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momagain1

A quick question please

16 years ago

Alright; so i did my testing on my gauge (Thanks Dave!) and it is holding steady at 16 on low flame ..instead of 15 as the weight is...it is hissing a lot..kinda scarey lol..

its rocking kinda hard IMO..not a gentle rock but more of a consistent noisey one..I'm not sure what "gentle" rock is supposed to be..guess I'll learn.

Corn I'm supposed to process at 11 pounds..but I cant get my flames to go any lower to get it to drop at 11...

Howlong do I process the corn at the 16 pounds? any suggestions Please? obviously I have learning to do but for today I just gotta get this put up!!!

Comments (6)

  • 16 years ago

    You are in a shall we say - less than ideal situation obviously. No practice runs and the corn is already in the canner? And you don't know your processing times?

    Is this on the gas grill and the flame won't go any lower? If so, turn it off and let it cool down. Let's talk about how to do this safely without ruining the corn.

    The time doesn't change. Depends on pints or quarts which you don't indicate and whole or cream style have different processing times. What is your altitude? Unless you are above 6000 feet you will be turning your corn to gooey mush at that pressure for that amount of time.

    Dave

    Here is a link that might be useful: NCHFP Canning Corn

  • 16 years ago

    No, corn isnt in the canner! I did a practice run w/colored water; no leakage... :-)

    however colored water jars havent "sealed" yet..so I'm not sure I did do it right..

    I am so used to the canner having water OVER the jars hat when it said to only put 3 qts in; I was worried ...

    I'm in IL; so I'm low altitude! and I can do either pints or quarts it doesnt matter to me, however hubby wanted pints..

  • 16 years ago

    The jars sealed; ping!

  • 16 years ago

    Ok, that's a relief. But were you using the grill burner or the stove? When you said couldn't get the flame lower to drop to 11 I assumes the grill burner.

    Ok, so gauge reads 16 so it is accurate enough for now. Now the goal is to get it to read 11-12 (for your altitude) and hold it there for at least 20 mins. Learning to adjust the flame to control the pressure to the right level is the main goal of practice runs and the hardest thing to learn it seems. So you need some more practice. Keep in mind that the counter-weight will not be rocking this time - you'll be going by the gauge only so shoot for 12 and don't let it fall below 11 at any time. Climb up to 12 slowly and make very small changes in the flame at a time and then wait for the gauge to change.

    Second goal is to eliminate siphoning of liquid out of the jars. Was the water in your canner still clear when finished or did some of the color leack out of the jars?

    Amt. of water in the canner - some canner manuals say 3 quarts, some say 2-3 inches before inserting the jars. But corn has a long processing time and you don't want it to run dry so I suggest you use enough water so that the canner looks half full after you set the jars in it. That way you'll be sure of enough.

    Let us know how it goes.

    Dave

    PS: Be sure to double check your altitude as there are places in IL that are over 1000 feet. ;)

  • 16 years ago

    THere really was no more water in the canner when I took it out after the allotted pressure reducing time..so but wat very little there was, there was no coloring..and I used very bright blue..

    I used my gas burner on my grill; the side burner... :-)

    The elevation is 581 feet (googled it..gotta love google lol)

  • 16 years ago

    You should not be using that canner until you have that dial gauge tested ! We test them for accuracy at 5, 10, and 15 lb. pressure when we do the testing at gauge clinics.
    Please, do not use this until you either get the gauge tested or buy the 3 piece weight set.
    Plus, unless that burner is 12,000 btus or less you should not use it with that canner. Not only can it warp, it will heat up too fast and cool down too quickly. Your food is not going to be safe. That time that has been tested for processing includes the heating up and cooling down times.
    Both contribute to your food being safe from botulism. It is nothing to take lightly.