Water bath canner for glass top stove

Burning Issue: Canning on Smooth Cooktops Can I can on my smooth cooktop?

We have to say to follow manufacturer's advice because styles of smooth cooktops being manufactured differ in ways that influence suitability for canning. Some smooth cooktop manufacturers say do not can on them, while others who say it is okay still put stipulations on the diameter of the canner compared to the diameter of the burner. Boiling water or pressure canners may not be available that meet the maximum diameter pot they allow. There are several issues:

1. There can be damage to the cooktop from the excessive heat that reflects back down on the surface, especially if the canners used are too large of a diameter than is intended for the burner being used. The damage can range from discoloration of white tops to actual burner damage to cracking of the glass tops to fusion of the metal to the glass top.

And by the way, even if a manufacturer says a burner/cooktop can be used for canning, people should also be aware the scratching can occur if the aluminum canner is slid or pulled across the cooktop. This often happens with large, heavy filled canners, so people need to be careful.

2. Many of these cooktops have automatic cut-offs on their burners when heat gets excessive. If that option is built in, and the burner under a canner shuts off during the process time, then the product will be underprocessed and cannot be salvaged as a canned food. The process time must be continuous at the intended temperature, or microorganisms may survive. Also, if the pressure drops quickly, most likely liquid and maybe even food will be lost from the jar (it will spill over from the area of higher pressure inside the jar to the lower pressure now in the canner around the jar).

3. Even if boiling water canning is approved by the manufacturer, it may be necessary to fashion your own canner out of a flat-bottomed stockpot with a bottom rack inserted. Many canners do not have flat enough bottoms to work well on a smooth cooktop to be able to maintain a full boil over the tops of the jars. The pot used as a canner must also be large enough to have lots of water boiling freely around the jars, and at least 1 inch over the tops of jars. If the canner is too small, then it starts boiling faster than expected and the total required heat the jars receive in the canner even before the process time begins can be too short.

4.  Some manufacturers of pressure canners do not recommend using them on a smooth cooktop. Follow the advice of your canner manufacturer.

Our recommendation, therefore, is to contact or consult information from the manufacturer of your smooth cooktop and your pressure canner, if interested in pressure canning, before making your decision to can (or not) on it. They are the recommended sources of this information and may also have up-to-date alternatives or suggestions for equipment that you can use. We also caution that you might have to be sure they understand how large your boiling water or pressure canner is, how long it must be heated at high heat, how long the hot canner may stay on the burner until it cools after the process time, and that the canner is made from aluminum (if it is).

Reviewed February 27, 2018
National Center for Home Food Preservation

So last week, I FINALLY started and finished my canning!  Hip-hip-hooray!

On one hand, I actually enjoy the process and the feeling I get as I gaze at all my lovely jars filled with garden goodness, but on the other hand, the canning itself takes so much equipment and set up.

I’ve been putting tomatoes in the freezer as they’ve been ripe, plus I had tomatoes left over from last year still in the freezer, so I spent four days and got them all done.

This year, I tried something different.

I have had a glass top stove for the past thirteen years and I’ve always read that you can NOT use a regular water bath canner on the glass top because of the concave bottom.  I’ve read that it can trap heat under the pot because of the uneven surface and possibly cause your stove top to crack.

Years ago, when I first started dabbling in canning (jellies, primarily), my handy machinist/farmer husband made me a custom rack to go in the bottom of my large stock pot.  I could can 7 pints in it, but no quarts (it wasn’t tall enough to cover them with enough water).  Using my stock pot has served me well, as long as I was only canning jellies and pints of applesauce. (Update:  As of fall of 2018, I still break out the stock pot with the custom rack to use for any pint canning that I’m doing!)

A couple years ago, I expanded my canning repertoire to add my grandma’s tomato soup.  We use this as our base for chili.  But, canning it in pints meant that it would take three pints for a crock pot of chili, plus if I was also making applesauce that year, I just didn’t have enough jars to accommodate this!

I really wanted to be able to can quarts.  An option is using a pressure canner (since they have a heavy flat bottom), but I didn’t want to invest in one just for quarts of tomato sauce and, honestly, pressure canning kinda of scares me 🙂  I know, I know, it’s only lack of experience, but still.  (Update:  My mom got me one last year for Christmas, so I’ll be learning how to pressure can very soon!!)

After much research and bouncing ideas off of my sister, I arrived at a workable, non expensive, non scary solution for water bath canning on a glass top stove-

canning outside!

 We have a propane camp stove, so I set up a table in my carport right outside my back door, set the stove on that, and voila! I can can quarts 🙂

Was it wonderfully convenient?  Yes and no.  Yes, because canning outside frees up a burner on my stove inside for preparing meals during the day and no, because, well, I had to carry the full jars outside!

But, it was worth it.

I canned 21 quarts of tomato soup, so we are set for the winter on that!  I still used my trusty stock pot canner for pints (I did 32 pints of salsa, 12 pints of soup, and 15 pints of thick sauce), mostly because I ran out of propane and didn’t have time to travel the 13 miles to the nearest store while I was in the middle of canning.

Before I leave you, I have one more fabulous, life changing canning tip-  use a roaster for cooking your tomato concoctions down!

My sister and mom learned this from a neighbor lady and it has revolutionized their canning!

You free up your burner, it cooks down FASTER (because its being heated on all sides, not just the bottom) and you can turn it way down and walk a way for awhile if something comes up and you need to leave the house.

I made all of my salsa, soup and sauce this way and I will never go back to using my stove for that again!  I borrowed my mother-in-law’s and my sister borrows my mom’s, so if you don’t want to invest in one (or like me, don’t have storage space for it!), ask around and I bet you can find one.

What have you canned this fall? 

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I'm a 5th generation farmgirl who married a farmboy from the neighboring county 15 years ago. We reside on the family farm with our own 3 farmkids. Follow me as I share our life full of agriculture, autism, homeschooling, housekeeping, following Jesus and everything else!

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