Canning on Glass Stovetops Using a Flattened Cookie Rack

If you have a glass or ceramic stovetop, you may have heard that you should use a flat-bottomed canner, but you have been unable to find one! Or, you may have heard that you are not supposed to can on a glass or ceramic stove top.  Here's a tip from a visitor: she puts a wire rack (like a cookie rack) on the stove and sets her canner on that.  That prevent glass stovetop form heating up too much that it shuts itself off.

Obviously, you would have to be careful not to move the full canner while it is on the stove, or you would scratch the stovetop. Of course, if you used something made of heat-proof silicone under the edges of the compressed cookie rack... that would help protect the stovetop's surface.

I don't think my cookie cooling racks would support the weight of my canner, but it's an idea, if you want to try it.  I haven't confirmed with the manufacturers that there isn't some other problem with this approach, so use caution if you decide to try it, and you certainly want to be careful not to scratch the stovetop!.  If you try this approach, please let me know how well it works!

• A visitor writes on August 04, 2013: "In response to the cake rack being put on your burner, this is what I did to do the same thing. I took the rack out to a concrete step (in my garage) along with a hammer. Put the rack down on the flat surface and started pounding on it till the support holding it up off the surface is flat. I have two that are different sizes. On one the cross piece that held it up off the surface came off. No big deal. On one it flattened. The difference might be that the cross piece was next to the flat surface, so that it had less bounce room as I pounded, but I can't confirm that since I have been using them both for years. It really isn't a big deal; the point is they both hold the pan up off the burner enough to protect the stove. It may also allow the burner to cycle on and off as it needs too. I have used this for water bath canning with no problems. (I have not yet done pressure canning with it which is what brought me to this site in the first place looking for ideas.) I also use this rack when I slow cook in large pots on the stove for hours at a time, such as cooking a large pot of chili, using dry beans. It is also great for cooking things such as when I made my own apricot syrup and needed to cook/boil the apricots (blended in my Vitamix to a pulp) without burning. Only problem with cooking pulp that way was that I hadn't thought to do it years ago!"
• A visitor writes on August 06, 2013: "I wrote in about my flattened cake rack experience. At that time I had only used it for water bath on my glass top stove. I decided I was comfortable with going ahead and trying the pressure cooker. I did, and it worked fine. I had no problems bringing it up to and maintaining pressure at 12-13 #'s for 75 minutes. I was surprised at how low a temp it took to maintain the pressure needed. I made a mental note about not sliding the cooker on the stove top to prevent scratching and had no problems of any kind. My pressure cooker is the old heavy screw down clamp style, (that I love), the size that holds pints two deep (with another rack in-between top and bottom sets of pints) or 1 layer of 7 quarts. My stove is a glass top Frigidaire with convection oven and warming zone."

Recommendations:

Here's a summary of what definitely works, in my order of preference:

1. The outdoor gas stove - great in nice weather, or in bad weather, in an open, but roofed area, like screen porch, open garage, etc.! Examples: Bayou Classic Single Gas Burner (click here or scroll down the page) Or the Camp Chef Explorer (click here or see above) which has legs, so there is no bending over.
2. The Coleman camping stove (Coleman 2 Burner Propane Grill /Stove, click here) is perfect for supervised indoor use! It can heat a canner in no time, and folds up neatly for storage. The canner fits easily on the grill portion. This is, in my opinion, the BEST solution. And, of course you can use it for camping and tailgating parties! Scoll down the page to see it.
3. A gas camping burner or countertop propane stoves (click here) with a low, stable profile can be a great spare high-power burner. But if you do a lot of canning, the outdoor cooker (see #1 above) would be cheaper to operate, unless you use the converter to hook up tp a 20 lb tank..
4. One double burner unit. Click here to see one. Lots of power, but it can be tricky to get some canners (the tall narrow ones) to balance and be stable on them) See examples further down the page.
5. Two 1300 watt burners - if you want to stay indoors - two of these, side by side will work! Click here to see some!
6. Two 1000 watt or greater burners, side by side - since you can move them around it is both a plus and a negative - you can position them to be stable, but perhaps not a close together as the double unit.

What to do?

Now, having said all this, not ALL glass and ceramic stoves are identical in every respect, so it is always possible that yours is designed differently or behaves differently from the description above. But there are enough stories of cracked stovetops to suggest that regardless, an alternative might be prudent, unless you're sure it is compatible with your stove!

So, what can you do? Here is a simple solution: buy a simple and inexpensive propane campstove, an electric burner (shown below) or use an outdoor propane burner and you can use ANY canner with it.  Plus, the propane burners may come in handy when you have a lot of cooking to do, during a power outage or when you need and extra burner!  One big advantage to using a gas stove outside, is: there's no mess to clean up!  

Standalone electric canner

Ball now sells an electric canner that does not require a stove.

Ball FreshTech Electric Water Bath Canner, Silver
Sold online on the big store you all know.
21 Quart Pot Holds 8 Pints or 7 Quarts Detachable Base with Nesting Design for Ease of Cleaning and Storage Efficiency

Electric burners

How to choose an electric burner? I look for a robust design and the highest wattage I can find.  A single 1000 watt burner doesn't do it. A canner holds around 16 quarts of water, so it takes a lot of heat to get that boiling.  I've found that one 1300 watt burner will get the average canner boiling, but it takes a while.  So... to speed it up, I got a second burner, put it on the counter, right next to the first  and put the canner on top, straddling both burns - and THAT worked like a charm! 

Gas stoves

Gas grills, turkey fryers, large camping stoves all make excellent outdoor alternatives.  Of course there are two keys: make sure it has enough oomph (measured in BTU's) and that it is stable and won't tip over.

I've found any turkey fryer, most gas grills and the camping stoves below work fine. Of course, most of those must be use outside. On rainy days I use the camping stove indoors (after taking precautions to open some windows, locate it on a flameproof surface (granite counter top, away from anything flammable, where children can't reach it, never leave it unattended, etc.)

Camp Stoves, like the Camp Chef Explorer 2 (see photo at right and box below) is nearly perfect!  It produces plenty of heat, is waist high, has two burners so you can run two canners or 1 Water Bath Canner and cook on the other! I have one and use it for all my canning. It leaves my stove in the kitchen free for cooking, so I can do twice as much canning in half the time with two canners going.  It produces SO much heat, that it can easily keep two canners at a full boil in any weather. And here's how you sell it to your hubby: The legs are removable, so you can easily put it in the trunk of your car and use it for camping and tailgate parties before the football game, or use it as a tabletop stove! And it is perfect for cooking when there is a power outage!

I've seen the 3 burner version is being sold in April - June in Costco.

See below for some camping stoves I've tried and used for canning.

Recommendations:

Here's a summary of what definitely works, in my order of preference:

1. The outdoor gas stove - great in nice weather, or in bad weather, in an open, but roofed area, like screen porch, open garage, etc.! Examples: Bayou Classic Single Gas Burner (click here or scroll down the page) Or the Camp Chef Explorer (click here or see above) which has legs, so there is no bending over.
2. The Coleman camping stove (Coleman 2 Burner Propane Grill /Stove, click here) is perfect for supervised indoor use! It can heat a canner in no time, and folds up neatly for storage. The canner fits easily on the grill portion. This is, in my opinion, the BEST solution. And, of course you can use it for camping and tailgating parties! Scoll down the page to see it.
3. A gas camping burner or countertop propane stoves (click here) with a low, stable profile can be a great spare high-power burner. But if you do a lot of canning, the outdoor cooker (see #1 above) would be cheaper to operate, unless you use the converter to hook up tp a 20 lb tank..
4. One double burner unit. Click here to see one. Lots of power, but it can be tricky to get some canners (the tall narrow ones) to balance and be stable on them) See examples further down the page.
5. Two 1300 watt burners - if you want to stay indoors - two of these, side by side will work! Click here to see some!
6. Two 1000 watt or greater burners, side by side - since you can move them around it is both a plus and a negative - you can position them to be stable, but perhaps not a close together as the double unit.

And you can find a wide variety of water bath canners and other canning supplies on this page

Comments from a visitor on July 16, 2011: "My solution to canning on a ceramic stove top: I have a clad cuisinart stock pot that heats well on the stove. I purchased a sheet of metal with a design in it (so there are holes), cut it with tin snips to fit the pot, lined the bottom of the stock put with canning rings (to give elevation) and then placed the metal on the rings. This made a nice canning rack to use in a pot I knew would boil on the range top. The only problem is I can only can 1/2 pints because the pot isn't not tall enough. I know you have to cover jars with 1" of water, but to do you have to keep the lid on the "canner" while processing

Canning stove alternatives

To find out more about a stove (with no obligation to buy), just click on any of the links in the sellers picture boxes below:

Coleman camp stove See here for related tools, equipment, supplies on Amazon	Coleman 2 Burner Propane Grill Stove This works very well  You will need 2 or 3 of the small green cylinders for a day's canning (see left). Blake: I have an earlier version of this, and as you can see from the photos at left.  All versions easily accommodates a large water bath canner OR a Pressure Canner. I use it for canning, camping, and when the power goes out!  Each model puts out 10,000 btu per burner (20,000, total per stove). I recommend the versions withOUT the griddle, as you will be sure the burners are the same height!

And you can find a wide variety of water bath canners and other canning supplies on this page

Comments from a visitor on July 16, 2011: "My solution to canning on a ceramic stove top: I have a clad cuisinart stock pot that heats well on the stove. I purchased a sheet of metal with a design in it (so there are holes), cut it with tin snips to fit the pot, lined the bottom of the stock put with canning rings (to give elevation) and then placed the metal on the rings. This made a nice canning rack to use in a pot I knew would boil on the range top. The only problem is I can only can 1/2 pints because the pot isn't not tall enough. I know you have to cover jars with 1" of water, but to do you have to keep the lid on the "canner" while processing