Saturday, September 2, 2023

The Classic

 





12 comments:

  1. I have one I bought in the early seventies and had used a great deal. It is still working just fine.

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  2. American made. One of the best purchases I've made. Can several hundred pounds of food every year from my small garden.

    Can lots of other things too, like Beef Stew, soup base, etc.

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  3. Even actually made in America! Only negative comments on the site indicates that you have to be very precise and careful of seating the gasket and lid. Which seems obvious.

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  4. On this, I must differ. I don't like cooking in aluminum, and I don't like this style of pressure cooker. This one, the Hawkins, is stainless and has an oval-shaped lid that seats from the inside against the gasket all the way 'round, instead of at stress points that might deform: https://www.hawkinscookers.com/1.1.8.hawkinsSS.asp

    You can get them on Amazon, and they're heavy, very well made.

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    Replies
    1. The Hawkins looks great for cooking, but what about canning? The lip at the top and the rounded bottom corn look like it could impede getting the jars in, or restrict the number of jars. Is this an issue?

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    2. I haven't ever used mine for canning, but as long as the canning jars have an inch+ of clearance below the top rim, the lid will come on and off with no trouble at all. The rounded bottom shouldn't be any issue either, as canning jars have rounded bottoms too.

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  5. Was there ever a kid in the '40s or '50s who didn't grow up with horror stories of jammed relief valves and other inevitable pressure-cooker explosions?

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  6. Recommended by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

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  7. i remember in the early 60's a woman at church with a bad scar across her forehead. asked mom and she whispered "pressure cooker blew up on her". man i was scared of them things for a long time after that.

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  8. As near I can tell by looking at Amazon, the stainless steel Hawkins are unusable for canning. They have ones that are of a size to do canning, but they are aluminum. My All American canner is aluminum, but when I cook in it I put a large stainless steel bowl inside of it and put the food in the bowl so that the aluminum doesn't touch the food. Another solution for cooking is to use one of the electric pressure canner as some of them have stainless inner parts. I have two of those, you know one is none etc.
    Pressure canning safety requires precise pressures and a purpose built appliance is necessary. The problem with exploding pressure canners post WWII was primarily due to fly by night manufacturers making poor quality ones. Any manufactured today would not have such problems and all newer ones have a pressure relief valve of some sort to prevent dangerous levels of pressure.

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