I just purchased the All American 941. My plan is to pressure can in an outbuilding. My questions is, can I water bath in it too without the lid? Also I read that you really shouldn’t use it on a home cook top, as it could damage your counter tops. I have a larger gas cooktop in my house, I will share a picture in this post. Would it be ok to water bath can on it?
by kyhop44
4 Comments
I use my 921 for waterbath canning as well as pressure canning. All you need for WB canning is a big pot with a lid, and both the 921 and 941 certainly qualify.
I set the lid slightly ajar if WB canning, so no pressure can build up. And leave the pressure weight off too (the “jiggler” weight).
I have personally broken a glass-top cooktop by unthinkingly dragging a canning pot over the hot glass cooktop. The glass shattered in a round circle right over the hot burner. That was exciting. I disliked the glass-topped cooktop anyway (it was installed by the previous home owners), so I took that as a good excuse to upgrade to a gas cooktop.
If you know you can LIFT a heavy water-filled pot up and then gently sit it down, maybe that would be okay to do if you have a glass-top cooktop, but I don’t trust myself to 100% be able to do that. I think your plan to use the gas stove is a good idea.
To be safe, please consult your manufacturers guide for your stovetop regarding weight on your burners.
Here’s the thing though… you can’t stack jars for WB like you can for pressure canning so … 1” or 2” over quart jars… it’s not THAT deep, you know? You’d have a heavier pot doing enough water for 2lb of pasta.
I have a decades-old gas powered DCS with large cast iron grates like you have. It is not uncommon for me to run XXXL stock pots for days at a time in winter. No problems.
Note that your 941 weighs 40 lbs *empty*. As others have said, you can certainly use it for water bath canning, but you’ll probably need some way of scooping the water out when you are done with it. I would not recommend trying to carry it when full of water. I bought a gas stove to replace my broken coil element stove due to concerns about the weight of my AA canner on a glass top.
Speaking on using canners on home cooktops, I can say I really regret using them on my electric coil burners. They became bent and warped, which forced me to replace them all. Not to mention the inherent danger they presented by becoming an unstable platform to hold a figurative bomb. Electric canner was the best resolution for me.
The presumably cast iron supports on your unit seem like they would be sturdy enough. I’ve used similar units in professional kitchens with huge pots of liquid with no issue. That being said, refer to the manufacturer recommendations.