Canning Dry Beans

I've posted before about cooking dry beans (primarily pinto, but my favorite is cranberry).  Beans keep a long time when dry, but they eventually become difficult to cook; the solution that has worked best for me is pressure cooking.

Another alternative is to can them.  Now that I'm using my pressure canner, that is an option.  Canning beans offers no advantage over storing dry with the exception that they are ready to eat without further preparation.  Canned beans certainly won't last longer than dry beans in terms of storage life (the latter are good for 30 years, if "dislike slightly" is good enough).

There are numerous sites that describe canning beans, but one thing is striking: most describe canning plain beans.  The NCHFP does have a recipe for canning beans with tomato or molasses sauce that optionally includes adding a small amount of bacon or pork.  As I've noted previously, when making a pot of beans for immediate use (or for freezing) I add onion, garlic, and bacon to the mix.

I decided to give my normal recipe a try.  The amount of bacon per jar would be comparable to that suggested by the NCHFP site, although my precise recipe isn't listed--the one featuring the bacon includes tomato or molasses, which is not the flavor I was going for at all (I cut up a pound of bacon for the batch, which worked out to about one ounce per jar--somewhat more than the 3/4 inch cube in the NCHFP recipe).

The NCHFP site recommends an overnight or quick soak, followed by 30 minutes' worth of boiling before putting in the jars.  The extra boiling might be justified if it helps the beans absorb more water so that they are fully hydrated.  But that level of cooking obviously isn't needed for tenderness: the beans process for 75-90 minutes at 240 degrees.  That cooks them very well.

I soaked three pounds of cranberry beans overnight, then poured off the water and added the onion, garlic, and bacon, placing them straight into the jars--similar to the process suggested by The Prairie Homestead.

I had some fresh onion, but not enough for the whole batch, so I hydrated some dried minced onion, following the process previously described.  Then it was just a matter of filling the jars, first with beans, then with water, to about the 1" of headspace line.

The NCHFP suggests 5 pounds of beans for 7 quarts (or 14 pints); The Prairie Homestead got more than 1 pound in each quart jar.  But these recipes don't include the onion or bacon.  I ended up with about 17 pints' worth of bean mix.  This was somewhat unfortunate, because my All American 921 canner cannot hold that many widemouth jars (various sites indicate the capacity is 19 pints, but that is based on standard-mouth jars, which are narrower--relatively few sites break the capacity down by different jar types, but those that do suggest the max capacity with widemouths is 16 pints).  In the picture, you'll see that I had one standard-mouth jar.  As I kept filling and filling and filling...I realized I was going to need all the space I had and then some.  Unfortunately, I could only find one empty standard-mouth jar.  I mostly use widemouths, though I have a number of standard-mouth jars--they were just all full of peach and blueberry preserves.   I was only able to get 15 jars into the canner, 7 below and 8 on top.

I processed them for about 80 minutes at 10 pounds.  When they came out of the canner, it was obvious they'd leaked a little, but not much: the water in the bottom of the canner looked (very) slightly cloudy and the jars had some fat-slickness to them.

After they cooled down, the liquid level inside the jars did recede quite a bit--In this case, I don't think it was all leakage, because all of the jars were low and there was nowhere near that amount in the bottom of the canner.  I think the fluid level dropped simply due to it being absorbed by the beans.  Although some of the beans appear to be high and dry in the picture, they are still tender (and cooked to perfection).

I'll probably still mostly cook beans for immediate use going forward, occasionally freezing one or two meals' worth.  However, canning does expand the opportunity to use them. Cooking a batch of beans is a big endeavor, and I don't always have the time when I would otherwise eat some.  Now I have them if I want them.  One pint is about the right quantity for one meal.