There is a heavy duty burner that plugs into most electric stoves, if yours is electric? Its raised off the surface of the stove to reduce extreme heat damage. The other option is to use a propane burner outdoors. These have fairly high BTUs and will get big pots of water boilng quicker. When I fill the pots, I usually use hot water as it takes less time to get to boiling. But because your canner is so tall and wide, it will not get things boiling much quicker due to the larger surface areas.

Heck, David, get 'em both going!!
Homemade kraut IS worth it!!

Easy for me to say, huh?

DARFC
Deanna

Dave,

I'm all for the propane burner units. However, you have the same problem with radiated heat to the surface of whatever you are resting the burners on. I use ceramic floor tiles purchased at Home Depot to absorb the heat. And it doesn't take much wind to blow out the flame. On a windy day I use tinfoil to block wind.

jt

I destroyed the pan liners under the burners and got my cooktop so hot I melted the plastic drawer dividers underneath. Not to mention the discoloration of the stainless.

Those water bath canners really radiate the heat. Ken's recommendation of a canning element or propane burner is a good one. I pulled out the electric cooktop and switched to gas.

Carol

Well, all I can say is I better get the discoloration of the stainless steel before my wife sees it. Yikes - there must have been some sort of coating or something on the new pot that left the pot surface and transfered itself to the stove top - lovely shade of dark brown. Dark Umber, I think the artists call it. I have a layer of stainless steel cleaner on it now, which, maybe by next week, should have it off.

Well, this isn't saving any time, or money, if I now have to get a umpty-thousand BTU propane setup out side.

But this is crazy - at some point when it was boiling away, I turned the heat down from High to 4, (out of 6) and it quit boiling.

Soft Scrub will help remove the brown stains. My electic has white enamal on the top with chrome ring/bowls. Both the ring and bowl usually will darken and then rust. My stove has a big stain all around the burner I use for the canner. I used Soft Scrub and it was able to remove most of the discoloration witjout damaging the enamal. Not sure how many times I can do that before it does start to wear out the surface.

If your stove top is stainless steel, you may need to use oven cleaner on it. I have to do mine a couple times a year. The repairman told me that trick. I just spray some oven cleaner in a dish, then brush on. Works wonders on mine. That, or I also like Cameo cleaner for stainless steel. I tried all kinds of things on my stainless steel stove. Those are the only 2 things that seem to remove the brown stains.

david,

You have my sympathies!

I had a similar experience --- after a year of messing around canning in a pasta pot, which was only JUST deep enough for pints, such that for any processing longer than jam I had to have a small pot of hot water handy and frequently top up the boiling water to make sure it kept the jars well covered, I bought an enamel 21-quart canner on sale.

Discovered that my cheapo stove simply *COULD NOT* get that amount of water to a full boil. Not ever. I left it all evening, 3+ hours with the lid on, and it never, ever got above hitting a hesitant simmer from time to time.

Argh!

Luckily, by then we had planned our move away from the city, and the stove belonged with the rental place we had there; we had to buy a second-hand one for our new home, and while it had plenty of problems of its own, it had one great burner marked "ultra-rapide" [it was from Quebec, I guess] and heated a cannerful very nicely.

When it died this winter, our "new" second hand replacement was better in many ways but doesn't heat the canner quite as fast.

Zabby, dreaming of the day she can get a gas stove....

You don't need an "umpty thousand dollar" propane unit. In our separate canning kitchen we installed a (Craigslist find) gorgeous, $50, 4-burner Kitchenaid gas cooktop. Our location in NW Washington has no natural gas, so we use Propane here. We merely have one of those 5-gallon (like for BBQs) propane tanks that can be easily refilled at certain gas stations. The gas cooktop is beautifully built into the tile kitchen counters. We hired a plumber and he did the pipes to outside where the small tank is, too. We can easily refill it when needed.

This is a legal connection. It is convenient. It isn't obnoxious looking. And it is an economical and easy installation.

In our all-electric previous home we also used propane just for our 5-burner cooktop and had two 5-gallon tanks outside the kitchen. There was a switch so when one tank ran out we just went outside the kitchen and flipped the switch. Then, at our convenience, we took the empty tank to be refilled. Easy peasy.

Depending upon your gas cooktop use, of course, the tanks last a very long time. I think we only went through four tanksful in a year -- if that.

This might be something to think about doing someday.

Hi, I don't can my kraut, I freeze it and it saves me a lot of work. I just used my last bag, from last year, at dinner last night. I don't think there is a change in texture at all. I put the kraut in my seal a meal bags seal, lay flat, and freeze, then I unseal the bags and vacuum seal them shut, this way no juice gets into my vacuum! I make my kraut in Oct. so by Dec. it is usually freezing temps here so I also lay my bags outside on a table and let the weather freeze my kraut, I cover with a blanket to keep the sun from chancing the color! It works great.
Just a thought! For such a big job,

ahbee01

That sounds like a great idea! I wasn't too happy about canning my finished kraut, mainly because it softened up quite a bit. Perhaps freezing it would be better. Does it stay more like fresh fermented kraut - after thawing and/or cooking?

Bejay

Dave, have you tried Barkeeper's Friend with a Dobie pad. That cleans the discoloration off the inside bottoms of my stainless.
Kay

We have a fairly limited selection of cleaning stuff available here, I looked for all this stuff this morning, and all I could find was one kind of oven cleaner, which I'll go for. Surprisingly, all kinds of stainless steel polishers, all of which recommend not using around food, which seems sort of silly given that most stainless steel is used in the kitchen.

I have been pondering. Aside from this 12 gallon abundance of sauerkraut, the most number of quart jars I do at a time is 10 or 11, which is 3 runs in the stock pot. If I do pints, then I've got that stock pot and two 6 quart pots that each hold 5 jars, and all fit on the stove at the same time, and all will boil happily with the dial half way up.

So, I can get another Revereware 12 qt stockpot for about $60, and then do 8 quarts at a go.

I'll keep pondering.

David,
Walmart usually stocks barkeepers friend. It is awesome stuff. I know some people don't like shopping there but is was the only place I could find it.
Melly

I may have to break down and go to WalMart, since the independent hardware store which carried BarKeepers Friend has gone out of business. Everything is big box now. I do miss the mom and pops who share a wealth of info with their customers. - Kay