# I wanted an All American canner



## TheRiver (Mar 31, 2012)

We have been wanting to start canning for a while now. Thanks to this forum we decided on an all-American. Well as luck would have it we were at the auction the other night and they put up a bunch of stuff all at once hoping it would sell. In that pile of stuff there was a Presto 21 qt cooker/canner. I kept my eye on it and bid a couple of times but there was a guy that just would not give up! I lost! While I was steaming the wife says to me "Maybe the canner wasn't what he wanted. Go ask him if he would sell the canner". Well reluctantly(like a disbelieving husband would) I went and talked to "the other bidder". Turns out he wanted a military dress uniform that was in the stack(didn't see that). I ask him what he wanted for the canner and he said "the what". I said the pot with the lid on it(he was younger). When he said $10 it was all I could do to not smile! Ready to do some canning now!


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## UncleJoe (Jan 11, 2009)

TheRiver said:


> I went and talked to "the other bidder"


I did that once also. There was a pile of stuff on a table and it was being sold as a lot. Most of it was fabric but there were a few other items. One of them was a box of road flares. An Amish woman bid the table but I thought; "she doesn't want those flares" so I asked her if she would like to sell that box. She looked at me and asked; "What's in it?" I told her and she gave them to me since she had no use for them. It was a box of 50 with maybe 3-4 missing.


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## Jason (Jul 25, 2009)

TheRiver, sounds like you got a heck of a deal!! Just please make sure that the gasket is intact and that everything works as it should. Buying something like that used (or recieving a hand me down from a relative) is perfectly fine and an incredible way to save money. It does bear mentioning (I'm not sure how familliar you are with pressure canning) that this is a vessel that jacks water way above the normal boiling point that you will be standing in close proximity to while it's operating. Giving the whole works a good, thorough inspection before you use it would be very prudent.

Congrats on the incredible find, and I'm sure you'll still be telling the story of how you found it years from now as it's hissing away on your stovetop.


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## goshengirl (Dec 18, 2010)

Awesome! You should be able to find the model number lightly stamped on there somewhere (mine's on the side just under a handle, but that may vary from model to model). Here's the link for looking up the Presto user manuals: http://www.gopresto.com/products/manuals.php


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## zombieresponder (Aug 20, 2012)

Your local agriculture extension office can probably pressure test the gauge for you. My local one does it for free, and I never heard of them charging for it anywhere else either. The gauge on one of ours was off by 2 pounds or so. 

The upside of the All American canners is the redundancy of both weights and a gauge. I think they're probably a lot higher quality than the Presto's that most of us have....they better be for the price.


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## TheRiver (Mar 31, 2012)

Put it to the test last night. Seal is good and got it up to 5 lb. Next stop a good canning forum, anyone know of a good one? Just joking, I have got some really good info off here. This is the best forum I have found. The pressure test is a great idea, thanks.


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