I'm thinking I should just use the Fagor for cooking, and use the water bath for canning. Am I really missing out on alot by not canning with pressure? I don't think I would ever can a huge variety of items, although I do have a large garden. Most things I end up freezing. Then the odds are that no, you wouldn't be missing out on much. Pressure canning is in some ways a whole different world of canning and it doesn't appeal to all. IMO it expands the canning horizon 10 fold and I'd never want to be without it - waaay too limiting. ;) We do lots of meats, all sorts of beans, carrots, mixed vegetables, etc. that can't be done in a BWB and for us canned goods have a much longer shelf life then frozen, better flavor in many respects, never have to worry about lost electricity, or running out of freezer room. But that is just us. As Lizzy said above, never do it and get along just fine. PC is geared to vegetables (other than tomatoes), meats, and mixed low acid foods so if you elect to freeze all those things instead that's fine. Tomatoes aren't safer if done in a PC, just much faster to can. BWB tomatoes with the added acid is just fine. Just so you recognize that it is an either/or situation - you can't pressure can without the proper equipment. And as discussed above, while the Fagor may be great for cooking, it isn't an approved canner. So use it for cooking and keep on freezing and BWB acid foods OR invest in the 16 qt. Presto (cheaper anyway) and take up pressure canning. OK? Hope this helps. Dave

potterhead2: you should be fine with a little larger head space as long as you got a good seal. More head space means it can take longer to evacuate the air out and get a good seal. If there is more air you can also get discoloration on the top layer of the tomatoes. I grew up canning with my grandma. She would can everything. She only used boiling water bath (just from lack of knowledge back then). No one ever got sick even with low acid things like beans. Of course i know better (and dont advise what my grandma did) and i use my pressure canner on low acid foods and follow the recipe and advice of the books i have read. You just need to be aware of the proper techniques and respect the idea that canning can be dangerous if you don't follow those techniques. Keep reading and learning about canning. It is very safe if you take the time to learn more about it. Congrats on your first batch! Wait until winter when the fresh local produce is not available. It is awesome to pop open a can of your tomatoes in December and enjoy your labor.

Thanks again for the wealth of knowledge! The forum is so helpful! Our second batch (20 pints of creamed corn) went MUCH smoother. This time we removed the canner from the stove element and it seemed to cool quicker...maybe 20-30 minutes. I followed the instructions at the NCHFP website for cooling: " 9. After the canner is completely depressurized, remove the weight from the vent pipe or open the petcock. Wait 10 minutes; then unfasten the lid and remove it carefully. Lift the lid with the underside away from you so that the steam coming out of the canner does not burn your face. 10. Using a jar lifter, remove the jars one at a time, being careful not to tilt the jars. Carefully place them directly onto a towel or cake cooling rack, leaving at least one inch of space between the jars during cooling. Avoid placing the jars on a cold surface or in a cold draft." Maybe I missed waiting another 10 minutes between removing the canner lid then removing the jars? We had quite a canning day yesterday! We canned 20 pints of creamed corn, 5 quarts and 7 pints of peaches, and 4 half pints of peach butter (had to do something with those extra two pounds of peaches!). The height of the 23 qt presto made for easier HWB quart canning versus my granite ware HWB canner. I have two more questions... 1-when we canned our peaches, we followed the recipe in the ball blue book for peaches canned in syrup. We went with the hot pack method in heavy syrup (50/50 ration of sugar to water). Now that everything is processed, the peach slices have floated to the top of the jar. I know it'll taste the same but it doesn't look as pretty lol. Any recommendations? 2-when using the presto to pressure can, I've waited until the safety button pops up to start timing the ten minutes of continuous steam coming from the vent pipe. Typically there is a funnel shaped flow of continuous steam before the safety button pops up, but I guess I just want to be sure I'm expelling all the air. Is there any harm in doing it this way? Thank you everyone for your expertise! I'm so excited to be canning!

Yes. It isn't just a matter of pH, though corn is very low. Density is also an issue and corn is one of the most dense vegetables out there. This isn't a tested recipe and so there's no way of knowing for certain an appropriate processing time. I suppose you could just pick a really long time, like that for creamed corn or even fish but then the risk is significant loss of quality. You've already expended time, energy, lids on the frozen sauce. If you're not desperate for the freezer space, I'd leave it where it is. The money's already been spent. If freezer space is tight, I'd thaw the sauce, bag in freezer bags, lay to freeze flat and then stack. Carol