Wondering the differences between a pressure canner vs pressure cooker? Learn about them here.

Pressure Canner vs Pressure Cooker

A pressure canner is a large pot designed to reach and maintain a very high pressure for a specified amount of time. A pressure cooker is a smaller pot designed to maintain a high pressure for a quick cooking process. While all canners are pressure cookers, not all pressure cookers are canners. You can cook in a pressure canner (think large things like beef brisket), but canning in a pressure cooker doesn’t allow enough pressure for a long enough time to can. Keep reading to go more in depth on a pressure canner vs pressure cooker.

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Pressure Canner

A pressure canner is a large pot used for canning low-acid foods. Low acid foods include things like meats and vegetables. These foods have a pH of more than 4.6.

The importance of using a pressure canner for these foods is to kill off any bacteria that could be in your jars of food. In order to do that, the contents of the food need to reach 240 degrees F for the entire process times. This can only happen under pressure. In order to achieve the right pressure, pressure canners have either a dial gauge or weighted gauge on them which brings the pot to the correct pounds of pressure needed for each recipe. Once the correct amount of pressure has been reached, that higher pressure needs to stay that way for 20-100 minutes, depending on the recipe. The time mostly has to do with food density.

Whatever foods you are canning in a pressure canner, the temperature remains constant the entire time. This kills off botulism, which can be fatal. Higher altitudes require increased pressure in order to reach 240 degrees F, so using a pressure gauge that can be customized to your altitude is needed in home food preservation.

Popular Pressure Canners

Okay, so what about a pressure cooker? Why can’t I can in a pressure cooker?

There are a few reasons why pressure canning in a pressure cooker wouldn’t work.

These are small cookers so you wouldn’t be able to fit a lot of canning jars in the pot. Can you imagine trying to put 7 quart jars in there like the all american pressure canners can fit?
Most pressure cookers only have a high pressure or low pressure option. It has a constant wave of temperatures rather than staying at one higher temperature that would kill off foodborne illness.

Pressure Cooker

Pressure cookers are commonly called Instant Pots, which is a name brand of a pressure cooker. While they are similar to a standard pressure canner because they are a regular pot that is covered with a lid with a rubber gasket to trap steam that needs a come-up time to reach a certain pressure and then a cool-down time where the pressure needs to slowly leave the pot, that’s about where the similarities end.

Multiple extension offices have tested instant pots for pressure canning and have found they do not process foods safely. These offices have tested multiple foods, like green beans and chicken and they all fail.

However, pressure cookers can be used for water bath canning small batches of things like jams, jellies, fruit, and pickles. Be aware though, that if you place the lid on the pressure cooker to water bath can any food, this could compromise the taste of the food because the water will reach higher temperatures than boiling water, which is what is needed for high-acid foods. So, if you are using an instant pot for high acid home-canned foods, I recommend using a normal pot lid instead of the lid that comes with the pressure cooker.

Popular Pressure Cookers

But wait, what about the Presto Precise?

There is one electric pressure cooker that is safe to can with. The Presto Precise 12 qt stainless steel electric pressure canner is an automated electric canner for simple home canning. The presto pressure canner is the first digital pressure canner that meets USDA home canning guidelines for safely processing low-acid foods such as meat, poultry, fish, and vegetables, with no adjustments needed for high altitudes. It also doubles as an electric boiling water canner for preserving fruits, jams, jellies, and salsa.

This would be a great small pressure cooker to get for small canning projects as most are larger pressure canners that aren’t exactly easy to lug around.

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This post may contain affiliate links which I would receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Please read disclaimer and privacy policy for full disclosure.