Fortune and opportunity have met in my life (no, I did not win Lotto!) Not only have I caught a few fish, I have scored on a Ives-Way canner sealer and two cases of cans from a friend (and it seems all the parts are there). Only problem is, either I am a bit of an idiot, or the instructions that came with it are a little bit incomplete. Is there any one out there that can tell me how much head space to leave in the top of the can (these are metal cans) above the packed raw salmon, and, do I seal the cans with the sealer before I steam them under pressure in the pressure cooker? Also, any one know of a good local source for more metal cans? Hopefully, the Fish Gods will stick around and bring in more to process.

Pack your cans completely full.
Seal them.
Load them in your pressure steamer.
Bring the steamer to a boil with the vent open.
Boil ten minutes to purge the air.
Close the vent and raise the pressure to 10-12 pounds or 245° F.
Maintain this temp/pressure for two (2) hours.
Cool and wash and label your product.

Check each cooled can for a good seal. The lid should be sucked inwards. If you can push the center of the lid inwards you have a bad can that you should open immediately and eat before it spoils or toss it out.

Thank you, thank you and thank you again Plunker. I appreciate pure and complete simpleness which the four pages of instructions that came with the canner seamed to lack. I wish Ives-Way would have had you write the instructions for them. Now all I need to know is where locally I can get more tin cans for this canner at a reasonable cost. I hear there is a canner in Port Angeles! Does anyone any info on them? Maybe there is a source closer to Whidbey? Thanks again.