Canning 7 quarts -- what am I missing?

[tankgirl73]

I have a huge stock pot which I use for canning (waterbath). It fits 7 quart/litre jars with *just* enough height to get them the 1" of water plus 1" boiling space above.

It took me forever to find one high enough. All the actual "canners" I could find, even though they SAID they held however many quarts, just weren't tall enough. This thing is massively huge and is just big enough. That's the first thing I don't understand.

The second thing is canning racks. The basic ones that come with canners and in sets don't hold quart jars. I have two -- one with dividers, anything larger than a round pint jar doesn't fit. The one without dividers will hold 5 quart jars, but awkwardly.

So I got myself a set of 2 racks with lifters -- rather than attached handles, it's just a flat rack with little prongs for the lifter things to grab. The small one is pretty useless but the big one is 12", that should do the trick, right?

Wrong. 6 quart jars, no problem. Well, they squish in there anyway. But the rack is still less wide than my pot so I can't use the full space. And the prong thingies get in the way of the jars. 7 jars would fit ON the rack, but not IN the rack, if you understand me.

Everyone seems to talk about canning 7 quart jars. Why do I find it so hard?

I looked into a bit online just now and found this:
http://www.canningpantry.com/stainle...ning-rack.html

which might do the trick. But I can't find a supplier for it in Canada. And with my luck, I'd spend oh, upwards of $30 after shipping and taxes and duties to get it from the US only to have it NOT FIT after all.

Has anyone used this rack? Know where to find one in Canada? Or some other stupid obvious thing I've missed about canning 7 quarts at once?

[lmonter]

Ooh, that's a nice canning rack.
Think I found something else for my Christmas list.
I just have two of the generic ones that I can find pretty much anywhere for $5-$10. I do have the generic black speckled water bath canner that you can find pretty much anywhere though, do you have one of those or some other kind of pot?
I can't get the full 2-inches of water above my quarts in my water bath canner. I go with about 1 generous inch of water above the lids and a little boiling space on top because I don't like to clean up spillage while things are still boiling away.

Do you have any local specialty kitchen/gourmet/Bosch shops around? I know my local mom-n-pop Bosch shop has all kinds of goodies, including some canning supplies. That might be an option, without the extra shipping/tax issues...

[tankgirl73]

Originally Posted by lmonter

Ooh, that's a nice canning rack.
Think I found something else for my Christmas list.
I just have two of the generic ones that I can find pretty much anywhere for $5-$10.

See, that's exactly the one I have (the one with dividers), and even though that description says "fits 7 quart jars", it just doesn't. The jars are too big, I can't fit even one into the spaces available.

I do have the generic black speckled water bath canner that you can find pretty much anywhere though, do you have one of those or some other kind of pot?

I used to have one of those, but when we moved and bought a house I got a nice flat glasstop stove. The speckled canners don't have flat bottoms, no good for glasstop stoves. > I just use a huge stockpot. Hee--yuge. Heh.

Do you have any local specialty kitchen/gourmet/Bosch shops around? I know my local mom-n-pop Bosch shop has all kinds of goodies, including some canning supplies. That might be an option, without the extra shipping/tax issues...

Just one that I know of, and I haven't been in to check their canning supplies yet, though I will. But even the fancy-shmancy gourmet kitchen shop I've ordered from online in the past doesn't have anything like this.

Now to add confusion to the mix... the rack I linked to above says it's 12-1/4" diameter. The inside of my pot is precisely 12". The rack that you've linked to says it's 12" diameter, but mine is definitely smaller than my pot. Are the measurements overestimated? Why is this so hard lol...

[lmonter]

See, that's exactly the one I have (the one with dividers), and even though that description says "fits 7 quart jars", it just doesn't. The jars are too big, I can't fit even one into the spaces available.
Some of my jars that are labeled Bernadin or Golden Harvest have a wider diameter than the Kerr or Ball ones, so yeah, I have to move 'em around since some of the spaces on there are smaller than others (like the middle spot can fit a bigger diameter jar, and two of the ones next to the handle spots). Just takes some juggling or rotating the square-ish ones to make 'em fit.



I used to have one of those, but when we moved and bought a house I got a nice flat glasstop stove. The speckled canners don't have flat bottoms, no good for glasstop stoves. > I just use a huge stockpot. Hee--yuge. Heh.
Heh, yeah, don't tell Whirlpool, but I use the speckled beast on my glasstop stove. Hubby (the engineer) tells me it's fine, so if it does manage to break after me using it for hundreds upon hundreds of jars, it's his fault and we'll get a gas range.


Now to add confusion to the mix... the rack I linked to above says it's 12-1/4" diameter. The inside of my pot is precisely 12". The rack that you've linked to says it's 12" diameter, but mine is definitely smaller than my pot. Are the measurements overestimated? Why is this so hard lol...
I honestly haven't a clue. It's annoying, isn't it. Have you tried the cheapo trick of tying together (or something) spare canning rings to just set in the bottom of your pot? Keeps the jars from sitting on the bottom of the pot, and a nice inexpensive alternative. Just don't ask me what to use to keep 'em together and not bouncing around - I can't remember what people have used for that part.

[tankgirl73]

Originally Posted by lmonter

See, that's exactly the one I have (the one with dividers), and even though that description says "fits 7 quart jars", it just doesn't. The jars are too big, I can't fit even one into the spaces available.
Some of my jars that are labeled Bernadin or Golden Harvest have a wider diameter than the Kerr or Ball ones, so yeah, I have to move 'em around since some of the spaces on there are smaller than others (like the middle spot can fit a bigger diameter jar, and two of the ones next to the handle spots). Just takes some juggling or rotating the square-ish ones to make 'em fit.

It's not a matter of juggling or rotating, I even just tried right now to be sure LOL... they don't fit at ALL. BUT, I solved another mystery -- sorta. The rack that I have is 10" in diameter. So if the one you linked to actually is 12", then yeah, that would make all the difference in the world. Perhaps it's just that everytime I have seen that STYLE of rack, I assumed it was the same SIZE as the one I already have.

I used to have one of those, but when we moved and bought a house I got a nice flat glasstop stove. The speckled canners don't have flat bottoms, no good for glasstop stoves. > I just use a huge stockpot. Hee--yuge. Heh.
Heh, yeah, don't tell Whirlpool, but I use the speckled beast on my glasstop stove. Hubby (the engineer) tells me it's fine, so if it does manage to break after me using it for hundreds upon hundreds of jars, it's his fault and we'll get a gas range.

LOL well, I'm too attached to my beautiful new (and not cheap) stove and am very over-protective of it. So even if it's PROBABLY ok I'm not going to chance it. And we don't have gas here anyway. And besides, like I said, my speckled canner just isn't bloody tall enough for quart jars, which boggles my mind. Great for pints, though.

Have you tried the cheapo trick of tying together (or something) spare canning rings to just set in the bottom of your pot? Keeps the jars from sitting on the bottom of the pot, and a nice inexpensive alternative.

Interesting! I had actually been wondering about stop-gap juryrigged solutions while I figure out where to get a nice rack, that sounds intriguing. I certainly have tons of spare canning rings lol...

[MissMommyNiceNice]

I was talking in the big canning thread how I don't even use the big canning rack unless I'm specifically doing quarts or pints. Mostly I do 1/2 & 1/4 pints. I use a round cookie rack in the bottom of my canner and just plop the jars in there spaced a little apart. I've been doing it that way for years, and have only had maybe one jar a year pop. I use a lot of freecycle jars, so it could be that or overfilling/overtightening. It works fine.

[tankgirl73]

That sounds great... so tell me, where did you get a cookie rack that was the right size for your canner?

Honestly, I thought of using ANY other rack in the house but none fit lol...

When I'm just doing pints and smaller I can use my regular basket rack. I can even use that, cover with the flat rack, and put more on a second level, especially with the tiny jars for Christmas present jam jars.

[MissMommyNiceNice]

I'm not sure where I picked it up, the grocery store, maybe? It's about 12' round, maybe a little bigger. It's a little smaller than the canner, but it's nice & flat and you can hang a jar over the edge a bit with no problems. I have also *gasp* stacked two on top of each other when doing small 1/4 pint jars or the short fat 1/2 pint jars. I perfected it when I was doing massive amounts of tiny jars for my wedding favors. I did the rack, a layer of jars, a rack, then a layer of jars. As long as the water level is high enough above, it works great!

Let's see what amazon has...

http://www.amazon.com/Wilton-Nonstic...1773794&sr=8-2
http://www.amazon.com/Fox-Run-Coolin...1773828&sr=8-2
http://www.amazon.com/Paderno-World-...773828&sr=8-11

Mine is coated with the rubbery stuff, but I'm sure I paid not more than $3 or $4 for it at target or something...

[cristeen]

I was going to say that I use a cake cooling rack, too. You just want something to lift the jars off the bottom of the pot - it doesn't really matter if it's intended for that purpose.

I think I got mine at a Japanese kitchen supply store as some random purchase - but any cake decorating / making type store should have the round ones.

[StarMom2]

I never liked dealing with the racks either. After I bought my pressure canner, I just use that for water bath canning as well. It has a sealed lid, no spills, and the rack on the bottom is flat. There is plenty of height to stack as well. I love it.