Costs
Part of Fermentation Jars Comparison: 5 Vessel Differences
Where spending more on a fermentation vessel buys convenience, not capability
Where extra money on a fermentation vessel buys convenience like less skimming, and the one purchase that changes what you may safely make: a pressure canner.
What to take away
- The one purchase that changes what you may safely make is a pressure canner, and only because it reaches 240 F.
- Everything above the cheapest safe vessel is convenience: less skimming, easier submersion, better looks.
- A boiling water canner can be improvised from a deep pot with a rack. A pressure canner cannot be improvised at all.
- Buy capability first, then convenience, then appearance. Most people buy that list backward.
The purchase that changes your options
Penn State Extension's guide to selecting a canning or processing method sets out what your equipment lets you do. Fruits, acidified tomatoes, pickled products, jams, and jellies can be processed in a boiling water bath or an atmospheric steam canner.
Canning Method by Food Type
Boiling water bath
- Fruits
- Yes
- Acidified tomatoes
- Yes
- Pickles
- Yes
- Jams and jellies
- Yes
- Low-acid vegetables
- No
- Meats
- No
Pressure canner
- Fruits
- No
- Acidified tomatoes
- No
- Pickles
- No
- Jams and jellies
- No
- Low-acid vegetables
- Yes
- Meats
- Yes
A pressure canner is necessary for low-acid vegetables and meats, which means all vegetables except acidified tomatoes, pickles, and sauerkraut. Peas, corn, beans, carrots, vegetable soup, pumpkin cubes, unpickled beets, asparagus, greens, mushrooms, okra, onions, peppers, and potatoes must be pressure canned at the times and pressures in tested recipes.
The reason is temperature. A pressure canner is what makes food reach 240 F to destroy botulism spores, and however long water boils it will not rise above 212 F without pressure. That is a capability you cannot buy any other way. It is the only line on the equipment list where money changes the outcome rather than the experience.
What you can improvise and what you cannot
A boiling water canner can be a pot you already own. It must be deep enough for a rack, the jars, at least an inch of water above them, and room to boil rapidly without boiling over.
An atmospheric steam canner has a low base holding about 2 quarts of water and a tall domed lid. It uses the same process times as boiling water processing.
A pressure canner is not improvisable. Neither is a jar that seals.
The vessel ladder
| Spend level | What you get |
|---|---|
| Lowest safe | Mason jars, plate and water-filled jar weights, a deep pot |
| Middle | Jar-mouth weights, one-way valve lids, a proper boiling water canner |
| Higher | Water-seal crock, larger batches, less daily attention |
| Capability | Pressure canner, which is a different category entirely |
Where the extra money is real
Skimming. An open jar under a towel needs attention two or three times a week for a month. A water-seal crock or a valve lid does not. If you ferment often, that is a genuine purchase of time. If you make two batches a year, it is not.
Illinois Extension's overview of preservation methods frames the trade-off well: your equipment, produce seasonality, time, and storage space shape which method works.
Canning needs jars with two-piece lids and either a pressure canner or a stock pot for boiling water processing. Fermenting needs containers, weights, and covers plus cutting and pounding tools. Those are different shopping lists, and you do not need both to start.
Where it is not
Decorative crockery of unknown glaze. Jar sizes you have no tested process for. Kits that substitute packaging for a scale. Our comparison of fermenting vessels covers the choice itself, and the piece on where money changes a ferment covers the ingredients side of the same question.
