I already have one of those very large pressure canners that can process 14 quart jars at a time. Because it is really too big to use in my small full-time home kitchen, I took it to my other home where there is much more room to prepare food for canning and use a canner. But as I’ve been watching canning videos, it seemed to me that being able to put up small batches would be a great way to prevent waste in the kitchen. If it looks like I won’t be using up foods in my refrigerator before they spoil, then I can can them up to keep them longer.
As I was looking for a smaller canner to use in my full-time home, I came across the NESCO NPC-9 Smart Pressure Canner and Cooker. (This is the exact same electric canner that was made by Carey.) This seems to me to be the perfect solution for “small” batch processing. This canner can process up to 4 widemouth quart jars or 5 widemouth pint jars or 16 4-oz. jelly jars at a time. Manual pressure canning is a rather fussy and time-consuming process because you must “babysit” your manual pressure canner for the entire time of processing to make sure that the pressure is correct at all times. Investing all that time and attention into a small batch done up in a manual processing session isn’t very cost effective. While you probably still wouldn’t want to get too far from an electric pressure canner while it’s processing, it does not require the same level of attention that a manual pressure canner does. Since your small batch is automatically monitored, you can be doing other things while the batch processes. Now, it becomes much more cost effective to run the small batch.
The NESCO NPC-9 Smart Pressure Canner and Cooker comes with two pressure regulators: a black one for use below 1,000 feet altitude and a green one for use above 1,000 feet. It is not clear to me yet if there is an upper altitude limit for this canner. I have submitted a question about this. I will update this post when I get an answer. Another brand of electric canner has an upper limit of 2,000 feet, so this is an important question, especially since the home that inspired this blog is well above 2,000 feet.
With the ability to put up small batches easily, it is much easier to reduce food waste. Granted, if the power goes out and your whole freezer full of food thaws, you’ll still need a bigger canner to rescue it all; but to rescue smaller amounts of fresh foods that might otherwise go to waste, the small batch electric canner is perfect. Especially now, with the weather going wonky and harvests being less sure, it is becoming all that more important that food not go to waste.
Manual for the NESCO electric pressure cooker is here.
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