saltflyz

Good luck. I have been canning venison for several years. Filling the canner with water up to the collar on the jars per that video seems excessive. Check your manual. I have a middle of the road presto canner and the book instructs to add 3 quarts (12 cups) of water to the canner once the jars are placed on the rack. This only brings water up several inches on the jar. Once the cap goes on the vent, I think its impossible to lose the water as vapor from a pressure canner. I process my pints for 75 mins @ 11 lbs. Later, when it cools and I remove the cover, I have about the same amount of water as when I started. Best thing to do is check the manual. It will tell you how much water to add.

Jenks

I would guess that if a pint is a pound roughly in liquid measure, then that is about how much deer meat it will hold. The liquid in the meat almost fills the jar and the liquid would be where most of the weight is.

I usually put a couple of inches of water in my canner then put the jars in. The jars will make the water rise some. I have never run dry, but I have not kept it going for an hour and a half. I think, once you get the pressure up, you do not lose much steam(water) just holding that temp. If that is the case, you would not use much water. If Steve Hall puts water up to the bottom of the ring on a pint jar, that is not really all that high. If I was using quart jars, I would not try to have it up to the ring on them, I think that would be too high. Do a cooking of pint jars with the water at the ring, you should not run out. After it is done and cooled, see how much the water level went down before you take the jars out. That should give you an idea. Let us know.

I am sure you know that you use Vasoline on the edges where the top and bottom come together. Not much, just a little to make a seal.

flyinlowe

This is the first I have heard about vasoline is it for the lid and the bottom of the cooker? What top and bottom are you talking about. My cooker does not have a rubber seal. Confirmed with the manual that it is not supposed to.

Jenks

Flyinlowe--Those All American canners do not have a gasket between the bottom and the lid. There is an area where they meet that is polished very smooth. When the lid is correctly in place it will seal if there is just a film of Vasoline on the surfaces where the lid and bottom meet. Also, there is a little arrow near the edge of the lid pointing down. This arrow needs to be pointing to a verticle mark on the canner body when the lid is on, otherwise you may harm the canner when you tighten the screw-downs. The lid is made to fit in one position only--when that arrow is pointing to the line. When you tighten the screw downs you do it like lug nuts--tighten them evenly, not just on one side real thigt and then do the other. They do not have to be real tight, just snug. This is made of aluminum, which is a soft metal so be careful. Do not bang the lid or body with anything on the sealing surface, a little damage and it may not seal again. All this should be in your book. If it is not, get on-line with the company, they did have instructions there. Also, not a bad idea to take it somewhere and get the gage checked to see if it is accurate. The Ext. Service does that here for free, mine was off a pound, but if it was way off that could be a problem. They say to check it every year.

flyinlowe

Thanks again. The prevoius owner used a marker and made two huge arrows to make sure the lid lines up right. The book does say to evenly tighten to screws across from each other to keep it even.

Jenks

Flyinlowe--You can see the directions on-line at allamerican-chefsdesign.com. They sell parts, etc. there and at store.wafco.com. I was reading in the directions that they say to put one and a half inches of water into the empty canner, then add the jars. I use two inches. They say never to fill it where the canner is 2/3 of the way full. Good luck.

flyinlowe

Well I did my first batch tonight and all went well. I was a little nervous at first because once it got over 15 PSI I had my stove turned almost all the way down and it stayed at 15 PSI. I was beginning to think the gauge was stuck. One of the videos I saw the guy said he leaves his burner on med-high to maintain pressure (7 out of ten on the dial). Mine was between simmer and the number 1, I could here it boiling inside so I left it alone. Once I turn off the heat it lowered as it should and when it got just above zero I slowly opened the valve and it released a small amount of pressure and then dropped to zero so I know the gauge was OK. Once the pressure was gone to zero I carefully removed the jars to cool and have not touched them. After 5-10 minutes the seals started popping so I think all is good. I ended up filling pint jars, I used 1 beef bouillon cube per jar and added a little beef broth as well. I will let you know tomorrow how the final product turned out.
I put the jars in and added water until the jars were about half way covered. There was plenty of water left in the canner when it was done.

friscospices.com

Once its up to pressure 10# at low elevation, you need barley any heat to keep up the pressure. Running it to hot will over pressurize the 10# weight that controls the PSI.

flyinlowe

Thanks
I learned that lesson quickly and it went a little better on my second batch. Once it got to 15 I turned it down to simmer and it stayed very close for the entire time.

Jenks

Congrats Flyinlowe. Sounds good, wish I had some deer to can. Next year for sure. Does your canner have the weight that has the three settings and wobbles around to control the pressure? Mine does not, you have to keep track of the pressure with the gage and adjust the heat to keep it like you want it. The newer models have the round weight that wobbles, I like that better, you do not have to adjust the heat as much with them, I am told.