Pressure canning dried beans

[Lorelai]

Hi all - just wondering how many of you successfully can dried beans. I'd like to add some significant quantities to my food storage, and cooking large batches and then using the new pressure canner (yikes!) seems like the best way to make the storage accessible. Plus it will help my grocery budget and be educational as well. I only wish we had room to grow our own! Anyway, I'm interested in red kidney beans, black beans, pinto beans, and probably a white bean of some kind too. Any advice, words of wisdom or support, for a canning newbie? Who is a little afraid of her pressure canner?

 

[NwMtGardener]

Hi Laura, we do have experts on canning here, but its not me! Just posting to welcome you to our forum! i only water bath can, and not too expertly either!!

 

[hoodat]

Hi all - just wondering how many of you successfully can dried beans. I'd like to add some significant quantities to my food storage, and cooking large batches and then using the new pressure canner (yikes!) seems like the best way to make the storage accessible. Plus it will help my grocery budget and be educational as well. I only wish we had room to grow our own! Anyway, I'm interested in red kidney beans, black beans, pinto beans, and probably a white bean of some kind too. Any advice, words of wisdom or support, for a canning newbie? Who is a little afraid of her pressure canner?

I can beans all the time and they always keep quite well. I can everything from bean soup to bean chili to Cajun beans. Just be sure your beans are thoroughly cooked before you fill your jars. If they are not cooked all the way they will swell up and be difficult to get a good seal. Dried beans are an alkaline food so give them 90 minutes at 10 pounds.

 

[lesa]

Have not tried this... Seems so easy to store them in the dry form. Is there a reason you are shying away from that? Good luck and Welcome!!

 

[Lorelai]

Have not tried this... Seems so easy to store them in the dry form. Is there a reason you are shying away from that? Good luck and Welcome!!

Hi Lesa - It's incredibly easy to store them in dry form, it's just not so easy to actually use them, which kind of defeats the purpose of my food storage, or, more aptly named, my "extended pantry." I like the idea of remembering to soak multiple pounds of beans overnight once in my large stockpot, cooking them however long (I've read 30 minutes?), and then having a dozen pint jars or half that in quarts for later use, plus perhaps reserving some of those beans for that night's dinner. It just seems like a more efficient use of my time, especially since I have a hard enough time as it is planning ahead enough to soak the darn things overnight! I'd rather shop in my pantry than end up buying a few cans of beans every time I go to the store to have on hand for "convenience." I guess I'd rather create my own convenience, if that makes sense, and since I buy organic, it'd be cheaper than buying cans. Plus cans have BPA and who knows what in them. There are a lot of reasons why I like the idea of canning my own beans.

 

[hoodat]

It takes so long to cook dry beans in the crock pot that I usually cook a big batch (which takes no longer than a small one) and can what I don't eat immediately. It's nice when you're in a hurry to just pop the lid and microwave. If I try to cook them outside a crock pot I burn them half the time and just a few scorched beans can ruin an entire batch.

 

[lesa]

I see what you are saying from a convenience point of view!

 

[ninnymary]

Hoodat...How can you burn beans with all that water? lol. Every week I make a pot of beans in a soup pot. Yes, they do take 3 hrs. to cook but I'm home so I can do that. My grandmother didn't soak them so that's how I do it. I've always meant to try it to see if it would cut the cooking time. I've never burned any yet. The kids love bean and cheese burritos. They could probably eat them every day but they don't.

Mary

 

[hoodat]

I have a talent for burning things. I usually get in too much of a hurry. As I said, just a few burned beans on the bottom can make a whole pot full unfit to eat. Thet get a really repulsive taste when they burn.

 

[Lorelai]

Thank you all for the advice! I will be extra vigilant when cooking my beans... I learned the hard way that my stove plus stainless steel equals a lower than usual temperature needed to get the job done. If I only have to stand over them for 30 minutes, it should be fine.