How to Use the Presto Digital Canner Quickstart Guide

Pressure canning doesn’t have to be scary or difficult, and electric canners make the job even easier. Once you learn how to use the Presto Digital Canner, you’ll have your pantry shelves stocked in no time.

​How to Use the Presto Digital Canner

The Presto Electric Canner is seriously simple with easy to follow, step-by-step instructions, and you can see the full product info page here. 

You can use any recipe that follows safe canning guidelines for home food preservation of low-acid foods. Please note that you can use this as a water bath canner too.

​Official instructions, notwithstanding, here’s what works for me for pressure canning:

1. Plug in and turn on the digital pressure canner.
2. Press the “advance” button so the screen reads “pressure can” (as opposed to “water bath can”).
3. Turn the dial until you reach the amount of time required for the recipe you’re going to can. Press the “advance” button.
4. Add water up to the fill line inside the pot. 
5. At this point, the device itself tells you how to use the Presto Digital Canner. Just do what it says. The canner will first warm your jars, so go ahead and add empty jars, put on the lid, and press the advance button.
6. Once jars are heated, fill them with hot product, add lids and rings accordingly, and put jars back in the canner.
7. Put the lid back on the canner, and close the lock. Press the “advance” button.
8. When the canner beeps and reads “Put Regulator On,” do it. That’s it.
9. Leave the canner alone until it’s finished with the cooling cycle.

Canning Cooled Product (or raw pack method)

Alternatively, I’ve canned some cooled products and here’s how to use the Presto Digital Canner in this situation. For example, I made a lot of chicken broth, but I ran out of canning lids. I let the pot of broth cool until the next day when I was able to purchase new lids. In this case:

1. Follow steps 1-4 above, but use cool water.
2. Add the cool jars of broth (or other product) to the canner, and press the “advance” button.
3. The canner is programmed to think the jars are empty, so when it says to fill jars, just push the “advance” button again. The canner is warming the jars, the product in them, and the water surrounding the jars at a slow but consistent rate. This will keep the jars from cracking.
4. Follow steps 8 and 9 above. Easy peasy.

Pros and Cons of Using Electric Pressure Canners

Now that we’ve covered how to use the Presto Digital Canner, let’s look at the reasons you may or may not want to use it.

​The Cons

Honestly, there is very little that I don’t like about the electric canner, but here’s my short list.

​First, it’s a literal machine with electric parts that can go bad. My other dial gauge canner was sold to me as a workhorse that will outlive me. To be fair, these are new on the market, and I’m guessing, but its longevity is probably not the same as my All American.

​Secondly, I normally pressure can on a gas stove. That means, if the power goes out during a good old-fashioned Florida thunderstorm, my canning is totally uninterrupted.

Guess what happened while I was canning chicken broth last week in my Presto? The power flashed, and I had to start over the whole process. However, now that I know this, I’ll just be sure not to start a canning project in my electric Presto during a storm.

​Last, it’s small. I purchased the model with a maximum capacity of 5 quart jars at a time (or 8 pint jars). If this was my only pressure canner, I can’t imagine only completing 5 jars per round. Luckily for me, this is my second pressure canner, so having it means that I can finish a total of 12 jars per round when using both canners.

​The Pros

Okay, now here’s what I love about the Presto Digital Canner.

​First, this will seem silly after reading my “Cons” list, but it’s small. Yep, I like that it’s small because I don’t always have a full canner’s worth of food to preserve.

Imagine, for example, getting your fill of fresh green beans by having them with dinner 4 times this week already, but you still have a bunch left. There’s not enough to fill the big canner, but they’ll go bad if not preserved quickly. We are homesteaders, who grew those beans, we won’t allow them to go bad.

​Learning how to use the Presto Digital Canner has been a game changer in the amount of food I can, because of its smaller capacity.

​Secondly, I like that this canner allows me to “set it and forget it.” Once that regulator goes on, I can leave. I don’t have to stay within earshot of the rocking weight on the traditional type of pressure canner. I hate feeling tethered to the kitchen while the canner works, especially for meat products that take 90 minutes.

​Third, the stove top is freed up when I use the electric canner because it stands alone on the counter top. This is especially great when my afternoon canning runs into supper time.

​Last, the Presto Digital Canner is quiet. Sure, it beeps when you need to move to the next step, but it’s not that loud traditional canner noise that my family cringes over when they see the canner come out. We’d much rather hear a few beeps per canning session, than the constant hissing and rattling of a pressure weight.

​Summary of How to Use the Presto Digital Canner

All in all, I absolutely love the Presto Electric Pressure Canner, and I’d recommend it for anyone. Whether you’re new to home canning, or an old hat, learning how to use the Presto Digital Canner is a great tool to add to your homestead kitchen.

Happy Canning!

Donna and her family have been homesteading for most of their 20+  years together in some shape or fashion. She currently lives on their 20 acre farm where they grow as much food as possible. What started as a just a few laying hens, has grown into large gardens, pastured poultry, pork, and lamb. They are continuously evolving their small farm to not suit their family’s needs, but also providing to their local community. Donna’s favorite part of the family farm is her self-built micro-dairy, where she gets to love on dairy cows while serving her local community. Milking, cheesemaking, and processing dairy have become the soul of their homestead and the center of their farm.