Canning A Pot of Beans

A well-stocked pantry isn’t complete without having some beans on the pantry shelves.  Whether you store dried beans or canned beans,  or some of both, beans are an excellent pantry food to store and build menus around.

Beans provide protein for our diet and they are a very important source of food for every household. Beans are also affordable. We store dried beans in jars and food-grade buckets. We also stock our pantry shelves with our homemade canned beans.

When dried, beans have a very long shelf-life and they’re an excellent food for long-term storage. Stored in a dry, dark closet, beans will last for decades. I recently used a 24+ year old jar of dried garbanzo beans! After a good soak to rehydrate them, they were cooked and they tasted fine!

Using dried beans has one small drawback — they must be reconstituted and then cooked. There are two ways to reconstitute, or rehydrate, dried beans. One method to reconstitute beans is to sort and rinse dried beans, then soak the beans overnight in a pot of water. The other method is to boil the rinsed dried beans for 1 minute, turn off heat, then allow the beans to soak in the heated water for 1 hour. Both methods work well so the choice is up to the cook.

Beans are a versatile food and there are so many ways to prepare bean dishes and so many flavors to choose from. I’ve gotten into the habit of canning my own ready-to-use beans so that we can have a side dish of beans at a moment’s notice.  I have home-canned pinto beans, kidney beans, Great Northern beans, black beans, and Navy beans.

Some beans are prepared with a boiling water base. But my favorite beans are prepared with flavorful sauces.  Once you understand the basics of canning a pot of beans, you can create your own canning sauces.

Beans must be pressure-canned.  Do not attempt to can beans by the water-bath method. No exceptions — the water bath canning process will not safely preserve cooked beans.

The processing time  to pressure can a pot of beans varies according to the size of canning jars and the altitude where you live.  Check the processing chart for your pressure canner to determine the pressure-pounds and the amount of time needed to properly can your beans.

To can a pot of beans, I need 3 pounds (6 cups) of beans to make about a dozen pint jars of cooked beans. If I wanted a canning pot filled with quart jars, I would need 5 pounds (10 cups) of beans. Check the capacity for your own pressure canner to determine how many glass jars of beans will fill your canner.

Basic directions for canning a pot of beans:

1. Measure dried beans. Sort beans and remove any debris. Rinse beans thoroughly.

2. Place the rinsed beans in very large pot and fill pot with water. Heat to boiling. Boil beans 1 minute then turn off heat, cover beans, and allow to sit for 1 hour.

3. Meanwhile, prepare the pressure canner. Fill canner with water (to recommended level).

4. Prepare canning jars and lids.

5. Heat another large pot of water to boiling. This water will be used to hot pack the beans in the individual jars.

6. After 1 hour of soaking, drain beans from pot. Rinse beans thoroughly. After draining, place beans back into pot and fill the pot with water. Cook on medium heat until water comes to a boil. Turn off heat.  Beans only need to be heated to hot pack, they will fully cook during the pressure-canning process.

7. Fill jars about 3/4 full of heated beans.

8. Add boiling water to jars, leaving 1-inch headspace. The beans will slightly increase in size during the pressure-canning process so leave 1-inch headspace to avoid cracked jars.

9. Wipe jar rims, place jar lids on each jar. Secure lids with rings.

10. Check water level in pressure canner and add boiling water if necessary.

11. Place filled jars in pressure canner according to directions from the manufacturer.

12. Secure lid for the pressure canner and vent according to manufacturer’s directions. Allow pressure canner to vent and build up pressure for 10 minutes.

13. Process pints for 65 minutes at 11 pounds; quarts for 75 minutes at 11 pounds, or according to your pressure-canning instructions.

Note: I do not add salt to my beans during the canning process so that the seasonings can be added when re-heated for a meal. If you wish to add salt, use pickling salt to prevent discoloration.

Having a pantry shelf filled with ready-to-eat home-canned beans saves both time and money. Why not pressure-can a dozen pints so you will have some that are in the pantry, ready-to-eat, the next time you want to serve beans?

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