I have a couple of old National Canners, gasket less....they have served me very well though they are probably 40-50 years old. I am thinking about buying an All American but am not sure what size I want to get. I'm thinking either the 30 quart or the 41 quart. My question is, will the 41 quart be too big and unwieldy? I like the smaller 30's I have now, they are a good size to store, to move around, to fill etc......I'm just worried the 41 would be too much. Now, since I have the two other 30's, getting a much larger one has some appeal.....sometimes you really need to "make meat" as grandpa used to say and the capacity would be a real help....

Any thoughts?

A couple things come to mind:

1) Weight of the canner+water+full cans on the range. Could be 70lbs with a double decker.

2) Size of the canner etc on the range- need room and other burners to prep the food.

3) The process of canning. I have a 921 (7 quart) and need the other burners to prepare those 7 quarts of chili, or stew, or whatever (anything hot packed). A second range would almost be necessary to prep the meat that will fit into the double deckers.

A single 921 keeps me pretty busy, some of the recipes call for browning the meat first (1 burner), adding it to a chili recipe (no beans ) (2nd burner), and the lids in warm water (3rd burner). Canner is on the fourth.

Do you have help lol?

I have help AND I have a canning kitchen with several independent burners- each with their own counter/prep space. Since we are in Texas and much of canning takes place in the summer, I don't can on the kitchen stove all that much!  It just works better for us to have a canning kitchen that's dedicated to the task.

Yea, I was thinking it was probably too much weight/size though and will stick with the 30 qt model most likely......

We use the 921.  It's just right for us, not sure we could fit anything bigger.  No room left on our normal size canning stove...

We have a 921 and rarely use it.

We need to get off our ass and start canning more.

My opinion on the monster sized canners is that if you needed it you would have ordered it.



If you are not feeling held back by what you have, I would stick to what you have.



I see them as being good for the amish or big family farm setups where lots of people get together and do a whole lot of canning for a whole lot of people.



But I just dabbled in canning enough to try it out and learn it a bit and have not messed with it due to laziness and lack of time.  Mostly laziness.

Well, right now I just run TWO canners at once. So, in theory I could USE IT, now whether that is the same as "needing it" is another matter........

I guess I see it as either you are held back a little or held back a lot.



Perhaps the big one could do what both the small ones do?



So just get one out instead of 2?



The way I do things I would go for the little one.



If it worked out there would be a flow to things and 3 similar flows would work better than a big one with its own dang river messing up the flow of my little creeks.



But like I said I am not actively canning and have never been on such a scale to seriously consider this.

I have a 915 and a 921.  

Actually in some ways I can see running 2 canners can be smoother than running one giant batch.  I can see you loading one and getting it going and then going and continuing to pack jars and loading them into the 2nd canner.   The smoothness of the operation probably depends on the process time needed.  


Just thinking out load.  I haven't processed too much meat.  Frankly canning venison with all that salt is less desirable than freezing it.  Better flavor and retained texture in my opinion.  Ground venison wouldn't be so bad but the canned stew chunks were off in texture in my book.   I tried it and didn't enjoy it in stews, sauces, etc.  Canned chili might just work though.


ETA-  In an ideal world canning would be done in an outdoor kitchen.  Up here we tend to can in the garden harvest season; July, August and even September.   Pretty brutal in July and August.   I have got a new garage structure up (mostly).  I think canning this year might be in there if I buy a 3 or 4 burner camp "stove", the tall ones on legs that run off a propane tank.   I can't get enough breeze through my kitchen to make it comfortable inside.

That's how I do it. I have one of those "bug tents", several large plastic tables, a wash basin rigged to a hose and a couple of the large burners with a "gas tree" connected to a 100 gallon propane tank. Set it up under the shade of a large tree....I've refined it over 10 years and it's pretty efficient now.