Canning Dried Beans Potatoes

[bernie5711]

I experimented with growing Pintos, Navy & Northern Beans right from packages bought at the grocery store. I was amazed at the beans I got. It was incredible how just a handful (literally) of beans produced pounds of dried beans. Now I have several large bags of all three of these beans. Since it takes so long to prepare dried beans for eating, I was thinking about canning them so I could just open a jar for dinner, heat em, and we're ready to eat. Has anybody canned these beans and is there any secrets to producing a good quality canned dried bean? When my wife cooks them she puts bacon or fatback in them. Can you do that during canning.
I'd hate to can them and get something that comes out tasting much less desirable than cooked dried beans.

I did that with potatoes and was really disapointed with the end product. They came out tasting nothing like a potatoe should. They taste like the cheapest generic canned potatoes you can buy and I don't think there's enough seasoning on the shelf to make em taste less bland. They don't even mash up well. At this point I have 20 plus quart jars of canned potatoes that might be okay if society came to a halt and you couldn't get food anywhere else, but even then you would have to think it over!

Does anybody have any feedback they could provide on either of these items?

Thanks
Bernie

 

[NwMtGardener]

Haha, i havent canned either of those but i just had to say your comments on the canned potatoes made me laugh!! Several people on TEG can potatoes and love them that way, wonder what was different about yours?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Ive canned pinto beans and black turtle beans using a recipe I got from Rural Arkansas Living magazine a few years back. Its just beans, no bacon or fatback. I dont know how adding that stuff would affect canning time. As far as Im concerned they come out good. It is real convenient to be able to just open a jar and have cooked beans.

Use pint jars. Wash the beans and put just under cup of dried beans in a pint jar. Fill the jar with water and let it set for about 12 hours. I do it overnight. The next morning I dump each jar into a strainer, rinse the beans real well, and clean out the jar. There is usually some sediment. Then put the beans back in the jar. Cover with boiling hot water leaving 1 headspace. Add teaspoon of salt if you wish. I do. Put your lid on and process in a pressure canner for 75 minutes.

With pinto beans, that cup of dried beans works pretty well. With the black turtle, the jar is too full so I use 5/8 cup of dried beans to start with.

 

[lesa]

Gee, I am sorry to hear that you didn't like your canned potatoes... We always can our fingerlings and absolutely love them. How did the potatoes before you canned them? I haven't tried to mash ours. We usually use them like fried potatoes- so there is opportunity to add onions, spices, etc. Haven't tried canning beans.

 

[journey11]

Bernie, this is my first year canning potatoes, although I've had potatoes that someone else canned and I really liked them. If you have hard water or a lot of impurities in it, that could be what's giving your potatoes an off-flavor. You might try a small batch using distilled or purified water and see if you like that better. Those you've already canned might still be serviceable if you drain and rinse them, then slice them to fry. Adding butter, onions, bacon drippings, etc. should help cover up that off-flavor.

Now for beans, they are my absolute favorite thing to can. We eat so many more beans now that they are quick and easy to grab from the shelf. Pressure canning them really does wonders for taking the "blow" out of them. I do mine pretty much like Ridgerunner said, but soak the batch altogether and leave it to chance how many jars I end up with. A long soak and draining off and rinsing away that first round of water from soaking will eliminate most of the phytic acid that makes them so gassy. Instead of plain water, I use ham stock to can mine and then there's just something about pressure cooking (canning) them that really gives them a great flavor. All beans can up the same way, regardless of their variety. We keep our shelves stocked with pintos, black beans, kidney beans, navy beans and black-eyed peas...yum! And so good for you too.

 

[jomoncon]

I've been experimenting with canning red/kidney beans lately. After doing research, I found there are about 3 basic ways of preparing them. Soak overnight, boil & soak for 1 hour, pack raw beans directly in jars. I've had some spare time lately, so I decided to try all 3 methods.

1. Soaked 1 cups of beans overnight.
2. Boiled 1 cup of beans for 2 minutes & soaked for 1 hour.
These 2 methods require the beans be boiled for an additional 30 minutes in fresh water.
3. Put 1/2 cup of dry beans in a pint jar & add boiling water to 1" from top.

Added 1 teaspoon of salt to each jar. Marked the lids with a sharpie to identify each. I canned all 3 methods at the same time for 75 minutes at 10 psi.Let them cool & tasted each one. All 3 methods came out very good, better than I would have thought. And much better than what you would buy in the store. The texture was about the same for all 3 methods, with the raw pack being very slightly firmer, but still very edible.

Because of the simplicity, I'll go with method 3: dry beans straight into jars. So today, I'm going to finish my 4 pound bag of red beans. I'm going to add maybe 2 pieces of 1/2" cuts of smoked sausage & some raw onions to each jar. Since sausage & meat both pressure can for 75 minutes, and onions for 40 minutes, I can process everything for 75 minutes & be OK.