Pressure canning and a glass cooktop stove

I had to make this post as it is very relevant to what people are doing these days. I had responded to a post on another forum about glass cooktop stoves and pressure canning. After I had finished my post reply, I thought it was so important that I share my experience the other day, that I thought I had best place it here too. This may help many people out, or may not, but here is what I wrote, just another life experience that only comes from being in that school of hard knocks. And really....not sure when I will ever graduate

Oh man, oh man, I can totally relate to this and I am going to recount my experience, which was horrible, just the day before yesterday. It is important, so please listen up. Experience for sure.

I have always pressure canned a lot of stuff, I also water bath a whole lotta stuff too, but that be tomatoes and fruits only.....stuff like that. In mason jars of course I speak.

I have not had the luxury of using my pressure canner for a couple of years now. Just too busy with stuff in our new life, having only lived where we live for that length of time. We live on a farm of our Daughter's, in a separate residence. We live in a very nice trailer and are farmhands, smiling. The Daughter and her Husband live in the house. She has a glass cooktop stove, I have a gas stove. I have a typical hood over my stove, which is fairly close to the cooking area, well, not that close, but to have more freedom of movement with the moving of jars out of the pressure canner, I thought I would perform the pressure canning of my vegetable stock from my squash guts on her stove.

I have a Mirro 22 quart pressure canner. It is quite tall. It has the removable parts for governing the pressure, by putting on or off the pieces of metal.

The other day I had made 10 gallons of vegetable broth, beautiful vegetable broth and wanted to pressure can it, so I don't have to freeze the product. In the past I have frozen it in the mason jars here, but wanted to free up the freezer space for meat, lots of cockerels coming to my freezer, smiling.

Got the jars of liquid ready, into the water, the lid on, the heat began. I waited about an hour or more for the canner to pressurize enough to begin the steam to come out of the top vent. This needs to vent for about 10 minutes before the apparatus can be put on top to begin the processing time. I waited and waited and waited, just never got there. It was like this "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can". Never got hot enough to vent. Grrrrr....phoned my Sister who always pressure cans everything and she told me to check the vent to see if it was clogged. I know it was not clogged cause I always look through the vent each time before I even put the lid on. Nope.....it is not clogged I told her.

She then asked me if I was using a glass cooktop stove....yep I am was my response. I could hear her snicker in the phone. She went on to tell me that she had heard that sometimes, I guess depending on the model of glass cooktop stove, that the elements, (are they elements) just don't get hot enough. Grrrrrrr.....you mean I have spent this horrendous amount of time waiting for something that will never occur. Guess so. Blah.....and grrr again. I had so many other things to do. So, off to the rescue, a typical man thing, wanting to "fix" things for women, my Son in Law said he would go out to the horse trailer (they use this when they travel to shows when they are eventing with horses) and got his single propane run burner. He said, hey, this will really get hot enough for you.....let's try. So grateful for the men in my life, they are always fixing things for us gals, smiling. Men. Gotta love them, they are just the best of the best.

Anyways, off he goes and back he comes with the burner. He fires it up, puts the pressure canner on the burner for me.

Guess what!!!! In about 2 minutes, and I am not kidding, that steam started blowing out the vent as fast as the days are now becoming short. Blowing so hard and such a beautiful sight in my eyes....Yes....the stove just could not get quite hot enough to force the heat within to blow out the steam. Vented the unit for 10 minutes, put on the 10 pound top apparatus (what the devil is that called anyways, can't bring it to mind), and processed the vegetable stock for 25 minutes. Heat off, pressure decreased and, lo and behold, that beautiful broth, preserved for as long as I want it. On a shelf in a cool room.

I honestly will never buy a glass cooktop stove. Natural gas and electric stoves have served me perfectly throughout my entire life. This closed that door to never have a glass cooktop stove for surely. Thank goodness for Sisters, she knew exactly what the problem was....

So I guess that some glass cooktop stoves might be good for pressure canning. But I surely know that the one on our farm is not. Just a simple answer that seemed such a long bit of information to put across, smiling that big smile. Good luck with all the canning that is going on with us canners. And have a most awesome day, CynthiaM.

CynthiaM, I could KISS you! I used to sell appliances and there is nothing that made me feel worse than selling a glass top to some woman who would be stuck with the filthy thing for the next 20 years, or until she smashed a brick through the stinking, STUPID glass top.

I HATE THOSE MISERABLE THINGS WITH A PASSION! I own one now and will never, ever own one again!

First thing I told people, you cannot can on a glass top, so forget it! Nor can you reliably prepare things that need low, long, gentle heat. If you are a diverse cook at all YOU WILL HATE THIS STOVE! It will boil water slowly and burn everything else..so bacon and spaghetti are your two menu options.

Honestly, a glass top was designed by an idiot. A man who was in love with computer components, but who hadn't cooked a single thing in his whole geek-oid life.

Here's a few insights.
MYTH: It's so easy to keep a glass top clean.
REALITY: No it's not. THey look smeary, greasy, they get weird chips and scratches that are glaringly obvious over a few years. When you boil something over, which they do often due to heat problems, there is nowhere for the spillage to go excpet across the glass top and straight down the sides of the stove! With an old range you would just remove a burner and wipe the goop out. Now, with a boiled over glass top, pull the whole thing out of the cabinets and wipe the crud off the sides. Major appliance moving to clean up a boil over? POOR DESIGN!

CLAIM: It only heats up the element and not the area around it.
REALITY: Who gives a crap? This is so not an issue with the workability of a stove, but seems to be a really promoted sale point, as if it matters! What DOES matter is that a glass top, run on binary code with a chip to operate it has TWO SETTINGS. High and off. It provides 100% heat, or no heat at all. That is it. Nothing in between. When you turn it to high you get 10 seconds of max heat, followed by 5 seconds of no heat, then 10 seconds of max heat, and 5 seconds of no heat. Now set it to medium. You get 6 seconds of max and then 10 seconds of none, 6 seconds of max, 10 seconds of none. A glass top is not capable of various heat levels, it only delivers longer or shorter bursts of max heat. This creates culinary crisis. Once things are hot and boiling, it is very hard to turn them down...because the stove still keeps blasting max heat to them. Thus it is also hard to make gentle things like puddings, since they still get max heat blasted onto them, if only for a short time, but it is a DIFFERENT HEAT DELIVERY and food reacts differently, like, it burns!

Then you see kitchen design mistakes (Yes, I did it too because it's in all the magazines) where the microwave/range hood combo is mounted over the glass top stove. This is the dumbest idea ever! First...anything that might be hot should NEVER be above the level of your elbows. EVER. But we reach UP to access food out of the microwave which puts us at risk for burns. So you pull out a hot dish, you burn yourself, eek, you drop it and SMASH it lands on your glasstop, which is right underneath the microwave. You break the glass top. Does it cost you $25 at the hardware store to buy a new coil you can plug in yourself? NO! It costs you $600 and you have to hire an appliance guy to install it for you! The lesson here, microwaves should not be at knee height not shulder height and yes I know we all do it but that doesn't make it less stupid. And a broken glass top is a serious financial pinch, where a broken coil element is not so bad.

Do not even get me going on the 'new improved' convection designs without the fan. My Easy Bake Oven used to heat up faster with a 60 watt bulb! The latest technology is often not better, it's just newer. New and better are not the same thing!

Wow! Great to know! I'm starting to look at options, since I may have to replace my 24 year old oven. Definitely won't be looking at any glass top models.
(p.s. Uno, my Easy Bake Oven worked great too!)

KathyS, I should also point out that some women loved their glass tops, but I suspect they didn't do too much varied cooking. Or they'd say. "Yeah, it cooks too hot, but I just pull the pan half way off the element and then it's better."

If you had to drive your vehicle half way off the road in order to be happy with its operation, you would have a serious problem on your hands. Having to cook with a pan only half on the element is a glaring failure of the product to perform.

Also beware that the sellers of glass tops tell you to use only flat bottomed cookware. If your pots and pans have a waved design on the bottom, or a small raised lip, like you find on some old cast iron pots and pans, forget it, they are not fit for glass tops. Glass tops require surface to surface contact for best heating. This is why canning is not recommended, some canners have those wavy bottoms and required extended high heat, neither of these is great for a glass top.

I have searched for a coil top stove with an old style convection oven (fan visible at back of stove). I LOVE the convection part of my stove, but detest the glass top. But finding a good convection with a coil top is almost impossible. In a perfect world my perfect kitchen would have a wall oven, convection and a separate counter top element cook surface. But this is the most expensve option in a kitchen.

But some people do like their glass tops although I never could understand that!

I love my glass topped stove. So easy to clean. Doug used to have conniptions when stuff fell under the element and burned, making noxious fumes that were endangering his life.

Yes, your pots MUST be absolutely flat.

Here is a solution, and this will not work on thin warped steel. Only cast iron or the old thick aluminum pots may apply. Take your post to a machinist or anyone who works on car engines. have your pot bottoms ground flat. Automotive workers have a stone that they use on their engine parts to grind them down.

Me, my glass top and my cast pots are all very happy together!

The box for the Mirro canner we have here has "Not reccommended for use on glass top stoves". I can relate to Uno's position about new technology in appliances. We have a gas range here, but all the controls except the top burners are electronic and prone to failures. Fortunately the top burners mmay be ignited manually when the hydro is off. We have replaced the clock/control centre twice at over $200 each time. That piece is now about $500. The latest failure was the oven ignitor at $100. I do our own repairs with some help from internet resources. I would like a commercial type stove, but they are expensive.

Although I'm not a great cook, or even a good cook, I do like to do it. I combine flavours well, just execute terribly. Anyway...

For the reasons Sue loves them, I absolutely hate them. I do not find them easy to clean in the least and they have a persistent ring around the burner. The few times I have gotten it whittled down to not obvious (by using obnoxiously toxic cleaner after another), I'll overflow a pot of water while making pasta and the marks are back again. The new element stoves are cheaper and easier to clean now. Old stoves, you can't lift the metal casing, but on the new versions, the elements and top casing lift like the hood of a car and have their own kick stand to get in there and clean.

I also find my water bath canner takes about an hour to get to boiling, and then almost 20 more minutes after I put jars in. I think it may be part of the reason I've ruined practically everything I've canned (though inexperience and failure at cooking likely has something to do with it as well).

The other thing, which I've always feared, even when I sold them, is if that glass top breaks for whatever reason and by whatever cause, it's a new stove, not a new glass top. The only reason I have it is because when my old stove died and the one I got gifted started shooting sparks from it (not thanks to my cooking, for once), I went to my old workplace and purchased a stainless steel fridge/stove (barely used) combo for $400, WITH delivery.

I also think this is just part of merging people out of their own food processing. But I'm a conspiracy theorist.

Just my 2 cents.

You sound like a dangerous woman with a stove, Sweetened!

I will add that those scotch sponges with the dark green brillo on one side and the sponge on the other takes the gunge off easily using only water and elbow grease. It may dull the surface a bit but hey- wear and tear.

You know what kind of stove I would like to try? Induction! Apparently Costco has a two burner counter top stove for under $200.

You know, if I could bust through the barrage of e coli that Costco has surrounded themselves with moat like effectiveness, I might just go check them out.

Thanks so much for explaining glass top stoves! Here, where we have been renting for 1.5 years, we have one, my first and I hope last. My canner never boils, you can't turn it down once the pasta/soup/etc., is to a boil. Have to turn it off, wait, then back on at a lower temp. to get a simmer. And there is no way that we can pop popcorn on it, like we used to. Back to the old air-popper. I have learned how to coped with it, but a lot of stuff got burnt along the way, and probably still will. And why would anyone want knobs right beside the burners, where all the food spills on and under them, requiring daily removal and cleaning. Don't I have enough to do already?

I am actually surprised at this. I love my glass cook top! I am an avid cook and nOw canner as well. I make everything from bernaise, to curries, cheese and ... Well, you name it. I have found it very easy to cook with and to keep clean (wipe the top while it is still warm if you have spilled with a hot, wet dishrag- it lifts anything). My only issue was thaty canner was. Of keeping a spot on even pressure for the 100 minutes I was doing meats. Another said however, that she also has to keep an eye on hers for long canning times even with a gas stove. I actually bought a Presto canner as it is the only one that is approved for cooktops. I have been very pleased so far. As for pots, I love using my Le Creuset as often as I can- the enameled cast iron is awesome and I can throw it in the oven too ( very pretty too lol). I also use all of my regular pots and pans with good results. I don't know- maybe I am just lucky, but after having it for four years, it still looks great and works great. I also love the convection aspect. Ok, I have probably sounded like a commercial, but honestly, I am surprised at others dissatisfaction.

Yay, Susan! I need you in my court on this one.

Does anyone else favor the sleek, smooth clean design of a glass topped stove?

Schipperkesue wrote:You sound like a dangerous woman with a stove, Sweetened!

Have the scars to prove it

Hate them! Hatethemhatethemhatethem!

Did you know that before the invention of glass top, women didn't really talk about how well their stove tops worked or how well their cookwear worked or how they had the bottoms of thier pots sanded off at an automotive shop because the performance of those old ranges was just there.

Glass tops have been divisive. It is odd that they are even worthy of discussion. BUt they ARE worthy of discussion because at least 50% of the women who have them, LOATHE them. I remember working at the furniture/appliance store and women I had sold one too would come back tothe store and boy if looks could kill! At the time I had one in my kitchen and HATED it (still have it, still hate it) and I had avery hard time selling one to anyone with a clear conscience. In fact, I would hanlde it matter of factly. I would say, absolutely honestly, that at least half of the women I sold them to loved them and the other half hated them with a passion. So..talk to your friends, maybe even try out one that someone you know owns before making your purchase. Because if your HUbby buys the wrong snowmobile or wrong motorbike or quad, he will get a different one next year, but if you buy this stove, you are stuck with it until a tornado sucks it up and smashes it through your neighbour's roof.

If your stove is still looking good, it is under 10 years old. Wait for it...

Ok, now we need pictures! I'ii show you mine if you show me yours. No cleaning allowed, either! Take a picture now and post it!

Here is my baby. She is a Whirlpool Gold. I purchased this little beauty in Edmonton from Kijiji ad. $200 and three years old. The previous owners were upgrading to stainless. Fools.

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Look at how she shines!

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I like my glass cooktop. I am not a canner. Mine works very well. I can simmer things and it seems to regulate quite well. I have no idea how it all works, but I am guessing like with anything there are going to be some that work properly and some that don't. Maybe you just got a lemon Uno?

Except for tea pots in restaurants which only have ONE function and that's to pour. Have you ever had one that actually pours without making a big mess everywhere? I mean really!! It's the stupid thing's ONLY PURPOSE!!! and I have NEVER found one that works as it's supposed to.

But I digress (must be the CynthiaM visit I had earlier ). I love my glass cooktop. It cleans up pretty good using "CeramaBrite" or some such stuff. One added bonus is that I leave the stovetop light on as my kitchen night light - the only light I leave on at night - and it does attract a few flying critters. I don't have to worry about them disappearing into the element well after they bash themselves to death at the light. I just wipe them up in the morning. Betcha never thought of that hey?

Schipperkesue wrote:Yay, Susan! I need you in my court on this one.

Does anyone else favor the sleek, smooth clean design of a glass topped stove?

I really liked the one I had in Aus. It was a in counter cook top, seperate from the oven, not a one piece stove. I do like to cook, but I don't can....yet, and I was never frustrated with mine. As for cleaning, it was good to clean up if I got to it right away and if not I recieved a tool with it that you put a razor blade in and it would carefully scrap anything, and I mean anything, off the cooktop.
I had mine for 5ish years and never got chips or scratches on it.