Gardengirl, I would seriously consider starting to pressure can your salsa.
Apple, aluminum is great to cook with. Especially to bake with

jal_ut wrote: Gas appliances are best for canning. I have done it with electric, but many electric ranges won't hold up under the strain. Both elements and switches often go out.
garden5 wrote:Also, does using a pressure caner drastically reduce to risk of botulism contamination.
Ours does also, but I found that the pot didn't sit quite centered on it. I bought one of those gas operated turkey fryers (I have never fried a turkey!applestar wrote:Yeah. Mine does that too. But DH's gas grill has a side burner....
We had one electric range that we had to replace the switches and heating elements yearly at the end of the canning season. They would just burn out with the demands of canning. I got so disgusted with it that I found a gas range and had it converted to propane so we could get something done. No natural gas where we lived at the time.garden5 wrote:jal_ut wrote: Gas appliances are best for canning. I have done it with electric, but many electric ranges won't hold up under the strain. Both elements and switches often go out.
What do you mean by this? Are you saying that the elements can't remain hot long enough to maintain temperature/pressure in the caner?
Thanks for going into detail, Jal. It looks like if I get into canning, I'll be going with one of Linday's electric models.jal_ut wrote:We had one electric range that we had to replace the switches and heating elements yearly at the end of the canning season. They would just burn out with the demands of canning. I got so disgusted with it that I found a gas range and had it converted to propane so we could get something done. No natural gas where we lived at the time.garden5 wrote:jal_ut wrote: Gas appliances are best for canning. I have done it with electric, but many electric ranges won't hold up under the strain. Both elements and switches often go out.
What do you mean by this? Are you saying that the elements can't remain hot long enough to maintain temperature/pressure in the caner?
Many sporting goods stores have nice[url=https://www.campchef.com/]propane gas camp stoves[/url] with either two or three burners. Some of my friends are using those to can on. They do it out on the patio so the house doesn't heat up. Fortunately we have natural gas where we are now and a gas range.
Did I mention I had a large family? We used to can over 1000 jars a year. We have two of the 19 pint AA canners and two of the 7 quart/9 pint canners. It was great to have two of the same size for when we were doing large amounts of something. It takes quite a while to run a batch through a cooker and with two we could get two batches done in a little over the time it would take to do one. We used the small kettles when canning in quarts and the large ones for pints. All except one kettle we found at the second hand store for pennies compared to store price on new.
Edit to add: If you read the data sent with electric ranges, you may find a paragraph that says home canning will void the warranty. The manufacturers know their product will not hold up under the strain.