"Pressure canners come deep enough for one layer of quart or smaller size jars, or deep enough for two layers of pint or smaller size jars. The USDA recommends that a canner be large enough to hold at least 4 quart jars to be considered a pressure canner for its published processes. " If you go to the Presto site, nowdays you will see they only list the larger size as canners. They have 18 quart and 23 quart. Anything smaller is under cookers. http://www.gopresto.com/products/products_search.php?search_value=58&operation=Search&search_type=category Here is a link that might be useful: National Center for Home Food Preservation

I'm probably not the best one to respond, as I have only used a 6 quart Presto (stainless) and I like it so well that I have not looked into the more modern versions from Europe. This Presto was my Mother's (died in 1987) and she had it for years. Since there are just 2 of us, and you can't fill it more than 2/3 full, it is a great size. While more a cooking technique than anything to do with the cooker, I love Miss Vickie's suggestion of the "PIP" cooking of smaller amounts of food and particularly rice and beans. Her cookbook is also great. It has the best scalloped potato recipe in it done in 5 or 10 minutes. Don't know if you are familiar with PIP, but it is just a strip of foil in the bottom of the cooker with a stainless steel bowl over that. Depending on what you are cooking, you may cover it with foil. Miss Vickie has all cooking times in her cookbook and on her website. For the two of us, a cup of rice or beans will be done in minutes. You lift the stainless bowl out with the strip of foil and it is ready to serve or fluff (rice). For small quantities of food, it also means that the bottom won't burn (if I bought a new one, it would have a thicker bottom than my old 6 quart Presto)and I don't even have the pot to wash (well, maybe just a little). My wife likes her rice done in the PIP method better than any other way. Well, that is my 2 cents worth. I think others will provide you info on more modern alternatives. Jim in So. Calif.

You can cook in a pressure canner. Many of the bigger ones are made of aluminum, though, which is reactive, and you might not want to cook a highly acidic recipe in it. If you think you might be doing pressure canning a lot, you might want to consider WAFCO's All American line. They are built like a tank and will outlast you--your great grandkids will fight over it. Sorta pricey, though, but absolutely top quality. I had the 921, and gave it to a relative and bought the 930. The 921 was fine, but it could only process 7 quart jars at once; the 930 can process 14 quart jars at once, so it nearly doubled my efficiency. They are available at different internet outlets, with some (but not much) discounting. Here is a link that might be useful: wafco all american canners

Now see! That was the answer I was looking for!!! Yes, the pipe cleaner will clean a little, but I wanted something better as I use my PC almost weekly and felt I needed to get that crud off the inside of the vent. I even visualized a mascara wand but didn't know if I could clean an old one sufficiently to use it on the PC vent or where I could buy a new one. Rats! Just tried a cleaned discarded mascara wand (who knew the brush was white plastic?) and it is too wide to fit down in the vent. Worth a try, though. Now I'm going to go look at my sewing machine tools. Thank you, morz8!