bearisgray

They are the weights - 5, 10, and 15 are the options.

Sleepy Hollow

That's awesome, I love the weights. I'd check your elevation on the pdf I linked to earlier, and go with that time and weight. (I was told in class that if your recommended psi is 11 to 15, you need to go with the 15 weight).

Macybaby

i put clipped washers on my weights to get them to hold and around 12.5 lbs. I am around 1300 feet above sea level, so need a bit more than 10 lbs, but way less than 15lbs pressure.

As long as your cooker/canner is larger than 10 quarts, you can use it. Smaller ones will heat up/cool down too fast for the tested recipes.

I've found I do canning every other year, as it's only DH and I. I have a cooktop in the same building the LA is in, so I can keep an eye on the pressure canners while I'm quilting. There is a big exhaust fan over the cooktop to deal with the steam. I have an induction cooktop in the house, and I've not found a stainless pressure canner over 10 quart size, which only hold 4 quart size jars at a time. I have four larger aluminum canners for doing bulk work.

feline fanatic

I don't pressure can tomatoes. I do water bath canning with my tomatoes.

bearisgray

My first two batches were near disasters.

The rubber gaskets were not sealing - Next year I will run a couple of water only in the jars runs to get the gaskets to "work" properly.

The next five 7 batches were okay with proper pressure build-up.

SusieQOH

I used to can tomatoes but in a water bath. Now we usually freeze them if we have enough, which is rare b/c woodchucks eat everything we try to grow!

recycler

i use the water bath method also, but always add lemon juice to each jar. I've never had a problem. Luckily, I still have plenty in the pantry from last year, so had a reprieve this year!

calla

Snooze, gee you do everything...........beautiful flowers and sew as well as can too.......calla/Sue

bearisgray

I have decided that 20 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure after the steam vents for 10 minutes is adequate processing.

I just took the 90th jar out of the canner this evening.