# Canning on a gas grill



## BKB HOMESTEAD (Mar 25, 2013)

Has anyone ever water bath or pressure canned on a gas grill?


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## blynn (Oct 16, 2006)

I tried it once on a propane grill and we could not get that water to boil. It was on for around two hours and we finally gave up, loaded the kettle into a truck and took it next door to finish canning.


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## PlicketyCat (Jul 14, 2010)

Depends on what kind of propane grill you're talking about. I routinely BWB & pressure can on our propane "grill", but it's really more accurately a "camp stove" because it has high output burners, not just a few flame strips.

I have BWB on regular propane grill and on a charcoal grill... the key is to block as much wind and trap as much heat around the kettle as possible (or use a small enough kettle that you can close the grill top over it). It might take a while, but even a 21 qt canner will boil and stay rapidly boiling for 10-20 minutes with this setup given enough fuel. Our cheapy charcoal grill will boil my 21 qt kettle in about 30 minutes with 20-30 briquettes under it. My wimpy propane BBQ with the chintzy flame strip will boil my 8 qt sauce pot in about 45 minutes if I close the lid. I'd stick to BWB small jars of jams or pickles with short processing times in a small kettle if you have a low output grill.


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## o&itw (Dec 19, 2008)

Same here. We have water bathed tomatoes outside on the side burner of the grill often. Too much heat in the house. The important thing is to shield the burner from the wind; even a mild breeze will blow much of the heat sideways. Our 7 quart boiler mostly coves the whole shelf the burner is on. There is a back splash that keeps the breeze of the back side, and the grill itself keeps the breeze off the right side. We lay a small piece of metal roofing up against the left size and we are good to go.

It won't work for everything, but with tomatoes, we use the same pan to scald tomatoes, and then we simply add a bit more water to water bath the jars. Starting out with a pan half full of boiling water goes a long way to have the water one needs for the canning. 

This has two downsides, one is limited to a 7 qt batch at a time, and one has to wash the tomato residue and salt off the outside of the jars once they have cooled. We always wash off the outsides anyway, so that isn't much of a problem.

Back when we used to can 49 or so quarts at a time, we always had two pots going, one to scald tomatoes and one to can with. Us with kids= 147 quarts, us by ourselves about 35 quarts


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## PlicketyCat (Jul 14, 2010)

If you're seriously thinking about doing more of your canning outdoors to keep the heat out of the house, you'll save yourself a lot of grief and fuel getting a couple high output gas burners like the Camp Chef Camp Stoves with sturdy legs and a wind shield. You can then use your BBQ grill to simmer your lids and such that don't require as high a heat.

I regularly pressure can with a high-output burner outside on my screen porch with a sheet of plywood or a tarp hung up to block the wind.


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