1969 Sears Canner – Made by Presto

Posted on August 10, 2018 by Jim — 21 Comments ↓

Another canner followed me home from a thrift store.

I didn’t need another canner. Lord knows I didn’t need another vintage canner! I mean … there were already five in the house. But, nonetheless, it was there and it decided it needed to come home with me. I’m sure it wasn’t my fault at all.

It’s a Sears-branded cooker-canner and it was made by Presto. The Sears model number is 620.46000. An example of a very similar Presto model would be the 7B.

Presto made this model – and similar models – for many years and under several brand names. These “domed-lid” models, as I like to call them, are cast aluminum and use a rubber seal under the lid. I believe they all would have come with a gauge, and that [easyazon-link asin=”B000HMBVQ8″ locale=”us”]Presto’s 3-piece weight set[/easyazon-link] came along many years later.

Depending upon their exact age, these domed-lid models may have a rubber over-pressure plug or an older metal plug. Usually the rubber plug will be one with Presto’s “Automatic Air Vent.” The Automatic Air Vent was, as I understand it, meant to be a sort of built-in timer for exhausting the air from the canner. In my experience, it pops up long before the USDA-recommended 10 minutes; I don’t judge exhausting time by the Automatic Air Vent. It is, however, highly useful for judging when pressure is released from the canner after cool-down. When the vent falls, you know there is no pressure remaining. This also eliminates any possibility of a vacuum being created upon cool-down, as can happen with other brands.

This Sears-Presto would seem to be made in 1969. I have suspected for some time that the last number found on the rim of these canners is a date. This canner has 69 as its last number, and the manual is copyright 1968. While I can’t say for certain that this is definitive, it would seem to make sense.

The first number is obviously the canner size in quarts, as my 21-Bs have a 21 as their first number, and an extra 16 quart canner bottom I have sitting about the basement, begins with 16.

The middle number would seem to most likely be a week of manufacture. So, I think this canner was made in the first half of April, 1969.

See my Presto dating page for more information.

Of course, being a used canner that is nearly 50 years old, it does have a problem or two.

Just at first glance, you can tell the gauge is much too new to be original; the original was “tilted for convenience” according to the manual. Even though this canner has had its gauge replaced, it is not correct. You can see in the picture that the needle is not resting against its stop pin. This is a sure sign of a bad gauge and I was able to confirm that when I tested it with a 3-piece weight set. When using the 3-piece weight set, you don’t need an accurate gauge – or a gauge at all – but I prefer to have a working and tested gauge. I’ll be adding a [easyazon-link asin=”B000GD55LA” locale=”us”]new pressure gauge[/easyazon-link].

I’m also no fan of rickety and rusty wire canning baskets, so I’ll be replacing the one that came with this canner with a [easyazon-link asin=”B000LNY6T2″ locale=”us”]flat Presto canning rack[/easyazon-link].

The rubber gasket and Automatic Air Vent look to be in pretty good shape on this canner. The rubber gasket has “tipped upward” as described in the manual. While I’ve always understood that this means the ring has reached the end of its useful life, I do have an older canner manual that suggests that it is perfectly acceptable to simply remove the ring, turn it upside-down, reinstall it, and that it will be good-to-go. I’m probably replacing both [easyazon-link asin=”B000LL9NY2″ locale=”us”]gasket and vent[/easyazon-link] just to be on the safe side.

You can see from the collection of pictures below that the canner is in pretty great condition for being nearly 50 years old!

I scanned the manual that came with the canner and provide it here as a reference. As a vintage manual it contains information that is outdated and that you should ALWAYS use the latest up-to-date information to ensure the safety of both yourself and your canned goods.

If you want a small version of the manual, please click this link. It is only a couple megabytes.

If you want the full version of the manual, please click this link. It’s about 60 megabytes.

Here is a list of parts on Amazon that will fit this canner:

Gauge [easyazon-link asin=”B000GD55LA” locale=”us”]Part Number 85771[/easyazon-link]
Vent Pipe [easyazon_link identifier=”B015ZNB9Y2″ locale=”US” tag=”cwj-20″]Part Number 1058[/easyazon_link]
Over-pressure Plug [easyazon-link asin=”B000OREUEQ” locale=”us”]Part Number 9911[/easyazon-link]
Gasket (with over-pressure plug) [easyazon-link asin=”B000LL9NY2″ locale=”us”]Part Number 9907[/easyazon-link]
Canner Rack [easyazon-link asin=”B000LNY6T2″ locale=”us”]Part Number 85707[/easyazon-link]
Lid Handles [easyazon-link asin=”B000HM5UVU” locale=”us”]Part Number 85444[/easyazon-link]
Bottom Handles [easyazon-link asin=”B000HM7XAG” locale=”us”]Part Number 85443[/easyazon-link]
Three-piece Weight Set [easyazon-link asin=”B000HMBVQ8″ locale=”us”]Part Number 50332[/easyazon-link]

Variations on a Theme–Chiffon Cheesecakes

Posted on May 23, 2016 by Jim — 1 Comment ↓

My grandmother had a good thing a’goin’!

Sometime in the late 1970’s or early 1980’s my grandmother came up with a lemon cheesecake recipe. It was light and fluffy and a bit tangy. She tweaked it into the following:

2 sticks butter
8 oz cream cheese
2 C sugar
2 large cans cream, chilled (Pet or Carnation evaporated milk)
3 small lemon Jell-O
1 1/3 C hot water
Graham Cracker Crust
Mix cream cheese and sugar together. Add the water to the Jell-O and set aside. Add cream cheese and sugar to the Jell-O and whip until blended. Whip the cream one at a time and add to the mixture.
Stir all together and pour into crust.
Chill, covered with foil, in the refrigerator.

That recipe leaves out a good bit of information. Like that this recipe fills a 12″ x 18″ pan. Or that if the evaporated milk isn’t very very very cold, it hardly whips. Or that it takes a box of graham cracker crumbs to make a crust that large. This is frequently the way with vintage recipes – not everything is written down.

I’ve tweaked and updated the recipe and morphed it into the following versions – with, I think, easy to follow directions. There are future plans for a chocolate version and hopes for a blueberry version.

Lemon Chiffon Cheesecake

Lime Chiffon Cheesecake

Orange Creamsicle Cheesecake

Whipped Cream made from Evaporated Milk

How to install the Seal on a Presto 21-B Pressure Canner

Posted on October 12, 2014 by Jim — No Comments ↓

Having trouble with that flat seal on your vintage canner?

Presto 21-B pressure canner seal installation with video.

The flat seals on the National Number 7 canner clones, such as the Presto 21-B are sometimes a royal pain to insert properly. They fit into a groove in the canner lids and if you are not careful, they will not get seated properly. Sometimes they can stretch and be even more difficult to fit.

After you’ve done it a few times, it doesn’t seem to be so bad, but the first time – you almost always think you have the wrong seal!

You push the seal into the groove from the inside out, working in small sections, constantly making sure that the seal doesn’t pop back out as you move on. Sometimes you have to start over. Sometimes you have to work your way around the lid a couple times. And, sometimes, the seal is just too old and stretched to fit any longer. When that happens you need to [easyazon-link asin=”B000LL9NY2″ locale=”us”]order a new seal[/easyazon-link].

The [easyazon-link asin=”B000LL9NY2″ locale=”us”]Presto part number is 09907[/easyazon-link].

Here is a brief video showing how I do it.

[easyazon-image align=”none” asin=”B000LL9NY2″ locale=”us” height=”110″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41RxjUg5f4L._SL110_.jpg” width=”106″]
[easyazon-cta align=”none” asin=”B000LL9NY2″ height=”28″ key=”amazon-us-small-orange” locale=”us” width=”120″]

Pressure Canner Refurbishment

Posted on October 8, 2014 by Jim — 2 Comments ↓

Suggestions on fixing up an old canner.

Refurbishing and upgrading your old pressure canner.

If you have an old canner in a closet or found one at a yardsale, the following articles may help you get it working again. Please check with your local extension agency office for gauge testing, if your canner has a gauge.

About the Presto 21-B canner that I found at a thrift store:
More generic articles that should apply to all canners, be they Presto, All-American, or Mirro:

Bosch Universal Bowls Explained

Posted on May 11, 2014 by Jim — 6 Comments ↓

at least 7 bowls, 2 series of mixers, multiple splash rings: extreme chaos

I went looking for a stainless steel bowl for my Bosch Universal mixer. Oh boy. That wasn’t fun. I quickly got a headache. There are at least 6 Bosch bowls spanning two Bosch Universal classifications and no website seemed to agree with any other. Here’s what I learned.

First some history and definitions:

The original Bosch bowl was a flat-bottomed, dough-only bowl that had a three-pronged dough hook that mounted on the bottom of the bowl. This bowl started out with the first Universal mixer in 1951. Some time later Bosch introduced the white, all-purpose, donut-shaped bowl with the center post. I have currently narrowed this down to sometime between 1961 and 1970. I’ll refer to Universal mixers prior to 2007 as Classic Universals. I am lumping together everything from the original 1950’s mixers, to the 2007 redesign into this category – UM3, MUM6, Comfort Plus, the whole lot. The post-2007 mixer is the Universal Plus and will be referred to as such. Note: the links below will take you to pages on this site with more in-depth coverage of each bowl.

The current line-up:

Bosch makes the MUZ6ER1 stainless steel bowl. This bowl is the original-style dough-only bowl that has shipped with Bosch Universals since their inception. This bowl is the flat-bottomed bowl that has the dough hook mounted to the bottom. This bowl will fit on all Classic Universals as-is. It does not have the built-in locking mechanism on Universal Plus bowls and is unstable on the Universal Plus. To fix this issue people are using rubber bumpers to keep it stable. There have been at least two versions. The current version has 3 locking pins on the inside of the bowl and use the newer splash-ring that fits inside the rim of the bowl. The ER1 has an approximate capacity of 6 quarts by volume and is rated at 14 pounds of dough.

Bosch also makes the MUZ6ER2 stainless steel bowl. This is the all-purpose stainless bowl designed for the Universal Plus. It is specific to the Universal Plus and will not fit the Classic Universals. This bowl uses the standard French whisks, batter whisks, cookie paddles and dough hook. This bowl has 4 locking pins and requires a 4-pin splash ring. The ER2 has a removable center post for easy clean-up. The ER2 has an approximate capacity of 6 1/2 quarts or 15 pounds of dough.

L’Equip makes two stainless bowls for Bosch Universal mixers. MUZ6SB3 and MUZ6SB4. These bowls are identical except for the number of splash-ring locking pins. These bowls fit both Classic Universal mixers and Universal Plus mixers. They both have removable drive shafts for easy cleaning. While you can use the SB4 with a Classic Universal and an SB3 with a Universal Plus, you will wind up with mis-matched splash-rings. If this isn’t a concern for you, feel free to mix n match! These bowls are able to hold approximately 5 1/2 quarts or 12 pounds dough.

Bosch makes two all-purpose plastic bowls designed for both kneading and mixing. These are the MUZ6KR4 and MUZ6KR4UC. The MUZ6KR4 has three splash-ring locking pins and uses a splash-ring that fits inside the bowl. This is the bowl that I believe was introduced in 1984 with the MUM6 series of mixers. The KR4 has an approximate capacity of 5 1/2 quarts or 12 pounds of dough. The MUZ6KR4UC bowl is the newest design and is specific to the Universal Plus. It has 4 locking pins and a removable drive shaft for easy cleaning. The UC is rated at approximately 6 1/2 quarts and can knead 15 pounds of dough.

That brought me up to 6 bowls; I thought my research was finished. I had forgotten about the slicer-shredder bowl. I knew that there was a set of whisks for the slicer-shredder bowl – I had even used them. Then L’Equip dropped a bit of a bombshell into the mix with the release of a mini dough hook for the slicer-shredder bowl.

vintage