Canning.

Last Sunday I finally obtained my very own canner after looking for one on Craigslist for a few weeks.  It was a steamer canner (not a pressure canner, they're different), and I was very excited to try it out.  So this morning I did some research online into "steamer canners" only to find that they are not considered safe.  Hmmm.  I was already quite far into my tomato sauce recipe, and was making way more than I needed so I thought there must be another way.  Indeed, there was.

Apparently, a boiling water canner, which is safe for some but not all canning, is an acceptable method of canning tomato sauce.  So I looked into it, and the only difference between a boiling water canner and a large stock pot is that there is a tray at the bottom that allows the cans not to sit on the bottom.  So the canner that I had purchased, although not working exactly as I had anticipated, was also designed to be used, by flipping it over, as a stock pot.  So then I looked into different ways of getting around the tray at the bottom and some people just use a linen wash cloth underneath the jars to keep them from bouncing around on the bottom.  I decided to give it a try.