I FINALLY broke out my pressure canner and prepared three quarts of flat, Italian style string beans. Now this is my very first time even using a pressure canner, so I understand I have a long way to go building up experience and learning. Anyway, when all was said and done, the jars lost a couple inches of the salted water inside, so I'm assuming it "siphoned" out. I did a search and came up with a bunch of posts and some of them mentioned that if you do a raw pack (which I did), sometimes the beans absorb water during processing and that can account for the reduction in the amount of water you start with in the jars (?).

Regardless, being a newbie, I have no clue! I didn't fool with the flame under the pot a lot and it seemed to be keeping a pretty steady pressure the whole time, but again, this is my first time.

Any thoughts about what can help me avoid siphoning?

Also, there's now around an inch and a half or two inches of string beans in the jars that are now above the water line - will they go bad or will they keep ok with the reduced water level?

Thanks so much for any advice you can give me!

Lisa

One of the main causes is skipping the 10 min wait between removing the weight and removing the lid. Did you do that? You also want to wait several more min after removing the lid before removing the jars.

Adjusting the heat source too much is also a common cause. And like you said, raw pack absorbs some liquid - one reason why hot pack is preferred for most things. Better to let it run a little high than to adjust too much trying to keep it pegged.

Also check out the NCHFP How-To Use a Pressure Canner guide for step-by step instructions. Canner manuals are usually outdated on this info.

Dave