I'm venturing into pressure canning and tried putting up two quart jars of okra & tomatoes tonight. I followed all manufacturer instructions and filled the jars to 1" headspace.

After the allotted time I opened up the canner to find that some of the liquid from the jars has escaped/leaked.

One if the two jars has sealed, but it's only been ~30 minutes. Is this normal and to be expected each time or did I do something wrong?

Following. I got a chamber sealer and am looking forward to trying some of this stuff.

What were the instructions you followed? It could be a number of reasons: food was packed raw, so the air in the food was driven off, and thus the water level lowered; you cooled the canner too quickly, and reduced the pressure in the canner, but not the jars, so the jars boiled over; the pressure in the canner fluctuated a bunch during canning, and the contents boiled out while processing.

1 inch of head space seems like a lot. I learned from my father who learned from my grandmother and a half inch was about her max. They also parboiled fresh vegetables before canning.them. They rarely used a pressure canner though so that method could be different set of rules.

Did you rush the vent and cooling process?

Half inch is plenty.

I've pressure canned mostly venison.

Presto 23qt pressure canner/cooker

bring canner w/ 3qt water to simmer (lid off); 180F

fill hot, sterile quart jars with food (boiling okra & tomatoes), wipe rims, place in canner

place lid on canner, lock

turn up heat to medium-high

allow steam to release from vent for 10 minutes before placing pressure regulator on the release valve

placed regulator on release valve, let pressure increase to 11

held at 11 for 35 minutes

cut off heat, let come to 0

at 0, removed pressure valve

removed lid ~5 minutes after previous step (too soon??)

both jars leaked liquid into the canning water, one sealed one did not.

I dont think so, but I'm not 100% sure exactly how long that *should* take. I did not do anything to expedite the cooling process.