Pressure Cooker or Pressure Canner?

I’ve never canned anything in my life, but I want to. So, in my research, I’ve found that there is a bit of a difference, and some confusion between a Pressure Cooker and Pressure Canner.

Many pressure cookers actually do exactly what a canner will do, but can also do several other things.

For instance, the Instant Pot IP-DUO60 7-in-1 Programmable Pressure Cooker can cut your cooking time in half or thirds! But, another great benefit is that the food nutrients aren’t lost like they often are in the usual cooking methods.

The Instant Pot has 7 functions. Lets take a look at them.

Crockpot: It can also take the place of your crockpot and cook foods in the same way

Rice Cooker: it can make perfect rice every time when you use it as a rice cooker.

Pressure Cooker: You get to use it for its basic function, which is as a pressure cooker. You can even make frozen vegetables in just a couple of minutes. And forget how long it takes to peel and make potatoes on the stove. With this pressure cooker, you can have potatoes ready to go from the pot to the table in fifteen minutes.

Some features about this pressure cooker that consumers really rave about are that the pot doesn’t rattle like some can. When steam builds up in some pressure cookers, it can make the lid rattle up and down.

You won’t have that problem with this one and it doesn’t have that annoying or dangerous steam leak. There won’t be a food odor and though the pot cooks the food rapidly, it doesn’t make the area surrounding it get hot like regular pots that perform the same function tend to do.

Yogurt Maker:

Saute foods: there are different control temperatures that you can use for when you want to sauté. You can choose to either simmer, brown or thicken foods. Since it has a stainless steel bottom, you don’t have to worry about foods sticking.

Food Warmer: if you want to keep food warm, you can use it for that function, too. It does have a timer that you can set for up to 24 hours if you need to set it to cook for a later time.

The cooker comes already programmed with 14 different settings to make cooking food quick and easy. You can make everything from side foods to appetizers to main dishes.

Since not all foods cook the same way – even in the same family of foods – the pot has 3 modes that you can adjust to suit the food preparation guidelines you have.

Presto 01781 23-Quart Pressure Canner and Cooker

So, the one drawback that I can see is that it has a rubber gasket and those can go bad. From what I’ve heard, they always go bad at some point. The reviews I’ve seen for a really good, long lasting canning cooker are the type where they are metal to metal.

This type probably rattle. The information about the 7 in 1 cooker above makes a big deal out of the rattle that some pressure cookers make, but all else is the same, I’d rather get one that I’m pretty sure I won’t need to replace parts on.

Another drawback for the 7 in 1 compared to the Presto 01781 23-Quart Pressure Canner and Cooker is that it’s electric, whereas the Presto product is the old fashioned type that you just put on your stove (or outside burners) and it work with no electricity needed.

This pot will also fit more jars or food inside it, but will also take up more storage space when you aren’t using it.

 

I’ll probably get the second pressure cooker just because of size and not needing to plug it in. I’d like to be able to large batch canning and then put it away, rather than having one more thing to set on my counter all the time.