I have a Ball canning book but I also another "Home Preserving" book by Judi Kingry and Lauren Devine. It depends on what you are canning but if it is venison you need pressure canner. I use water for the jams/jellies. Word of warning, when you pressure can tomatoes, they will come out like a lot of water and smooched tomatoes at the top. You didn't do anything wrong, they will "settle" back down, you don't have to re-open, dump the liquid and re-can. That year I had real thick tomatoes.