Canning on a 1977 ge sensitemp

[63kenmore]

About a year ago I bought a 1977 GE range that has a Sensi-temp burner. I am trying to use my canner on it and it is taking forever to get to full pressure. I bought the stove specifically to do canning in my basement. Does anyone have experience canning on this burner. I would use the other large burner, but it sits too close to the controls. Any help is greatly appreciated

 

[combo52]

Canning on a sensor controlled element

Hi, what kind of canner are you using?

It Has to be completely flat and not warp when heated the typical canner made of blue porcelain will not work with the ribbed bottoms.

I have used my pressure canners a lot on my sense a temp GE cooktop from 1965 but I don’t even own a water bath canner don’t do that type of canning much safer to do a pressure canner anyway.

John.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Make sure the base of the cooker is flat. Turn the temperature dial all the way up to 500 until the control jiggles--this is after any venting that the manufacturer suggests. Presto is big on that; Mirro not so much. Anyway, after your control jiggles or the needle on the gauge moves above 5# begin turning down the setting close to 240 which is the setting you will use to maintain 10# of pressure for canning non-acid foods. 225 is the setting to use to maintain 5# of pressure.

 

[63kenmore]

Canning on the sensitemp burner

Thanks TomTurbomatic,
You answered my question. I am using an All American canner 930, a double stack that I had only used once so the bottom is perfectly flat. They are built like a MAC truck and you have to really do something seriously bad to warp them. The problem was that I was afraid to turn the temp up that high as the book that came with the stove said to put it on high to begin with then adjust down for canning. This is standard for using a pressure canner anyway, but it wasn’t high enough to build enough pressure in the beginning. I did turn it to 400; I was afraid to go any higher as I’m that familiar with this stove, and it really helped get it going. As soon as the pressure gauge started moving I turned it back to high. After the first batch was finished, it seemed like the other 2 batches came quickly up to speed. I’m thinking that was because the canner itself was still quite warm after it was emptied and re-loaded with another batch of jars.
Thanks again for your help.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Glad your results have improved. You will have better results using the thermostatic part of the control for canning. The boil range of the control is meant for moderate amounts of food and will cycle sooner slowing your results in building up pressure in a canner. Also, during processing, as the food in the jars heats up and absorbs less heat, the thermostatic control will compensate for that and hold the temperature steady without user adjustment.

 

[combo52]

Canning on a GE senseatemp element

You can use either the temperature range or the boil range on the control high boil and the high temperature about 400° are the same you’ll notice they’re right next to each other.

When canning you’re going to have to make some adjustments as Tom mentioned, starting off at 400° and then tapering back the same is true on the boil range and it’s actually easier to use the boil range because it’s so much finer adjustment between simmer in high boil, I always use the boil range when I use a pressure canner on my GE cooktop with the senseatemp burner

John