# Jars fitting in canner?



## nightfire (Feb 3, 2012)

Hello! I'm going to be trying my first attempt at pressure canning tomorrow after having gone to a canning class a few months ago. Dry beans are soaking now for tomorrows attempt. I've gotten my pint jars out and my pressure canner to try a dry fitting to see how many I could fit into it. The booklet that came with the canner says I should be able to fit 20 pint jars into it if I do a double stack. I can only get 18 into it without them being packed in so tight they are touching and have no expansion room. 

I thought in the class I was told the jars need to not be touching each other and the sides of the canner so they process correctly. This means I can only get 9 per row instead of 10. I can get 8 around and 1 in the middle of the circle.There is room for a second jar in the middle but it makes it such a tight fit the jars touch and don't move. The canner is a presto model 0178107, 23 quart. Guess I'm looking to find out if they can be touching like would be implied by the maximum listed in the book? Or am I dry fitting it wrong? Or is 18 the real maximum of pints I should be doing? I'm using regular mouth ball canning jars.

I really don't want things exploding or cracking the first time I try canning as I'm really interested in preserving food from our garden next year! Sorry for sorta rambling, but I thought I'd get some help from experienced canners! Thank you in advance for any suggestions and help!!! :clap:


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## nandmsmom (Mar 3, 2006)

I have the same canner. I only do 14 at a time, but have done up to 16. Not sure why they say you can do 20 pints. I could never fit that many in mine.


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## Leister Square (Feb 7, 2010)

I've had trouble with the number of jars my canner says, too. I think it has to do with wide mouth or regular mouth, and possibly the type of jar, Mason or Kerr. I can't remember, but I always check now before preparing all the jars of goodies.


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## Ciffer (Sep 13, 2010)

When canning beans I like to boil the beans a little while soaking, it helps cut down on the swelling in the jar.


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## PlicketyCat (Jul 14, 2010)

I have an All-American 23 quart and it says I can do 19 pints. The top is flared out a little, so 10th jar on the top doesn't touch. But I don't like to risk it unless I really do have an odd jar and won't be processing anything more later that day. Most of my recipes seem to yield 16 pints anyway, so usually it's only when I'm canning something straight that I get weird numbers of jars.

One thing I have noticed is that the perfectly round jars have a little more space around them than the ones are squared-off a bit. Wide mouth pints fit a little closer than regular mouth... 1/2 pints and quarts are the same though (go figure).


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## nightfire (Feb 3, 2012)

Thanks for the responses! I'll pack the canner appropriately and hope I don't need the full 20 jars for all the beans I soaked! 

My jars are the slightly squared ones, so that could be why I can't get 20 easily in there.


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## suitcase_sally (Mar 20, 2006)

When *pressure canning*, it is perfectly ok for the jars to touch.

When *water bath canning*, there should be room all around the jars so the water is able to circulate freely. That's why the water bath canner comes with a rack to hold the jars apart.


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## nightfire (Feb 3, 2012)

Thanks suitcase_sally. Since I had too many jars for one processing, I ended up doing two smaller ones. It was easy and I had only one lid not seal! I'm definitely looking forward to next summer, so I can save some of the garden bounty.


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