Canning question.......need help!!!!

Every 3 years I can antipasta.  It makes a hugh batch, so big I have to cook it in a 21 qt canner and it fills it to the brim.  Since my last canning session (3 years ago) I've had to replace my cooktop.  Unless I wanted to special order about the only thing available when I bought was a glass top (you know how that goes, it's what's trendy in the world so everyone should have them??, ok that's another post! LOL)  I dug out my canning pot BUT the label on the side says "Don't: use on glass cooktops"  Any idea why?????  I would sure hate to have to haul all these ingredients to someone's house to make this recipe. Not to mention I'll be using 2 pots, one to cook the antipasta in and one to can the jars.

I'd recommend checking the manual for your stove.  I'd heard canning can cause the glass cooktop to crack but the manual for my stove had some info specifically about canning and I can use mine for canning.  I know it mentioned the size of the canner compared to the burner and also to be sure the bottom of the pan sits flat on the burner.  Good luck, hope it works out for you! 

I have an idea but it may be wrong.How much does your 21 qrt canning pot weigh?

At least a few lbs. Then put 20 qrts of ;iquid in it and you have an additional 40 lbs.

Maybe glass tops are not made to carry over 40 lbs of weight in one spot.

that's one reason I can think of. Another is that it would take forever to heat the full pot through the glass and it may melt some of the wiring under the glass.

I am sure glad I have a gas range with heavy duty grates. I don't like to cook on electrc rnges and would NEVER  have a glass top if I coud help it.Would rather give up some the cabinet space under the cooktop inn order to have a 30" range with regular burners if I could not have have gas.

lookns like you are going to have to do it in two batches. I would call the place where I bought the glass top and ask them.

Thanks for the replies.  I do have a smaller canner that I can use for the water bath, 11 qt and it will hold 6 jars and I plan on making pts and some half pts for gifts.  I'm going to check my gas grill (can you tell how much I use it! LOL) I think it might have a burner on the side.  Otherwise I've been going through my mind on what large pots I have.  My kitchen is so space challenged that alot of my larger pans are in the garage.  I do have a rather large stock pot out there.  Looking at my recipe the largest part of ingredients are just reheat ingredients so I think I can figure out a way to work it out since those are added last.  My thoughts do the cooking part in the stock pot then add everything off the stove to the large canner to mix it up and then take it out in parts to finish the cooking back in the stock pot.  Wow that's going to make a ton of work! BUT this is awesome antipasta.

Grelo I'd LOVE a gas stove top and about the last thing I wanted was this glass top but as I said thats what the store had for the electric tops.

Here is a thougth.... in Alaska I had a glass top on the range and it too said don't can on it... sooooooooo  we used the propane bases for the turkey cookers  your canner will sit perfectly in that base to cook... you do it outside and no muss no fuss....  is this a possibility?  when I was canning fish I would borrow canners and propane burners from friends and have 4-5 canners going at once!!

I was just looking at stoves at Sear's and asked why glass tops aren't ot be used for canning. She said as mentioned the weight of canner will shatter the glass.  My neighbor used a turkey deep fryer thing like Akfishergirl used for canning.

Just curious, Dreyfuss, but is the antipasto you're talking about the kind with tomato sauce/juice, tuna, pearl onions, olives, baby carrots...etc., etc., etc? If so, I can't believe there's somebody else out there that makes it! Until we downsized and sold our house, I used to make it (also only every third year) and friends/relatives all but stood outside the kitchen door waiting for their "share". One of my aunts would go home and open the jar, get out a spoon and dig in.

When I was a kid, my mom and aunts, grandmother, some of our Italian neighbors would get together to can it in our kitchen because we had the biggest kitchen with the most room for a lot of women to move around. It was usually a two-day affair, and when we had a good crop of bell peppers, they put up pickled peppers as well.

There's nothing like a Sunday night sandwich supper with pickled peppers on the sandwiches and antipasto on the side. Omigosh! To die for

Great idea on the turkey cooker but I don't have one of those. LOL  Im not sure what DH has in his camp stuff but there isn't one in my living room and I won't go to his storage to look (he'd probably think I should "tidy" that up too!)

Yep Gramma, that's the type I'm making. Among the things in it:celery, red bells, green bells, dill pickles, cauliflower (WOW that price was up from last week! LOL) , onions (pearl onions would be great, may buzz to the store for some), mushrooms, pimentos, garlic parsley, carrots, peas, green beans, black olives, green olives, tuna, shrimp, artichokes and asparagus.  Lots of olive oil and vinegar!

I like to just spoon a little over lettuce with some fresh mozzarella and salami with crackers for dinner.  A couple of Italian friends commented on how authentic and one man said "just like Mommas"  So handy to have in the pantry for when you need a quick appetizer.

What kind of peppers?  I used to put up hot hungarian peppers that had garlic cloves (couple other things, where is my recipe for those???) and I just loved them on sandwiches.

Thanks for all the wonderful ideas and imput.

drefuss  Do you have a propane or gas BBQ with a burner on the side?  They work great for canning.

Yup! That's the one, and that's why I said "etc, etc, etc" because the list is so long.

Bell peppers, red/green/yellow/orange. My mom used green because that's what we grew, but she'd buy a few colored ones, too, just to make the jars look pretty, and I did it the same way.

I'll hunt up my recipe and post it. Gimme a couple of hours. I move slowly these days, not because of my (advanced) age but because my ADHD kicks in. Oh, look! There's a chicken. And shiny stuff, too. I think I'll get the clothes out of the dryer. LOL

Yes, I know you can not can on a glass stove top. So if you do a lot of canning it wouldn't be a bad idea to have some old stove that you can buy cheap just to can on and also use it when you are doing a  lot of baking. I always wanted that but never did it.

You could come to my house and use my gas range.

I would love to have the recipe also.

Gramma, I suffere from adult ADHD.  I get so sidetracked no matter what I'm doing!  OK I don't have the "real" stuff just the age onset that goes with CRS!!!  Here's my recipe, sound alot like yours???

Astipasta

Step 1 

6 cups olive oil
12 c. white vinegar
52 oz ketchup
24 oz tomato paste

Step 2~all chopped (I cut just smaller than bitesize)

2 bunches celery
5 bell pepper
3 lbs dill pickles
2 large cauliflower
6 lbs onions
3 lbs fresh mushrooms (I have used canned button without a problem and it's cheaper)
2 large can pimentos
4 cloves garlic
1 bunch parsley
1 pound carrots

Step 3

2 cans peas
2 cans green beans
3 cans pitted black olives
2 jars stuffed green olives
6 can tuna (8 oz each)
3 tbsp salt
4 cans shrimp
2 cans artichokes
2 cans cut asparagus

Boil together items from step one (except 2 cups oil) for 5 minutes. Use the 2 cups oil and fry items from step 2 (items should be tender).  Add cooked vegetables from step 2 into step 1. Cook 10 minutes.  Add items in step 3 to previous steps and bring to boil.  Put in sterile jars and process in water bath 35 minutes for quart jarts, less for pint jars.  Serve with crackers as a dip or on a lettuce leaf as a salad.

I'll making it in small jars.  Dh has never been crazy about it like me.  He will eat some but I like it for a little dinner.

hidecogal, I'll be right over. LOL  I really don't can much these days.  This is about all l do anymore and l only have to do it every 3 years since it makes so much.  LOL

Recipe in above post.  Enjoy!

Okay, here you go:

Pickled Bell Peppers

Wash, quarter, and seed a bushel of bell peppers.

Mix together in a large Dutch oven or stewpot:

2 quarts cider vinegar

1 1/2 quarts olive oil

1 1/2 quarts water

1/2 cup salt

1/2 cup sugar

Tie 2 tablespoons celery seed and 3 tablespoons pickling spice in cheescloth. Add to vinegar/oil/water mixture and bring to a boil. Boil 5 minutes.

I large head of garlic, separated into cloves, trimmed, skin removed.

Add peppers (I just put in as many as I can stir at a time) to hot liquid just until they change color. Put a clove of garlic in each jar, then pack peppers with liquid to cover. Remove bubbles, top with lids and rings. Boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

They change color quickly, and you have to be quick about getting them out of the hot liquid and into the jars so that they don't get mushy, which is another reason to not put too many in the liquid at a time.

My mom used to just use sterilized quart jars and let them self-seal; apparently the acid is enough to preserve them. I always used a boiling water bath.

Her recipe calls for a bushel of peppers and says it makes nine quarts. I always bought a bushel of peppers because they were cheap on Labor Day weekend, but I always had at least a dozen quarts.

Labor intensive but so worth it!