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kai615

Canning on a Glass Top

kai615
10 years ago

Hi Everyone

After reading another post I realized that I lucked out and somehow have chosen a glass top stove and canner combo that work perfectly for me. I hadn't realized that there were so many issues in this area and honestly I am very glad I didn't before shopping or I would have read myself silly before buying. I am starting this thread so that anyone who successfully cans on a glass top can share their make and model stove and canner model with others. I know everyone wants to give the advice to go gas, or to get an outdoor propane set up, but really that is just not always an option for all of us.

I bought an LG model LRE3012ST. Not a top of the line stove, I bought around $800. It had great reviews and that is why I bought over other brands. I use a Presto 23 qt pressure canner. Most of my BWB batches are large enough (I double almost everything I make) that I also use this as my BWB.

The stove maintains pressure of 12 lbs when set to 3.5 on the large front burners and a roaring boil on high when full needs to actually be turned down if too much water starts spewing out the lid and all over the stove, so plenty of power.

The canner is wider than the burner however it has a large thick plate that extends from the bottom to fit the burner. I fit 13 1/2 pints or 10 pints on a normal batch (I forget the quart count, I very rarely can a whole batch of them). I have also double decked for BWB in this.

I have another pot I use if it is a small batch. I bought it at Home Goods and I forget the brand name (it is their own though). It is just a large tall stainless steel pot. They have an entire line there that is fairly cheap, all stainless steel with very heavy plated bottoms. They are the best for the price I have found for the glass top. Because I don't use it as a canner often I wanted SS so I can make large batches of tomato sauces when not using as a BWB. I paid a whole $39.

Comments (4)

  • dirtguy50 SW MO z6a
    10 years ago

    We us the 16 qt Presto on our Whirlpool flat top stove. That works perfect for just the two of us and the footprint is just perfect on the large burner. It will hum right along at the 2 1/2 setting maintaining 11 lbs with virtually no adjustments. For water bath we have one of the cheap blue specked steamer pots which also works just fine.

  • lakelifer
    10 years ago

    I have a cheap GE glass top oven. Really don't recall the model number. For canning I use either a 12 qt stockpot with a 9 1/2" cake rack which perfectly hold 4 qts or 7 pints for water bath or a 16 qt weighted gauge Presto pressure canner which has the raised flat bottom. I opted for the 16 qt presto because I can't see an instance where I would can more than those capacities at once and I was told the glass tops are designed to hold 50lbs of total weight.

  • 2ajsmama
    10 years ago

    I have a 7-yr old Kenmore Elite glass top with a "power burner". Just bought the 23qt Presto and haven't tried it as a PC yet (alos got the weight set) but I used it as a BWB for quarts and it took an hour to get that water (with jars) up to boiling and after I had filled 4 jars (left some empty ones in there too to take up space so I wouldn't have to add more water) with boiling tomato sauce it took about half an hour to get it back up to boiling (and I never turned the burner down/off, left it on high the whole time).

    So just wondering, is this normal for a glass top? If so, how long does it usually take to bring up to pressure (say 10 psig) when used as a PC?

    It did seem to take longer to boil with the Presto than it did with my SS stockpot (not that I do quarts that often, I usually have to top off with boiling water after 20 minutes b/c it splashes out, the pot isn't quite deep enough and the lid doesn't fit tight). But not only it was a bigger volume of water - slightly deeper and the Presto is much bigger in diameter than my stockpot - but I'm wondering if the material (SS pot has sandwiched copper bottom) and fact that Presto is bigger than the burner has something to do with it..

  • kai615
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    ajsmama, to be honest I have never timed how long my stove takes to get up to pressure. Usually I am running around trying to clean up after one batch and either trying to start something else to taking care of my neglected kids by that point, just waiting for my weights to make enough noise for me to pay attention to them again. I also have not recently used it as a PC as my garden has been a bit of a failure this year (partly the weather, partly my starting it late).

    I would say that I also do not do many quarts, I even like my tomato sauce in pints, however I did just do a double stacked batch of 1/2 pints, so the water was pretty deep and a lot of hot jam went into the pot to "cool" down the boiling water. I did turn my burner off while I loaded it so I didn't burn my hands while loading and so I could see where I was placing the jars. I turned the burner back on when the lid was on and it took about 15 maybe 20 minutes to get back to a roaring boil.

    It would be pretty easy to run a test in your new canner to see how long it takes to get to pressure. You can run it empty or with water filled jars just to see how long it takes.

    This is exactly the reason why I started this thread. Some people have great success with certain canner and stove combos and others say you just can't can with a glass top. It can be done, some seem to have more power than others. To be honest, I am not sure the technical reason, I have no idea if it is the material, the power, or another reason. Maybe someone else who knows more can chime in.