# Should You Learn Multiple Food Preservation Techniques



## PrepperForums (Nov 21, 2014)

Should you learn (and use) more than one food preservation technique? Why? Why not?

Which techniques do you feel are most effective?


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## Targetshooter (Dec 4, 2015)

The way was raised , we freeze our food , canning . I have spent many hours on the porch with a pairing knife with bushels of tomatoes and a tub off boiled water , blanching them then pealing them . My Grandmother would have two very large pot on the stove , one with water , ones with the tomatoes cooking down to be put in mason jars for canning . She would make her own jelly , pickles " mmmmmm" , we even did corn , some on the cobb , some off the cobb . I have to say those times were very hard work for a 10 y/o starting out doing , but as I think of it today I am very happy I did get to help and learn how to do it . I could write a few hours on the way she did things to save food for us , but this is just a very few things I learned .


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

My interest in canning has surfaced again. Been a very long time since I and my mother did any canning.
Downloaded an 8 part USDA on canning to start studying. Looking buy the pressure canner around end of 
year. I'm hoping I can find something of a sale. I watch Goodwill auction site daily for preps.


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## Annie (Dec 5, 2015)

Learning multiple food preservation techniques is well worth it. I don't want to put all my chickens into one basket. I hope to learn all I can in this regard. “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” 
– Benjamin Franklin

Who knows what the future holds? Glass can beak if there's an earthquake, so there go my mason jars. Rodents can get into the 5 gallon buckets and mylar bags, so there goes that. 

I dehydrate fruits and vegetables. I can meat. In addition, I've used mylar bags for rice, grains and pasta. I've also canned oatmeal, beans and rice. Hubs cans vegetables. In most instances packaging ourselves saves us money. 

*So* Next I'd like to learn to make beef jerky for bugging out. Any help in how to dehydrate meat would be greatly appreciated.


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## Smitty901 (Nov 16, 2012)

Yes. canning has been away of life here passed down over generation. Root cellars, big here.


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## 8301 (Nov 29, 2014)

Canning, freezing, dehydrating either using electricity or sunshine, curing with smoke or salt, storing dry with oxygen absorber, changing ph to increase storage time, pickling, freeze drying (which is related to dehydrating)
I have the ability and some supplies to do all but the last, even if the power grid went down. Someday I hope to put a root cellar in the hill close to the house.


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## dwight55 (Nov 9, 2012)

I got my cellar, . . . we can meat, veggies, and some other stuff.

Also got two freezers pretty much full right now.

Also do a bit of drying, . . . but not as much as I would like to do.

Would love to try making venison jerky like our Native American ancestors did it. Probably not as tasty as some other I have made, . . . but like castor oil, . . . ya don't have to like it for it to be good for ya.

Canning meat in a pressure canner is probably the easiest lesson anyone can get. Cut all the big visible fat off the meat, . . . de-bone, . . . cut into thumb or forefinger sized pieces, . . . stuff into sanitized jars, . . . stop 1 inch from the top, . . . DO NOT ADD ANYTHING EXCEPT FOR TASTE 1/2 TEASPOON OF SALT PER PINT.

Put on the lids and rings, . . . into the pressure canner at 10/11 pounds for 75 minutes (pints) and 90 minutes (quarts). Once they are cool, . . . check the center of the lid for seal, . . . and you are done.

May God bless,
Dwight


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## Grinch2 (Sep 12, 2016)

My fiance absolutely adores my grandmother which is just fantastic for me, she loved my mother who passed this year, they were always swapping recipes and talking about various food preparations. My grandmother is tough as galvanized nails and then some, she grew up in the early 30's where you got every ounce from everything you either grew, raised or killed. She taught not only my father, but also myself and my fiance how to can, she's always canning. When I was a younger man ( about 13 ) my father got out this can of deer meat, he warmed it up for me and served it, I of course dug right in. After I finished he told me it was fifty years old, now this did disgust me to no end which is why even to this day I am weary of canned meats. But my grandmother has shown my fiance and me how do everything from smoking meats to preserve them to using a dehydrator even using salt. They pickle things together the whole 9 yards. 

But one thing I want to caution every beginning prepper ( or even a seasoned prepper ) who might be new to food preservation, understand what you are doing, instead of worrying about 16 different ways focus on one first, perfect it, understand it then move on. Don't try to take on every way imaginable at once, because like my ol man always says " Gotta learn how ta shoot fore ya can worry bout how ta gut em ". I know some locals around who might be one might say " careless " with their food preservation. A guy just here a few months ago tried to make deer jerky and he did not dehydrate it long enough and the inside was still pink, he got very sick from this. 

Wild game is something you should know a thing or two before tackling, if you're in the city and have only seen a deer when you go on vacation or something chances are good unless you work in a butcher shop or something along the lines of knowing the cuts, you're gonna mess up. One of my all time favorite meats is beaver, but if you're not careful with sanitation and cross contamination and all of that malarky it can screw you up really quick. With beavers for example after you skin them out if you spray them down you can easily get Ge-ardia or however you spell it dangerously easy, organs are even more of an item you have to be careful with. Typically you want to avoid scavengers at all costs, however you can still eat them you just have to use caution. 

As of now we don't use mylar bags and all of that, it's a good idea a fantastic one actually, but not in our immediate future. We can, pickle, salt, dehydrate and freeze. But a lot can be said about a good root cellar. But overall I find it highly irrational not to use different methods of preservation methods/techniques, walk before you run, learn to shoot before you worry about gutting. Get a decent understanding of one method before going to the next- your other group members will appreciate it when they're not puking their guts out all because you decided to speed through Canning 101. And as anything too if you don't know something; ask. Because a good person knows their limitations and will ask for help, this does not show weakness nor stupidity, it shows strength and intelligence.


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## Prepared One (Nov 5, 2014)

This is an area that I have only just begun to explore along with gardening. I do a lot of beans, rice, instant potatoes, etc. in Mylar and then buckets and have a stocked freezer for short term, but only recently got into canning and dehydrating. Still feeling my way along but picking up speed. Particularly this coming year. The wife is familiar with caning from when she was a kid so that will help. With sufficient stores for the short term I am looking more and more towards long term sustainability. Although living where I do I have limits on what I can grow. So caning, dehydrating, etc. can expand my options longer term. It's evolving and I am learning.


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## Sonya (Oct 20, 2016)

The only one I have learned so far is dehydrating. I love it, especially for vegetables. IMO canned vegetables are pretty darn awful, plus all of the C is cooked out of them whereas dehydrated is nearly the same as fresh. If I had to live off preps for months I could deal with canned meat, but having to eat canned vegetables too would be disgusting and far to "processed" for a daily diet.

Want to learn canning next, and did buy a small pressure cooker/canner for meats, but I can't imagine using it to can green beans and the like when dehydrating is so much better.

In my locale I don't think dehydrating would be feasible without power, other than short term jerky or whatever. The historic methods were salting, root cellars and then canning in more recent years.


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## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

PrepperForums said:


> Should you learn (and use) more than one food preservation technique? Why? Why not?


Yes, you should learn as many as feasible because knowledge is power. Know how/experience is the most valuable prepper item I possess... and I possess a lot of stuff.



PrepperForums said:


> Which techniques do you feel are most effective?


Whatever works for you in your environment, especially if there is no power and maybe society has failed. A lot is mentioned of root cellars, but in the deep south they aren't practical. Southerners have always pickled & smoked lots of food for preservation... not just because we love it but because those techniques worked in the old days in our climate. That is one reason I grow apple trees. Back in the old days, apples were grown all over the country & down here they were grown to a large extent to make vinegar... which is a great food preservative. So I have over 150 trees along with hand operated grinder & cider press. To me, apple trees provide a continuing supply of food, alcoholic beverage & vinegar. All valuable for survival.


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## 3rdWorld Prepper (Dec 9, 2016)

Good Post!


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## dwight55 (Nov 9, 2012)

Sonya said:


> The only one I have learned so far is dehydrating. I love it, especially for vegetables. IMO canned vegetables are pretty darn awful, plus all of the C is cooked out of them whereas dehydrated is nearly the same as fresh. If I had to live off preps for months I could deal with canned meat, but having to eat canned vegetables too would be disgusting and far to "processed" for a daily diet.
> 
> Want to learn canning next, and did buy a small pressure cooker/canner for meats, but I can't imagine using it to can green beans and the like when dehydrating is so much better.
> 
> In my locale I don't think dehydrating would be feasible without power, other than short term jerky or whatever. The historic methods were salting, root cellars and then canning in more recent years.


Don't get me wrong, . . . not judging you, Sonya, . . . but if you are talking about leather britches (strung up, dried green beans) vs. quart jars of properly canned white half runner beans, . . . well, . . . you'd starve in my family.

I cook white half runners or Ky wonder pole beans straight out of the garden, . . . or out of the quart jar, . . . and there is just almost no difference in the taste whatsoever. And the nutrition is still there, . . . believe me, . . . I grew up on the things.

Our "processing" is cleaning, . . . heating, . . . putting in the jars, . . . and cooking for I think 20 minutes in the pressure canner.

Uhhh, . . . is there something more you were thinking about?

AND, . . . we are talking about prepping here, . . . dehydrating with electric, . . . inside, . . . in an air conditioned kitchen, . . . it's OK, can be fun. Really tough to duplicate should the Stuff Hit The Fan. Trying to dry anything in the summer around central Ohio, . . . is a real task with bugs, flies, etc. all looking to chow down on anything untended, . . . or worse, . . . lay their eggs in your dehydrating food. NOT FOR ME. I dry apples out in the sun, . . . but that is the only thing I do.

OTOH, . . . I can build a fire in my backyard, . . . get out the old pressure canner, . . . can right out there just about as easy as on the stove in the kitchen, . . . and I will know for sure the food is safe to eat. Matter of fact, . . . my aunt used to can green beans in a water bath canner, . . . in the front yard, . . . it was a cast iron kettle, . . . held around 15 qts of beans, . . . put a galvanized sheet metal lid on it, . . . built a wood fire under and around it, . . . canned beans. Her 9 kids, me, my brothers, and all the other folks survived that ate em.

May God bless,
Dwight


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## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

Sonya said:


> In my locale I don't think dehydrating would be feasible without power, other than short term jerky or whatever. The historic methods were salting, root cellars and then canning in more recent years.


Sonya, I have an All American Sun Oven with dehydration kit. I personally have yet to use it, but seems like it should work just fine. I'm in the deep south too & in years past, they used to dehydrate apple slices on their metal roofs. The little kids would have the chore of placing the slices & turning them every so often.


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## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

******* said:


> Sonya, I have an All American Sun Oven with dehydration kit. I personally have yet to use it, but seems like it should work just fine. I'm in the deep south too & in years past, they used to dehydrate apple slices on their metal roofs. The little kids would have the chore of placing the slices & turning them every so often.


Looking forward your review of this product!


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## inceptor (Nov 19, 2012)

First I had to learn how to grow it. We have started canning. Next up is dehydration. One step at a time.


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## Inor (Mar 22, 2013)

Mrs Inor and I have been playing with food preservation for quite a while, even before we were into the whole self-sufficiency lifestyle. We decided to divide the tasks (and learning) between us. She does all of the canning (water bath and pressure) as well as most of the dehydrating. I do the smoking (hot and cold) and making jerky. We both work on the storage of dry goods. Incidentally, the master jerky maker (and the guy that taught me how to do it properly) is long-standing member here and a good friend in real life: Deebo.

Dee used to sell his jerky on-line, but I do not know if he is still doing that or not? If he is, BUY SOME! It is incredible! Otherwise, when he does a post on how to make it properly, print the post off and give it a shot. Just following his instructions step by step, I was able to get extremely good jerky the first time. I have done it many times now and I am still not as good as the original, but it is safe and damn tasty.


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## Montana Rancher (Mar 4, 2013)

Blah Blah Blah
If you think you want to put up some meat...

1. kill something (let us hope you get 15lbs of meat)

2. Go to Costco and buy "pork shoulders" which is mostly FAT

3. Mix your 15lbs of game with the other and you can make some really serious processed meat.

4. Buy a summer sausage recipe that does 25lbs of meat (hint Cabela's has a good one) 

5. Mix it up, put it in casings and cook it in your oven, it is way better than anything you have ever tried.

IMO a good summer sausage recipe doing 25lbs of meat for $20 is a good deal


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## Sonya (Oct 20, 2016)

dwight55 said:


> Don't get me wrong, . . . not judging you, Sonya, . . . but if you are talking about leather britches (strung up, dried green beans) vs. quart jars of properly canned white half runner beans, . . . well, . . . you'd starve in my family.
> 
> I cook white half runners or Ky wonder pole beans straight out of the garden, . . . or out of the quart jar, . . . and there is just almost no difference in the taste whatsoever. And the nutrition is still there, . . . believe me, . . . I grew up on the things.


True confession: I have never eaten home canned green beans.

I am from California and we never ate canned anything, it was seen as heresy when the markets were full of gorgeous fresh produce year round. When I moved South I realized Southerners liked their vegetables canned or generally just grey from being overcooked, so I assumed the green beans were the same way. Was also shocked at the often sad looking produce and limited selection at the grocery stores, though that has improved in the last 20 years.

Will consider canning some and see how they turn out.



******* said:


> Sonya, I have an All American Sun Oven with dehydration kit. I personally have yet to use it, but seems like it should work just fine. I'm in the deep south too & in years past, they used to dehydrate apple slices on their metal roofs. The little kids would have the chore of placing the slices & turning them every so often.


I worked on building a solar oven this summer. Sometimes it worked great, sometimes not. Though at the very least it would be good for prewarming items to save on cooking fuel (like rice or beans soaking in water). That and a haybox would likely save a lot of fuel for longer cooking foods.

Never tried dehydrating in it though I think the car may also be a good dehydrator even with high humidity. Just guessing since if I leave a couple of cigarettes in the car they are crispy dry within a couple of hours, so that may work for vegetables too and on a larger scale.


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## Camel923 (Aug 13, 2014)

Knowledge is power. The more options you have, the better your chance of storing and preserving food for when it is needed. I have been considering making a smoke house. Canning is something I was brought up with. dehydration is a good technique also.


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## Real Old Man (Aug 17, 2015)

We use an oriental method of pickling vegetables called making Kimchee. Requires water salt and hot spicy red peppers as basic ingridients.

A simple method that works with one or a lot of heads of cabbage Simple Kimchi: A Basic Recipe for Getting Started

in cold weather it will stay good for several weeks.

There are also instructions for turnip kimchi Radish Kimchi Recipe with Ginger and Red Pepper I know it says radish, but the korean ones are about 2 - 3 pounds in weight Korean radish (Mu) - Korean cooking ingredients - Maangchi.com


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## Inor (Mar 22, 2013)

******* said:


> Sonya, I have an All American Sun Oven with dehydration kit. I personally have yet to use it, but seems like it should work just fine. I'm in the deep south too & in years past, they used to dehydrate apple slices on their metal roofs. The little kids would have the chore of placing the slices & turning them every so often.


We have an older version fo the same oven from back when they were produced by a company called Solutions From Science. My wife likes it, I am not such a fan.









I bought it several years ago when we were still living in Minnesota. We tried it a few times and it sort of worked. Mrs Inor made baked beans in it and they were cooked, but they were still pretty hard. She made bread in it once and that was a complete disaster. The bread did cook, but it came out the same color as the raw dough. She tried it again, basting the bread with butter and that came out just looking like raw bread dough with burnt butter on it. So, all in all, I have been pretty disappointed with it.

When we moved to Arizona last August, I figured I would try it again thinking maybe Minnesota is just not the right environment to expect a solar oven to work. This time, I just tried to boil water with it. I dutifully went out about every 30 minutes and adjusted it to be pointed directly at the sun. After about 4 hours, the water still had not boiled. My conclusion is that if the damn thing cannot even boil water in the heat of August, in the middle of the south Arizona desert at about 4000 feet, what good is it?

That being said, my wife does like it and maybe I am just using it wrong, but...


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## Annie (Dec 5, 2015)

Be it dehydrating canning or pressure cooking, I think almost anything we preserve ourselves is cheaper than buying off the shelf. Except the things we can from the garden. For us here that may not be cheaper, but I feel learning to grow food from scratch is worth it the extra time, money and sweat in the long run.

I'm really wanting to look into bottling my own bbq sauce and other sauces. Those plastic bottles from the supermarket don't last that long in the pantry. Stuff ends up tasting like plastic if you leave it too long.


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## Sonya (Oct 20, 2016)

Inor said:


> *We tried it a few times and it sort of worked. Mrs Inor made baked beans in it and they were cooked, but they were still pretty hard. * She made bread in it once and that was a complete disaster. The bread did cook, but it came out the same color as the raw dough. She tried it again, basting the bread with butter and that came out just looking like raw bread dough with burnt butter on it. So, all in all, I have been pretty disappointed with it.


Not a good idea to cook raw beans in a sun oven unless it got well above boiling. Sun ovens or slow cookers that don't reach a boiling point don't destroy the toxin in beans, and some varieties like red kidney beans will make you violently sick even if the beans are soft and appear cooked through.

I agree they are not easy to use. they would be fine for heating up foods, but actual baking and such is another matter. I did do baked potatoes once, and hard boiled eggs, but the timing was always tricky. Either the food isn't done or it is dried out.


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## Inor (Mar 22, 2013)

Sonya said:


> Not a good idea to cook raw beans in a sun oven unless it got well above boiling. Sun ovens or slow cookers that don't reach a boiling point don't destroy the toxin in beans, and some varieties like red kidney beans will make you violently sick even if the beans are soft and appear cooked through.
> 
> I agree they are not easy to use. they would be fine for heating up foods, but actual baking and such is another matter. I did do baked potatoes once, and hard boiled eggs, but the timing was always tricky. Either the food isn't done or it is dried out.


I honestly do not know if the beans were raw when she cooked them or if they were partially cooked already. All I know is they were not very good after sitting in the solar oven almost all day. :tango_face_grin:

The absolute best prepper food tool I own was not even purchased as a "prepper" tool. I bought it simply as a luxury item and quickly realized that it would be worth its considerable weight in gold if SHTF.

It is a ceramic BBQ grill. I bought the Big Green Egg brand but there are others that I think will work equally well at a MUCH cheaper price. Just a couple of points about it that I think make it a great addition to your preps if you plan to stay in one place:

1 - As a grill it works better than anything I have ever used (and I have used a bunch of different styles).

2 - I bought the "plate setter" for it so I could do indirect, low and slow smoking sessions. But then I realized with indirect heat, you can also bake with it! If you have not had pizza made on a ceramic grill, you have not had pizza.

3 - It allows for extremely tight control of the temperature. With the standard vent system that comes with it, I can control the temp of a charcoal fire within about 10 degrees of what I want it to be. This fall, I built a Heater Meter for it HeaterMeter BBQ Controller Official Store and that lets me control the temp within 1-2 degrees of my target temp. The Heater Meter fan, however, does not have enough airflow to get the temps much higher than 425 or 450. So when I grill steaks and I want the temps at around 650-700 I just slide the Heater Meter fan out of the way.

4 - It is EXTREMELY efficient with using charcoal. Filling it with charcoal, I can do about 20 hours of burn at 250 degrees. When cooking chops and steaks at 700 degrees, I can usually get about 4 meals per filling of charcoal. With my old Texas style grill/smoker I was going through about 250 pounds of Kingsford per year. Now I can only use lump charcoal, but I burn less than 100 pounds per year and we grill A LOT.

As I mentioned, I bought the Big Green Egg brand and I am very happy with it. It does everything it is advertised to do and it does work as well as it is advertised to work. BUT, it was crazy expensive. It is bad enough the "large" size was about $800 for the grill. But that does not come with anything but the grill. If you want to have legs for it, that is an additional charge. If you want the plate setter for indirect cooking, additional charge. It is the only cooking thing we have ever bought that did not come with a cookbook - yep, you guessed it, another $50 gets you the cookbook. All told, I have about $1500 in the thing.

After I bought it, I discovered there are some other brands that are in the same league without such a price tag. But as I said, I originally bought it just as a luxury item anyway; the prepping value was a very nice added bonus.


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## Sonya (Oct 20, 2016)

Inor said:


> The absolute best prepper food tool I own was not even purchased as a "prepper" tool. I bought it simply as a luxury item and quickly realized that it would be worth its considerable weight in gold if SHTF.
> 
> It is a ceramic BBQ grill. I bought the Big Green Egg brand but there are others that I think will work equally well at a MUCH cheaper price.


Wow, just looked that up and I am amazed! Didn't know a charcoal grill could bake bread!

Guess the generic term is a Kamado Grill, and yes the Big Green Egg ones are pricey, their basic model starts at $900 on amazon.

But it looks like Akorn makes similar models starting as low as $150 and they claim to hold the temp for 12 hours which is impressive. I have never been into grilling but it does seem like a very good prep if it can bake and do other things, especially since charcoal is cheap and stores so easily.


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## preponadime (Jun 15, 2016)

We use many different methods my wife cans fruits, vegetables, and meat we have home built solar dehydrator that works great we also have a smokehouse. We vacuum pack dehydrated fruits and vegetables and jerky made in the smokehouse. Dry storage in mylar bags and buckets there are also premade meals vacuum sealed or in mason jars. We also have a couple propane freezers that are full even if we lose power the freezers keep working.


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## Medic33 (Mar 29, 2015)

here is the short answer -----------------------YES.


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## OrneryOldBat (Feb 10, 2017)

Late to the party, but a topic I love.

I grew up with a huge garden, fruit trees and chickens. We preserved everything. I learned to can, make preserves and pickles, dehydrate, etc from my mom and gran. There were 10 of us, so we went through a lot of food. I mucked a lot of stalls and turned a lot of earth too. It taught me to appreciate the real value of food and respect for farmers and ranchers.

These days, I small batch can - water and pressure, dehydrate fruit mostly, jerk meat, make scrapple. I'm experimenting with sauerkraut with mixed results. I learned camp cooking as a kid, but for some reason we never used dutch ovens. I've got my gran's cleaned up and seasoned and that's my Spring camping project.

BTW - If you're in the market for a pressure canner, I highly recommend All-American Pressure Cooker/Canners. I have the 25-quart. I can a lot in pints and it will do 14 in a two layer batch. It's heavy aluminum, made in America... and NO gasket to wear out. It has a gauge and weights. Bonus, it can be used as an autoclave. I bet you guessed that I love mine.


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## BellaCassels (Feb 16, 2017)

For sure, you oughtta know multiple techniques. Can't hurt to have a backup plan right?


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