How Full Should My Canner Be When I’m Canning?

One of the main questions that I get About canning is how much water you Should put inside your canner So today We're going to be looking at that for Both water bath canners and poor Pressure canners [Music] The water level inside your canner is Actually really important when it comes To the different types of canning So Today we're going to be talking about Water bath canners and pressure canners Because the water level inside them is Different and you need to know that Difference in order to be able to safely Can the foods you're looking to can so Let's start talking about water bath Canning when your water bath canning you Want your jars of food that are being Processed in the canner to be completely Submerged under water with about one to Two inches of water over the top of the Jars during the entire processing time That means it's best to start with your Canner your empty canner and fill it to About halfway filled with water it Doesn't have to be exact just about as Fine then when you get your jars into The canner you're filled and lidded jars The jars are going to displace some Amount of water And push that water level up it should Be about right when you get all of your Jars in there but you need to check it

Before you start your processing time And make sure that your jars are Completely submerged now when I say one To two inches that's kind of a big Variable When you are canning something that has A short canning time let's say about 20 Minutes of processing time 10 minutes of Processing time you only need about an Inch of water over the top of those jars In order to make sure as you're dealing With evaporation you know you don't end Up with bare Lids that are no longer Submerged however if you're canning Something that has a longer processing Time you're going to want to go to about Two inches of water over the top of your Lids to account for that evaporation so That by the end of the processing time You still have water completely covering Your jars if you get all your jars into The canner and you find that you don't Have them submerged by one to two inches Of water then it's okay to just add some Warm water or preferably boiling water Right into the canner at that point try Not to pour them right on the top of the Lids but rather just off to the side Offset a little bit so that you're not Overheating the lids too quickly and Causing any sort of funny temperature Damage to your jars there's all changes When we switch over here and we talk About a pressure canner so how much

Water should you have in a pressure Canner now unlike in water bath canning When you're working with a pressure Canner you do not want the necks or the Lids of your jars fully submerged by Water So you want to start with less water in Your canner most canners will say Something like two to three inches but The idea is don't fill it up too much Now if you have a really long processing Time something like 90 minutes for meat Then you'll want to aim towards that Three inches of water in your canner Before you put your jars in once you put Your jars into that canner again the Jars are going to displace that water And that water level is going to rise as Long as the necks and the lids of your Jars are sticking out of the top of the Water then you're golden and you're good To go now a lot of people wonder how Does this change if I'm dealing with Different sizes of canners well it Doesn't if you have a larger canner a Larger pressure canner let's say you Have an All-American 941 and it holds 19 Quart jars that's a big canner it is Okay For you to still work with two to three Inches of water at the bottom even if You are double stacking your jars it's All right for your jars to be completely Exposed to air all the way around in a

Pressure canner Once you get all your jars into the Canner if you find that you have too Much liquid in there and it's starting To creep up towards the necks or even Towards the lids it's okay to remove Some of the water in order to adjust it For more answers to frequently Asked Canning questions check out this video