GeorgiaZ said:

Michigan should be far enough away from me to use one. Those things scare the bejeebers out of me. My mom use to use one all the time when I was little. Only blew up once, with carrots in it.

LMAO – oh shoot!  I'm sorry – I feel the same way!

Pete said:

Haven't seen one in a very long time like the one I used to have.  It had a rocker over the vent opening in the lid.  You knew what it was doing by the sound and speed of that rocker.  You could hear it all over the house, so you didn't forget to go turn the fire down when it needed to be done.

Tried using the other kind, but we didn't get along.  Never figured out how to make it work properly.

That's the kind I had Pete.  I did some canning – but never felt good about it…aways lived far away from family (which probably saved our marriage) and never got the true tutoring – except by phone – and then all I got were the horror stories!  It just felt safer to buy it done!  If I were starting out – and gardened, I would use one now.  

There is a difference between what is usually referred to as a pressure cooker, and a pressure canner used to can food. A pressure cooker cooks your dinner, a pressure canner cans your food. If you want a pot to cook dinner in – a pressure cooker does a great job with meats. They take less time to cook meat and the meat is really moist. A 5-6 quart pressure cooker would be fine for that use. A pressure cooker is not designed for canning jars. A pressure cooker is vented by a heavy weighted rocker that will wiggle enough to release a tiny bit of the steam built up in the canner while still maintaining the pressure. The pressure cooker I have, a fairly new Presto model, is not equiped with a dial to show the amount of pressure.

A pressure canner is designed to be used for canning. You could use a pressure canner to cook food for the table I suppose, but you would need a HUGE cut of meat to justify cooking it in a 23 qt. pot. A 23 qt. pressure canner will allow you to can at least 7 quart canning jars at one time. It comes with a plate you use in the bottom of the canner to raise the jars slightly off the bottom of the pan. You need to have the water free to flow around all sides, top and bottom of the jars. The pressure canner does have a dial showing the precise amount of pressure. Recipes for safe canning specify the amount of pressure for a certain amount of time which depends on what you are canning.

Pressure cookers and canners are very safe. The entire lid will not come flying off. The top is held closed by turning the lid so the top and bottom are interlocked. No way is the canner going to break the metal lid. The safety valve is a small rubber stopper in the top of the pan. If you totally zone out and forget the canner is on the stove (which I don't recommend – I take a book and sit down near the stove so I can glance over to see that the pressure is being maintained at the correct level) the plug will blow out with a huge pop, and all the liquid in the pan will immediately spew out like a geyser. That releases the pressure and lowers the heat in the canner. The reason a canner works is that heat under pressure is hotter than boiling. Water boils at 212 degrees. Canners can reach 230+ which is a temperature needed to kill any organisms that might cause your canned things to spoil in the jar.

Just a guess, but I think more people today use pressure canners and can vegetables than use pressure cookers to cook dinner. In the 50's/60's everyone had a pressure canner. I don't see recipes using the pressure cooker, and I'm guessing a whole generation has never seen a pressure cooker in action.

Just wait. When you really get into canning those garden vegetables this summer you will want more than one! That way you can watch two pots at the same time and double your production.