Worst case I know the overpressure plug should blow, and I really think I should turn down the heat before it even gets to 15 psig on the gauge (I'd think the weight would be spinning/rocking like crazy by then), but has anybody ever had this happened? Should I be concerned?

And yes, I have a ring sitting right on the counter, so I don't have the 15 lb weight on...

Thanks

The whole point of weights is that you ignore the gauge but IF your gauge is accurate and IF it is reading 12 then you could turn the heat down a smidge - a 1/4 of a number on the stove. But no you don't have to unless the weight begins rocking wildly.

Dave

I smell cooking meat combined with vinegar I put in the water - is this normal? I don't want to end up with overprocessed meat, or jars that don't seal. I've been afraid to touch the dial b/c I know big drops in pressure can cause failure - and with only 10 minutes left to go and pressure not going any higher (I'm watching it like a hawk, sitting at the breakfast bar across from stove) I might as well just leave it at this point. But wondering what I'm going to find when I open the canners and the jars...

Just like baking a roast, you should be able to smell the meat cooking (that is what it is doing) and the vinegar in the pan is cooking also.

ONE more thing. From my experience with pressure cooker, meats can/may produce foam and clog the vent and other safety systems. But this should not happen in canner.

Timer going off now for the 10-minute wait - let's see how they look (I think a jar tipped over when I moved the canner off the burner).

But some lids look like some residue on them? Was this caused by big change in pressure when I took the canner off the burner? Wondering if that's what caused the siphoning in my tomato sauce too?

Half the water is gone - I used a gallon instead of 3 quarts the manual said, 3 qts just won't reach the fill line even with the rack in, a gal was just a hair over the line. But boy, for 90 minutes (or 100 if I ever do seafood) I think I'd want more than a gallon in there so as not to run the canner dry.

Will post pix as soon as my Photostream updates - I had to plug in the iPad.

6C of water left in canner (out of 1 gal) I poured it into measuring cup to be sure, it was clear, smelled a little of beef but didn't look at all like broth.

The 2 fullest jars were the last ones packed - meat from the bottom of the ziploc bag that had been sitting in its own juice all night in the fridge. The jar that had the least liquid was the first one packed - from drier meat at the top of the bag. Maybe it would have been juicier if I had cut the meat and packed the jars immediately? I dumped the juice/blood from the bag when I was done filling jars - I know the NCHFP says not to add liquid, but should I have added a little to the first couple of jars packed (or swished the meat around to distribute in the bag, wet all the pieces, before packing the jars)?

So am I going to have to discard the meat that not submerged when I open the jars?

I'm disappointed in the results of this experiment, next time I will brown (in the oven) and add water (if making it for use in chili, can I use my own tomato juice or must it be commercial?).

This one does look like it has meat residue on the ring, but the canner water was clear??

(JUST AN EXAMPLE. your pc can be different)
inner diameter that the weight sits on it.

That is why, once these physical parameters are set, it will ALWAYS produce the same results.

I've said this before but it bears repeating. The weight is not machined to 10 but 10.5 which is the pressure determined to kill botulism spores. It's labeled 10 for convenience but if your gauge back-up reads 10.5 it's spot-on.

Gauge canner instructions say 11 so that extra half-pound is already there also. One instruction rounds down and one rounds up.

The meat is fine to consume but you may have some slight dryness or darkening of the meat which finished above the broth. It's not as "pretty" but it's safe.

Carol

I fill to the line and before I found the line, I filled to 1/2 of pint jar level. Yes the water does disappear. I don't take my canner off the burner (can't lift it full), just turn the burner off. It takes longer to cool down, since I'm using electric (when i had gas, no problem)

Yes a weight could be defective, not milled correctly, but that's what QC (quality control) is for. I'm sure they run all the weights over a scale and anything off would get rejected. That's in a perfect world.

As to pressure canning, when new to it, one can imagine all sorts of dire problems and consequences when in fact few exist.

But tossing scare stories and dumping more info that isn't even relevant to pressure canning on that person doesn't help. Foaming applies only to pressure COOKING not canning and then only when the pressure cooking is done improperly. Weights work, gauges don't. Weights are not improperly machined and a 10 lb weight is machined to 10.5 just as Carol said. But they can be used improperly. Vent pipe diameters aren't relevant unless they are plugged and weren't checked first and they vary from brand to brand anyway. Properly maintained and operated canners do not blow up.

So other than that you used raw pack and are new to pressure canning and need more practice at controlling your heat source everything is perfectly fine and normal.

Dave

I just figured that if the weight was acting to limit the pressure that no adjustment should be required for the burner - though of course I wouldn't want it too high and rattling around like it was going to fall right off. But I didn't think it would go over 11 since it hadn't when I was processing for shorter times.

I was getting worried that my weights were possibly out of tolerance, of course as I keep saying I know the gauge can't be trusted, but wondered why pressure started to rise after being steady for 1/2 hr. I didn't think my burner would be getting hotter - if anything I expected it to cycle. But next time I will turn it down a hair if you think that's what caused siphoning. I just started it on 8 and left it rather than starting it on High (10) and turning it down since I don't know if that's what caused my tomato sauce to siphon (and also since I was proecssing longer and expected the burner to cycle and I didn't want to have it turned too low when it did).

Or was it moving the canner off the burner and the large immediate drop in pressure that caused it both with sauce and meat? I know instructions say to move it off electric burner but I didn't have siphoning with colored water, I had canner full of quarts those times so I left it on the burner and pressure dropped much more slowly.

Pressure went from 10.5 when I started timing to 11 steadily let's say, I didn't time how long since I didn't think it was a problem. Stayed there for about 1/2 hr, then it went very quickly to 11.5 right at about 35 minutes. I wasn't sitting there staring at the gauge for those first 35 minutes, just glancing up every now and then from across the room so I really don't know how quickly it climbed but then it did inch up to about 11.75 (best I could tell with the condensation inside the face - another thing I was wondering if was normal) as I watched. Is say 0.5psi jump all at once too much?

Was it siphoning (or whatever correct term is when you don't start with any liquid in jars) if the water as clear? Or was it just kind of dried-out meat from the top of the bag in those jars?

Should the jars have 1" HS filled with liquid all the way to top when done processing, assuming fresh-cut meat and no large pressure changes?

Thanks for helping me figure this out. I wish I had someone nearby who could be right here in the kitchen with me and teach me to PC, but you here are the next best thing.

Yes, learning curve here with the electric stove.

First of all I am not the on who is spreading scare stories here.
and rules every thing to be tossed.
Second: I said foaming occurs in pressure cooker(when cooking meats ..). But then immediately I added that this should not happen in Canner.

Third: I was talking about the principles of weight system and manufacturing tolerances in general. I did not talk about the specifics as how EXACTLY they are machined. It is up to the manufacturer. And there could be variations from one to the next.

Fourth: Your statement saying " Vent pipe diameters aren't relevant unless they are plugged..."""
is absolutely incorrect. The combination of the hole diameter and the amount of weight determines the amount of pressure held inside the cooker/canner. So if the hole diameter also has a tolerance as well. And any deviation from the nominal can make a difference.
Clogging is another thing that also affects the effective diameter of the vent hole.
...................................................................... .........
foot note:
P S I = pound per Square Inch. IN THIS CASE
"P " is the weigh sitting on the hole.
"SI = Square Inch." is the cross section area of the vent hole

psi = 10.5 = P/A , assume A= 0.0 2 then 10.5= P/0.2 ; P= 0.21 lbs = 3.36 ozw

While the weight is on there to regulate, that doesn't mean that the pressure can't build up over time to a higher point. You'll see/hear the weight jiggling more and more madly and it will sound louder.

The ideal is not to get to that point, so despite the weight, which does give you some latitude, you do still have to manage the heat settings. With an electric range it can be more problematic as it takes longer for the heat to come up and go down.

This is all part of learning and managing your range to optimize the canning process. You're doing fine.

And if I had to choose, it's better to ask lots of questions and perhaps over-react than to have this cavalier "Oh, everything's just fine" attitude.

Enjoy the meat and give yourself a pat on the back.

Carol

Should I open all the jars to see if the meat is rare/raw in the middle? I do have some room in the freezer, I'm willing to chalk this one up to learning experience and do hot pack in the future.

seysonn - yes, I understand all that but it's really not helpful information - Carol and Dave have already said the rise in pressure is due to rise in heat (Ideal Gas Law works both ways) and I should have turned the burner down. The weights aren't machined to as tight a tolerance as I would have expected since it looks like my gauge is pretty accurate (I also made sure the weight was rocking steadily before setting the timer, didn't just go by the gauge), since it did let it go a pound or so over what it was machined to (assuming the gauge was spot on). But I don't have to worry that I underprocessed or overprocessed the meat, and I don't think that I underprocessed the tomato sauce when the weight was jiggling steadily and the gauge was between 10.5-11.

Neither do I. But then I don't accept the "do whatever you want, everything's fine" attitude either and I, for one, will take issue with it every time.

Second: I said foaming occurs in pressure cooker(when cooking meats ..). But then immediately I added that this should not happen in Canner.

So since this post isn't about cooking meats and there is no concerns with foaming it isn't relevant to the issue. Why post it? How does that help? When someone is trying to learn pressure canning and already worried the last thing they need is someone dragging their focus off on an unrelated tangent.

Third: I was talking about the principles of weight system and manufacturing tolerances in general. I did not talk about the specifics as how EXACTLY they are machined. It is up to the manufacturer. And there could be variations from one to the next. Vent pipe diameters aren't relevant unless they are plugged...""" is absolutely incorrect. The combination of the hole diameter and the amount of weight determines the amount of pressure held inside the cooker/canner. So if the hole diameter also has a tolerance as well. And any deviation from the nominal can make a difference.

Yes that's all well and good info for the mechanical engineer that designs the equipment and oversees its manufacturer. It has no relevance to the person using the canner at home. Milling to tolerances isn't our problem. We aren't going to dig out our calipers and mic the ID and OD of the steam vent and adjust it accordingly. So the info is of no practical use to us and only confuses the issues under discussion.

Dave

There is never a stupid question, but plenty of stupid answers.

Before you know it, you'll be PCing everything in sight.

I don't think I'll be PCing everything in sight, glad I didn't start this last night since even with the meat already cut it took about 4 hours to do a 75-minute processing and I would have been up past midnight. Easier to just buy some Chunky Soup for when the power goes out.

Still have the question about the rare-looking meat.

In time all this will become second-nature to you and it will seem less of a big deal. Those of us who are older and grew up around canning and pressure processing had a much easier time of it because we had our mentors showing us what to do all along the way. Learning it on your own is more challenging.

Carol

I'm glad my meat is cooked enough - I will put that 1 jar in the fridge to use ASAP since I manhandled it, but I feel secure now putting the others in the basement with the rest of the canned goods.

I'm old enough to be your mother, and most of my generation never learned. My home ec teacher decided after she was diagnosed with cancer that she needed to pass on her canning knowledge. I was the only one in the class to know anything about it. My MIL didn't do any canning, or much cooking even. I taught my sons, after all I needed as much help as possible since I canned more each year than I have this year. My DILs have no clue, but the grandchildren are learning.

But we didn't have home ec - I went to 7th grade to a regional jr/sr high that I think offered it, only 1 semester before we moved to a very small town that had K-8 in 1 building and no kitchen/cafeteria. Then went to high school at a semi-private school where I was on the college track. I took 3 years of Latin, and all but 1 of my senior year courses were university freshman courses (I had to fulfill the American History requirement otherwise I would have graduated in 3 years). But no Home Ec. So not only did I have to learn to cook (so-so) on my own, and learning canning here, but I kind of taught myself to sew and I'm taking a beginning sewing course starting Monday night so I can learn how to use a pattern and make alterations instead of just trying to cut something close to a garment that fits and then keep doing fittings from there (on DD, I haven't successfully altered or made anything for myself yet).

I'm trying to get approved to lead her GS troop and maybe we'll do some sewing, I need to take special safety training to be able to teach them to cook (!), and to go camping. Not sure about electrical wiring (but they're young yet). But in addition to cooking (I don't think there's a Laundry badge LOL) I hope to teach them some basic life skills. DS did learn to follow a recipe in Jr High but I'm still trying to get him to master a bleach load. I have to write all the steps out and laminate it for him - he only has 3 years before he leaves for college.