In my opinion, there aren't any "cheap" pressure canners made in the US. For years I used a large Presto pressure canner to can all kinds of vegetables. Then about 6 years ago I bought a 4 qt. Presto stainless steel pressure cooker which I use frequently.

As for the applesauce, I always freeze mine. But home canned green beans, new potatoes, tomatoes, soup mix, and peaches are like "gold" on your shelves.

My tips and advice from years of canning:

~ read the instruction booklet that comes with the canner.....then read it again!

~ put your glass jars through the dishwasher and time it so they are still hot when you fill them - "hot foods into hot jars into hot water in the canner, then canner lid on"

~ get a copy of the Ball Blue Book for canning or some other basic book on canning; use their recipes and instructions first before you branch out

~ use a timer to time the pressure canning time

~ do not leave the pressure canner unattended - ever!

~ you do not pressure can on HIGH the whole time - once the canner has reached the correct pressure, you need to decrease the heat to maintain pressure - this is very important!

~ when pressure has safely decreased, open canner and carefully lift hot jars out to a clean towel, then put another clean towel over the jars (to prevent drafts) as they cool down, test the lids for seal after all are cooled down, and store in a cool, dark location.

Others here can add their wisdom and experiences - lots of good info from them.

I'm attaching a link to the gopresto.com web site. They have great canners/cookers are reasonable prices.

Here is a link that might be useful: 23 quart pressure canner atGoPresto.com

Thanks so much for the help. I was toying with the idea of freezing this batch of applesauce until I can afford to get myself a proper set up. Not to mention that we are in the middle of renovating our house so I have some other things that I should probably focus on aside from worrying about canning right now. The only downside will be that this year I will not be able to put up as much corn, beans, Et cetera that I was looking forward to......but I suppose I could freeze those as well just for this year.

Now when you make your applesauce to freeze, is there a rule that it should be refrigerated before packaging for the freezer or can it just be room temp? Also can you freeze in the glass jars with the plastic lids? Seems that glass and "freeze" don't mix well but I thought I read that you could do it that way.

I did find this American made pressure canner that I think I might just try to find used or save up for. That Presto looked really, really nice.....and then I saw these (linked)
Think I'm going to save up.

Thanks again for the help so far!

Here is a link that might be useful: American Canner

Yes, you can freeze the applesauce when it is at room temp. I never put hot or very warm packaged food in the freezer though.

Yes, you can freeze in the glass canning jars with plastic lids. The straight sided jars let the partially thawed food slip out easier when you are ready to heat the contents.

The All American Canners look to be good quality too. Hopefully Grainlady and Annie will chime in here with their experiences.

Teresa

Two excellent resources for anyone just getting into canning are:

National Center for Home Food Preservation

Gardenweb's Harvest Forum

Justin, I often prep things the day before and then process them the next day, like the tomatoes for salsa. I see no reason you can't make the applesauce one day and process it the next, you can even process unsealed jars within 24 hours.

As Teresa says, there are no cheap pressure canners, and be careful, because a pressure cooker is not the same as a pressure canner, be sure to read the instruction book and be sure you are able to can with it. Many pressure cookers will tell you that you cannot can with them. I have an old Presto that belonged to my Grandmother, it's still working fine, so I'll keep it, but if I were in the market for one (other than the All American) I'd go with a Mirro, only because the Presto has a dial gauge and it's getting very difficult to have them tested, the liability is too great for most extension services. The Mirro has the weighted "jiggler" type gauge, although there is a learning curve.

If I were to buy a new canner and price was not an object, I'd definitely go with the All American. Made in the USA, no gasket to replace, both a dial gauge and weighted gauge, it's the Cadillac of canners.

I do freeze in the glass jars, mostly the green tomatillo enchilada sauce and home pressed apple cider. Leave sufficient head space for expansion or you risk a broken jar.

Annie

Annie, have you looked at the newer Mirro's? I have one that doesn't quite hold 4 quart jars that I use as a cooker, not canner, and that little spring loaded lock in the lid somewhat of a joke. I see nothing of the old quality in the new models after a few ownership changes with this brand at all. And I love my 1970's era Mirro 22 qt, use it all the time, but wouldn't wouldn't replace it with another made today.

I would buy the All American if it fit the budget and I needed to replace my faithful Mirro (Mirro's, I have more than one). But, the Presto 23 qt seems to be a good fit for many and can easily be converted to weighted gauge for just a few dollars, a DIY project....eliminating the dial completely.

I haven't looked at any of the new ones. I've already decided that when "Old Faithful" dies, I'll get an All American. I've been somewhat disappointed in the quality of the new Prestos too (I needed a new gasket for my old one, and so was "shopping" at the hardware store, LOL), so I think newer isn't better. Sigh.

If the OP is willing to do the conversion that's a viable option, but many people, including those who are starting out using pressure canners are not comfortable enough to feel safe doing that, even if they were prepared to "fix" a brand new, somewhat expensive appliance. I don't think I'd even try it, you KNOW I'd do something wrong or backward and blow the blasted thing up.

Yes, I know. It's cheap, it's simple, it only takes a few minutes. I still wouldn't do it, I'm not comfortable with my own ability to do it correctly and I'd never trust it to be right.

Annie

I wouldn't try to talk you into it then :) But my dad was an engineer, my brother is an engineer, and I think my thought process leans that way....'there must be a way for me to understand this well enough to do it myself'. It rarely gets me into trouble except occasionally with plumbing...

Welcome to the joys of canning. I had to chime in here because I started canning in my 30's too, and like you I didn't come from a canning family and I was scared to death of poisoning myself! So my first bit of advice is to get over your fear of bacteria! Maybe it's because I'm a biologist or just because I am a weenie, but I've done a fair bit of reading on the subject and taken a microbiology course, and I can tell you that without bacteria, life on earth would cease to exist. Your body is covered with bacteria, inside and out, and we are finding out more and more how important bacterially mediated interactions are to human health. That said, there are many notable bad guys, so know your enemy! And you should be afraid of botulism. But you can get deathly ill from improperly stored, cleaned or prepared meat, and yet you don't tremble in fear every time you cook a hamburger. I have a good friend who ended up in the hospital with salmonella poisoning from bad chicken, and poor home food prep. is the reason home made treats are no longer allowed in schools. So you can poison yourself with any type of food if you don't learn and follow safety rules. But canning is no different than any other kind of food preparation. I have confidence now when I can because I read about, learned and practiced safe canning methods. So read up on it from reliable sources, like ones sponsored by Cooperative Extension and the USDA and Ball. These folks do not want to take any risks so they always err on the side of being super cautious. Check out this link, it is for a chart that tells you exactly what can be canned via boiling water bath and what needs to be pressure canned.

Canning Quick Reference Chart from Univ. of Minn. Cooperative Extension. You can print it out and keep it handy at all times! That and practice proper food preparation and kitchen sanitation and you've got the bacteria angle covered!

As for that elusive "one size fits all" canning pot, I wish I could find one, but there are a lot of variables to consider. When I started canning I had NO gizmos whatsoever, I just used an old cast aluminum stockpot that I got from my mother. I still use it to can with when I am doing small batches. I have a pressure canner, I think it is a Mirro or Presto one, but I hate to pressure can, I just don't have the patience for it. Mine is a small one and I can't use it to can things in quart jars. Which is fine because I rarely do quart jars. If you're going to put up loads and loads of stuff for a big family, then you'll want a big pot, but if not, you'll want a smaller one because you don't want to spend the fuel heating up a bunch of space with no jars in it. That's why I end up using a variety of pots depending on what I'm canning. If you're just doing stuff in a boiling water bath you can use a stockpot for a small batch as long as it is tall enough to hold your jars plus an inch or more of water on top of them. I can applesauce all the time, it is perfect for a beginner. I can applesauce in half pint jars (8 oz.) because that is enough for two servings which is just perfect for me and my folks, who I give most of my applesauce to. You can't find applesauce in small serving size jars so it makes a perfect thing for me to can and give away as gifts. It is also dead easy to can. Since apples are an acid fruit (at least the apples I use for applesauce), you can do applesauce in a boiling water bath. I'll often make up a big batch of applesauce for a family dinner and then later can up the leftovers, using a small stockpot for just a few jars. I also like to make plum, blueberry and strawberry applesauce, or use some orange peel, cinnamon, allspice, etc. to make spiced varieties.

If you're going to make applesauce, or even if you love to cook with apples, I suggest buying an apple peeler. When I first got mine I considered it a splurge, but I have never regretted buying it. I use it all the time because it makes quick work of doing an apple pie too, and that is one of BF's favorite pies!

So if you've got any type of suitable stockpot, I'd say get canning that applesauce now girl! Use meat tongs to take the jars out of the boiling water, a soup ladle to put the applesauce in the jars, and put an old towel on the bottom of the pot to keep the jars from rattling around. That's how I started!

morz, I do a lot of "fixing" things myself. The way I do it is to look up instructions at the library or on line, then I do it wrong. The second time I sometimes do it right, LOL. Even assembling the "do it yourself" bookcases and such, I WILL put it together backward. Every time. Sigh. I just figure that if something is already broke, I can't break it more and if I can't fix it, then I'll call a repairman.

So, I can stretch fence, I can dig post holes, I can do research, put together a coherent argument, write an explanation. I can grow beef cattle and ride a horse and drive a tractor, drive a nail, make a wooden spoon. I can use equipment but I'm bad at working on it, I can't even figure out how to make a blog work or use the camera on my cell phone, mostly because I'm too impatient to pay attention. Converting a pressure canner certainly is not on the list of things I'm comfortable doing, LOL.

Because low acid vegetables and meats are something that really can kill you, I'm more diligent with the pressure canning process than with canning applesauce.

Annie

Ahhhh....Mirro...When my beloved old Mirro gave up I bought a new one. It had directions that said to vent for 10 minutes, but you had to screw the weight on. When I called them to discuss the fact that telling people to screw a weight on a tube that is shooting steam like crazy was a lawsuit waiting to happen they said, "Oh you don't need to vent it ...we are in the process of rewriting the manual." Two years later it was the same manual, but by then they'd redesigned the weight system. Disappointed, I bit the bullet and bought an All-American. Really glad I did.

I second the Nat'l Center for Home Food Pres. as a source. it has the same info we were given in the Master Food Preserver course. There's a free self-paced food preservation course you can take, too.

Lpink, I still use an old, cheapo stockpot and a dollar store cake cooling rack for waterbathing. I was thrilled to discover it works on my little induction burner, so I can can on the back porch. Laziness beat out my preference for chunky applesauce...I toss them in the oven to soften and run them through my Victorio strainer.

I just went down in the basement to check on my pressure canner, it is an OLD Mirro one. It has a little metal gizmo on top that rocks at a certain pace which tells you that the pressure is high enough. I have used it exactly ONE time, to make low acid salsa. I didn't like the acidity of the BWB salsas, so one year when I was out of work I decided to try a lower acid salsa recipe and pressure can it. Now when you pressure can a mix of vegetables, you have to select the processing time for the vegetable that needs the longest time, which in the case of the salsa was the peppers, which needed 45 min. of processing! So by the time the salsa was done, I had squeezed all the flavor out of it with those high temps for so long. And futzing with that gauge just doesn't suit my personality, I don't have that good of an attention span for details. Now a lot of folks will tell you (CORRECTLY) that it is no big deal. They are right, it just isn't something I do because I don't have easy access to a lot of inexpensive low acid vegetables like corn and green beans, plus the time to process them. If I did, you can bet I would take the time and energy to pressure can. I also know people who use the pressure canner to process big batches of the acid stuff just because it uses less energy. For example, a friend of mine goes out and picks peaches en masse and does dozens of quart jars at a time in a big Presto canner. The way I can, I do a small batch of peach maple preserves, so a lot depends on what you like to can. Right now if you want to start with applesauce, you don't NEED any fancy equipment or lots of time. Believe it or not, back when I was a naive canning newbie, one of the first things I made was chili sauce using cherry tomatoes and a cheapo plastic Foley style food mill that someone gave me. That's all I had in the garden, gazillions of cherry tomatoes and the frost was coming, so . . . the mill didn't work too good so I actually ended up peeling and somewhat de-seeding most of the tomatoes by hand, my hands were raw at the end. This is the kind of thing you do when you are young and don't have kids or a boyfriend! I have to say that the chili sauce was delicious. If you get seriously into tomato sauce, the next thing you know you are going to want a Roma/Victorio food mill! Beware, canning is addictive!! But don't fret if you don't have the money to get a lot of fancy gear, just start with what you have and what you can easily accomplish. If life gives you apples . . . make applesauce, apple jam, apple butter, etc.

BTW, although I like the Center for National Food Preservation Web site and have used in in classes, I think my new favorite is that Univ. of Minn. site. They also have a series of tutorials on food safety, which includes graphics, automatic powerpoints, videos, etc.including a whole reference section on salsa alone! Very thorough explanations.

University of Minnesota Cooperative Extension - Food Safety - Preserving and Preparing

Hey, Lpink, thanks for that link. My favorite was Michigan State's website, of course, but that appears to be completely defunct. Sigh.

Now I'm going to have to fiddle all over this one!

Annie

SORRY for the delayed response here! For some reason I wasn't getting the notifications to my email (of responses) and so I didn't realize that there had been this many responses! Thank you all so much. @1PinkMountain, thanks so much for the info; great to hear I am not getting started too late in life! Yes, bacteria I am okay with (well you know what I mean) it is the dreaded Botulism that scares me. A lot of the links that have been posted I read when I was canning pickles years ago; I am going to sit down this evening and re-read them again though. I will definitely print the one from the University of Michigan so thanks for that one!
Just when I thought I had my mind set on freezing the applesauce I happened to walk into the local ACE store.....well there was everything I needed to properly get started canning and I took the plunge. I purchased the jar tongs, a 21-1/2 qt Granite-Ware bath with rack, and a new set of 1/2 pint jars (I still have some others left over). It looks like rain here over the weekend so I am going to go out right now and see how many apples I can gather and then tonight I am going to get to chop them up and cook them.
The only other question I would have, mostly because I would like to use the ones on the ground so they don't go to waste is...will a salt water soak be enough to keep them from browning until this evening or first thing in the morning when I go to cook them. I cannot keep them in tact until I am about to cook because some may have bad spot's or insect damage Et cetera that I need to cut out before bringing them inside. I was just going to take out my knife, my cutting board and go through them, cutting any good spots and then tossing them in a big pot with some salt to throw in the fridge until tonight or tomorrow.
It is safe to take an apple that has a worm hole, maybe even a worm in it and still cut out the good spot's right?? I mean it will be getting cooked anyway.
Thanks again everyone and sorry for such a delayed response!

Justin, don't soak the apples in salt water, use lemon juice or crushed up Vitamin C tablets to avoid oxidation. I don't know if you can avoid it altogether, but it will help quite a lot.

I use apples with blemishes and worm holes for applesauce, juice or jelly. Cut the bad spots out and cut the rest into your acidified water for a soak, they're fine. I just made a batch of cinnamon apple jelly entirely from foraged unsprayed apples that fell from my neighbor's tree, over the fence and onto my lawn. He does nothing with them, so I usually pick them up and give them to the cows and horses, but the nicer ones I use for juice, if I don't have to trim them too much.

Happy canning!

Annie

@Annie1992, thanks for the advice. These apples are the same way, its my tree but every year i just feed them to the deer. Now I want some for myself! I did read about the Vitamin C or lemon juice but unfortunately right now I have neither! I have to pick them up so I can mow before it gets dark so I will just take any that look like they may have bugs and leave them in a bucket outside until I get a chance to cook them; I will just have to make time to cook tonight and then I can can tomorrow.
I am just glad to hear that I can use the ones with insect damage because I hate to see them go to waste.
Thanks again!

OK, having said not to be paranoid about bacteria, I have to add a caution. I know a little bit about apple trees, having lived with one outside my house for a few years (they were Cortlands) and also at one time in my life I was in charge of a fall festival at a nature center and we had a cider press and made cider. Plus I grew up in Michigan's apple country. I routinely made applesauce out of organic apple "drops" and it was no easy task because the apples were just full of brown spots and discolorations inside and out. Now these were old apple trees that got no husbandry whatsoever. But yes, good sauce in the end. But I actually washed, peeled, cored and cut them up individually, so I had a lot of control over the apple bits that got into the sauce.

But as I mentioned, I'm more of a "boutique" canner than a "git 'er done" canner. I also got to go to an orchard that donated apples for our cider pressing demo, and we were allowed to pick up the drops. We did not give out many samples of the cider though, we bought cider for samples. There is a problem with dropped apples, and that is due to contact with the ground there is a risk that they will be contaminated with E. coli. (Short for Escherichia coli, the species name). Not necessarily the deadly super-bug strain of E. coli found in meat, but the kind that can make you real sick like from contaminated water. There have been cases of people getting sick from unpasteurized apple cider, there was a case in my hometown from a local orchard.

The problem with the drops is that on the ground they can come into contact with animal feces, and if you have deer and raccoons and other animals foraging on those apples, you can bet that is possible. Now here's the part where others may want to chime in, because I know that acid and sugar in applesauce takes care of botulism, but I don't know about E. coli. I know that boiling for a certain time will kill the bacteria, I just don't know how the thickness variable plays out in applesauce as far as the boiling, because thickness will affect heat penetration. Since there are no specific cautions that I have found on these Cooperative Extension Web sites about applesauce and dropped apples, I would hazard a guess it is OK. It's not like you get some kind of guarantee that the apples you buy commercially have never touched the ground! I just know drops are not preferred for selling commercially, either as raw apples or for making cider. However, the longer the apples sit on the ground the more likely they are to get some kind of contamination. Maybe a good boiling will take care of that. I would call my Cooperative Extension Agency just to make sure, or maybe someone else can chime in here who has used drops. I peel and cut my apples because I can't afford organic ones and I know too much about what is on the peels to want it coming in contact much with my applesauce. Like I said, the method you are planning on using is fine, I just like chunkier, more "boutique" style applesauce since I give it away as gifts.

I have not heard of any cases of E. coli contamination in applesauce, so maybe I am just being overly fussy. I would use them myself, but just not with the method you suggest. But maybe others here have done so with no problems. Whatever the risk I think it is low, and it may be non-existent, so I would like to hear what others have to say.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that unpasteurized cider tastes yummy, yummy, yummy and I would not hesitate to drink it IF I knew where it came from and how good they were with the sanitation. There is no comparison between it and the pasteurized stuff, but as a result, it does not keep long either! One of the best fall treats, IMHO, and worth preserving local orchards for that reason alone. Sadly, my hometown was once ringed with orchards--all gone.

E coli is destroyed by cooking, so applesauce, juice and jelly made from those apple should be fine. Many cases of E coli are due to uncooked produce, such as spinach, green onions, etc. Unpasteurized cider is uncooked, and so E coli bacteria can be a danger there. I press cider yearly, but I don't use drops from anywhere except my garden apple trees, where I know the cattles, horses and deer don't have access. I also wash all the apples and fruit that goes into the press, unlike the orchards, who toss all the drops, bruised and rotted fruit, bugs and all, into the press. They used to sell that unpasteurized, although I'm assuming now the bugs are all killed from the heat. The cider makers said washing "destroys the natural yeast on the apples". Perhaps, but it destroys a lot of other things too, and limits the amount of other "stuff". I'm confident in my own produce, not so much with produce from other places.

Annie

Thanks @1PinkMountain; I was going to give the same response that Annie gave which is to say that the first good long boil that I give these to soften them up should pretty much kill anything that happened their way on to them. I am glad you brought it up so if in the future I decide to press cider I will remember to either pasteurize the recipe (Yuck) or make sure not to use drops and wash well. Raw milk is one of my favorite things in life so I am well read on pasteurization, the risks of lack thereof Et cetera. Like you said, as long as you know where it came from, how it was handled and packaged you then know all of your risks and can weigh your options.
The disapointment from tonight was that there were not nearly enough decent drops on the ground to make cooking tonight even worth while. There is a chance of rain all weekend but I plan on taking any chance I get to just grab enough apples right off the tree. I am going to gather a 5 gallon bucket worth and cook then can it; this way I will have a good reference of the yield this produces and from now on I will have a solid reference point of whether I just want to can a half a bucket worth or whatever. I am going to sweeten the recipe up a bit so does it really matter how ripe the apples are?? I don't even know what type they are except to compare them to a "granny smith" (sort of sour). Can I pick the smaller ones and still expect decent results since it is being sweetened anyhow?

Justin, if you pick a bucket of small ones, it's about equivalent to a bucket of larger ones, there's not that much extra peel, core, etc., especially if you have a food mill. A lot more work peeling, though, if you don't.

My issue with the Granny Smith type apple isn't the sweetness, you can add as much or as little sweetener as you like, but some apples don't cook down well, they stay firmer than others. That's why apples like MacIntosh make great sauce, but Granny Smith makes lovely pies. The Macs smush up to puree easily while the Grannies stay in neat slices.

Now, if you want chunky sauce, you might be in luck.

Annie

Thanks Annie, I just figured if I cooked them long enough I could pretty much get anything soft and mushy. Maybe I will try a long slow simmer or even the crock pot. Though I imagine you are talking from experience so I may not have much luck.
As far as Apple Pie, it's funny I love it to death, but I want mine made with....well almost like a chunky applesauce...maybe that is what I will wind up using this for?? I hate firm chunks of apples in my apple pie; I know that's unusual but I just like the filling.
I had a big disappointment and another set back last night when I realized that the single electric burner that we currently use (house is being renovated, long story) does not have nearly enough power to get my water bath to a good rolling boil. I did the calculations and it should have taken about 90 minutes or so. At two hours it was boiling, but only slightly and certainly not enough to make me feel comfortable with it. I am going to look for a small propane burner that I can use this week. By the time I am all set up I am going to have to wind up canning grocery store apples shipped in from 1,000 miles away!

I bought a butane burner so I could take my canning on the road and do demos. We use it all the time when we camp/travel, love it. I got it at a restaurant supply place.