DURH!!!!

I'm not a novice to canning anymore. I've been doing it nearly every summer/fall for most of the past decade. I've also been using the same ancient pressure canner the entire time. The thing that irritated me most about canning with the pressure canner is that you can't open the thing until the pressure gauge reads zero. Otherwise, you might do yourself some damage. It takes about 1/2 hour for the thing to cool off enough to depressurize. I was always tempted to run the thing under water but was too chicken to try. So, my day was always severely slowed down by waiting for the stupid thing to cool off before I could put the next batch in.

Imagine how utterly stupid (yet glad) I felt when all these years later, I realized that the thing has a pressure release valve! All this time!!!! I am an idiot!