.....well okay maybe a little. LOL I am good with the Ace Hardware 'fish cooker'. I guess my concern was keeping the heat regulated with coals/open flame......I will readily admit that while I can handle grilling quite fine I must say.....the king of the grill goes to my husband.

We haven't made it Ace yet so instead of getting to use my AA, I made up a batch of grape jelly and a batch of strawberry jam.

That sounds sweeeeet.
My favorite is my wife's raspberry jam.

What I have found about the pressure canner is, once you get it up to pressure, it takes very little heat to keep it pressurized.

Thanks for this info. (belatedly)
I thought I had already thanked you, but I guess the post did not take.

Our stove has coils, not smooth top, but the canners still play hell with it. I've had to replace the large burners twice on it; all the wear and tear of sliding the canner around on 'em eventually breaks things loose. Plus, with only a four burner stove, it gets pretty crowded - the pressure canner on large burner, a water-bath canner for sterilizing jars, on the other, a saucepan with canning lids on a small burner... leaves only one small burner to use for whatever we're canning.

I've been seriously thinking about adding one of these for the canner:

Question for your guys that are using a turkey fryer for pressure canning. Are you able to turn the flame down far enough to maintain the PSI without the PSI going sky high or the flame going out?

When I'm doing water bath canning and the water is boiling, I can't get my fryer to go down far enough to maintain the boil without the flame going out.

I don't have any problem adjusting mine to maintain the pressure, I do have to use a wind block occasionally to keep the wind from blowing the flame out.
I will say it requires a very light touch to get the flame just right.

I bought the All American 921 two yeas ago. I read, ask questions, etc. and then remembered when I first started brewing beer I cooked a 5 gallon batch of brew several times in a brew kettle right on the glass top Frigidaire stove. We have canned several cans on top of the glass with good luck. It may brake the first time I use it this year, but that is my plan. I believe you will be fine as long as you don’t drop it or try sliding it around and scratch the surface. Be careful if you use a turkey fryer it is hard to regulate and could build up pressure too fast...

Yeah, I probably could be careful and use my glasstop....however husband and I talked it over tonight and we both think we will go with the smaller outdoor cooker from Ace Hardware because we also like the idea of not heating up the house.

Now we just have to actually get that and the propane tank and I will be canning up a storm.

Btw Homebrewer, sure hope you didn't jinx yourself!! Lol, it would be like something that would happen to me....I hope you continue to have success on your glasstop!

I never thought of that

We have a glass top stove. We've used a AA 910 many times on it. We got a AA 921 in January. About 3 weeks ago we canned 8 pints on the glass top stove using the 921.

I know everything says don't do it but we still do. The way I look at it is if ours breaks I will get a better stove. No since having a useless piece of equipment in the house. I'm not a big fan of glass tops anyway.

She'd better not break that damn stove, It was her anniversary present !!!

Amen to that! Which is precisely why we are making a trip to Ace my dear!

I think academy sports also has the same cooker for the same price - if you have one near you.

We are supposed to be getting one soon, but dont think I can wait!! Lol

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