Oh!! I've got A friend of mine has a copper distilling contraption that's been dormant all year and needs to be fired up before the weather gets too cold!!

::Looks around for G-Men::

and revenuers!

You can make a certain limit for personal use legally (in the deep south around the swamp). js

edited for location clarity.

Now...back to your regularly scheduled thread...Trees, tread carefully...pressure cookers are very scary indeed!

I do believe OK has very strict moonshine laws even in small quantities and I would certainly not disobey the laws of the great state of Oklahoma.

::hope they're reading this thread::

Sorry for the thread hijack Trees but I've got no idea about pressure cookers at all!! Never used one and I don't remember my mom using one either!

I've used a huge pressure cooker to can veggies for years, and a smaller one to cooks roasts for meals.

I prefer to use the big canning one outside on a propane heater for several reasons:

- It heats faster on the large propane burner
- It is noisy
- It makes it too hot in the house

If I'm really in a canning mode, though, I'll have one pressure cooker going outside and one inside. In my old house I pressure canned on my glass-top stove, but it left dreadful marks on the stove top that never went away.

I'm not scared of pressure cooking / canning anymore. If you are detailed oriented (and what compliance folks AREN'T?) and are careful in what you are doing, it is really rather easy.

::considers moving to Joker's neck of the woods::

You would LOVE the wild boar around here, Babo! Bacon o'plenty!

I love wild boar!! Good sausage and roasts!!!

But can you make it in a pressur4e cooker?

I wouldn't want to...They are best pit-cooked long and slow.

Get one of these: http://www.allamericancanner.com/allamericanpressurecanner.htm

You can do 14 1-pint jars at a time with them. All American is the only one I would ever buy. I've owned one for 15 years and processed annually: Sockeye Salmon, spaghetti Sauce and used it for a hot water bath for jellies. I would advise you to buy the Ball pressure cooker recipe book (it's blue softcover pages are 8 1/2" X 11") - or take a class as mentioned at your local county extension office and learn what the signs of a poorly done batch looks like (botulism). Get the valve inspected annually at your extension office. We love ours. If used with education there is no fear. You can actually cook with them too. Our friends make a mean Caribou roast with vegetables. Turns the meat tender.

Cornhusker, I like that this is made in the USA. My food dehydrator is, too. It was a huge selling point, and worth the extra money.

Don't ever use one for tenderizing octopus (sometimes a difficult meat to get tender). My ex-mother-in-law did that once and the ink (a natural part of an octopus) foams up inside a pressure cooker - the cooker couldn't contain the foam and it spewed from between the pot and lid - they had purple foam ALL over the kitchen. Luckily, it didn't blow the lid off - but I shudder to think of the even worse mess that could have made - it was bad enough as it was.

WOW thanks for the warning GB - not sure that I would ever be bold enough to make octopus at home but it's good to know

My Mom recently moved into a retirement home and gave me her pressure cooker. Last week I cooked a roast. It was very tender. The cooker itself came with a cook book.

Is it one of the newer ones? If so, can you give us the specifics ?

I use mine to can green beans from the garden. I canned 80 quarts this summer. Every time my kids come home they take some back with them! I just hope I get the jars back...

My father-in law-returns his jars with the expectation of refills.