Posting is late today as we spent the morning learning about medicare coverage. The best insurance is healthy living.
I am planning to can baked beans today, providing I don’t get sidetracked. Dried beans are about the easiest thing in the world to store. They’re about the least expensive thing as well and loaded with all kinds of good things. But why bother with canning them? In an emergency, the thing likely to be in the shortest supply is energy, both the heat energy needed to prepare food and the emotional energy needed to get started. Since so many preparedness dinners can be made from a base of beans, it makes sense to have them on hand rather than in a state that needs presoaking and long cooking before you can even think about the rest of the meal. A 1 pound bag also makes way more than you are likely to need for a meal and getting stuck with a lot of leftovers is something to avoid if refrigeration is iffy. Canning my beans now, while the stove is working and I have lots of time works for me. I could, of course, just buy canned beans but that means putting my money into the commercial food system with the attendent packaging and consuming food with added salt, something I try to avoid. I wish I could say that canning beans is easy but it actually takes a bit of time and preparation. I still think the results are worth it. Here’s the recipe I use.
Begin by sorting and soaking your beans as you would for cooking. I usually forget to soak overnight so I cover with water and bring to boil for 2 minutes, turn off the heat and soak for an hour, then drain. Next, I fill hot, clean jars (1 pint) leaving 1 inch of headspace. I pressure can at 11 pounds of pressure for 75 minutes. The beans can also be canned in a tomato or molasses sauce. You can even add a small cube of pork. If I can in a sauce, I only fill jars 3/4 fill. The tomato sauce beans are good for things like tacos or burritos while the molasses beans are great as a baked bean. For tomato sauce I just put the soaked beans in a quart of home canned, rather thin tomato sauce and bring sauce and beans to a boil, then add to hot jars. For a molasses sauce I use 1 quart water, 3 tablespoons dark molasses, 1 tablespoon vinegar and some dry mustard. These are pretty standard recipes and very similar to the ones found in So Easy To Preserve.
Are the rest of you getting faked out by the coming warmer temperatures? I do this every year, then suffer through the disappointment of remembering that winter isn’t over in the Northeast until the end of April. Any tender plant put in the garden before the first day of June is just looking to perish in a late frost.
February 16, 2011 at 12:12 pm
not getting faked out at all! (been there, done that! lol)
Thanks for the tips on the beans. Not too much work for such a reward in convenience.
February 16, 2011 at 12:14 pm
well, my answer post just got blown away, so I’ll try again.
Thanks for the tips on beans, not too much work for such a reward in convenience.
I’m not going to get faked out by the warmer temps (been there/done that! lol) but it IS nice to see the snow level start to drop.
February 16, 2011 at 1:33 pm
Thanks for the encouragement to can my own beans. I think I might do that weekend after next. I always swear to use dried beans, but then I reach for the cans. It’s not difficult to cook the beans, but they do need a lot of foresight and prep. One dumb question from a canning newbie: if we don’t use a sauce, I assume the beans go in water. I was also curious to know about how many bags or pounds of beans fills about how many pints? That way I can plan ahead a little better and get the most of out my canning day.
February 16, 2011 at 2:08 pm
Thanks Kathy for the tips. I’ll be doing some this weekend for sure. What about if I want to do some as just plain beans without sauce, to add to a soup, maybe. Do I add fresh hot water to the plain hot beans and then put them into hot jars and pressure can them? Does it matter which kind of beans I use? Would kidney beans or chick peas be canned the same times etc as navy beans?
I really appreciate the help.
February 16, 2011 at 2:27 pm
How many jars per pound is a hard one for me to answer as I can them from a big old jar and I’m never really sure. Does anybody else know for sure? Yes. It’s fresh, boiling water. The times are the same.
February 16, 2011 at 3:00 pm
When I canned beans last week, it worked out to approximately a pound of beans per quart. More or less.
February 16, 2011 at 10:02 pm
Excellent tip on canned “convenient” beans – I’ve said “wow, I need to cut back on groceries, so we’re having chili/bean soup to use those storage preps and save dough – and then used a ton of money in the form of propane to boil them for 2 hours!
Live and learn
February 16, 2011 at 11:03 pm
I’ve been thinking about canning up some of my beans. I usually cook a potful and then freeze the excess, but my freezer is crammed full and I’m afraid my beans will spoil before I can use them all. Can you recommend a good step-by-step website for the process? I’m a bit scared of pressure cookers, even though I’ve been canning chicken lately. And I did some butter too. Re your post on the topic, I’m more scared of the chicken than the butter! I breathe a sigh of relief every time we don’t get botulism from the chicken! Anyway, I’m wondering how it works when the beans swell up as they cook. I guess they just absorb the water, but I’m still a bit puzzled. I’d like pictures to look at.
February 16, 2011 at 11:29 pm
Am I understanding that you FILL the jars with soaked, uncooked beans? Don’t they expand?
February 17, 2011 at 2:55 am
Freezing soaked beans will shorten the cooking time, as will grinding them (when dry) into smaller pieces. Both require a bit of planning ahead, but once you get into the rhythm it gets easier.
February 17, 2011 at 3:20 am
The beans are cook for two hours before before being canned so the expansion is done. If you search for canning on you tube you’ll find lots of videos but alsways check out the USDA canning site if you have any questions. I keep thinking about another book but I’m not sure I have the time. I LOVE the Baby Steps program. I think everybody needs the Ball Book or something similar when they can. I just give an idea to get you started. I still use my directions every time. Freezing the soaked breaks the fibers and shortens the cooking time by a lot. I keep forgeting to do that.
February 17, 2011 at 6:00 pm
So you cook them, freeze them, heat them hot and can them?
February 17, 2011 at 6:00 pm
Ooops, lost my post.
Or you soak them, freeze them, cook them and can them?
February 17, 2011 at 9:06 pm
Hi, I have been reading your blog for 2-3 mos now and have gone into the archives. You have so much good information that you share so freely. My husband and I are “putting back” as much as we can afford to, weekly. I also have an Excalibur dehydrator which I use as much as any other methods. I have successfuly dehydrated apples, pears, pineapple, oranges, onions, bell peppers and jalapinos, carrots,sweet potatoes,tomatoes, bananas, coconut, mangos,
and many herbs. I have made some truly delicious fruit leathers also. I just can’t praise my dehydrator enough. So little space for large amounts of food. I also have a Food Saver that gets a lot of use and 2 pressure cookers. Today I started with a 4# bag of dried pinto beans and it toaled 13 pints when I finished canning. Not bad. Maybe tomorrow Red beans or Black Turtle beans for some good Cuban food! I want to finish these items before summer canning begins. A tip for those who have a dehydator and do dry tomatoes.
Dry them untill they are actually crisp then put into food processor and process into a powder. You can use this to make tomato sauce, tomato paste, tomato soup etc by adjusting the amount of water used to hydrate. A couple of spoonsful in a pot of soup is delicious. AND this takes up very little space. I keep this stored in quart jars that have been sealed with my Food Saver. I make mozzarella cheese but have not experimented with other kinds. I enjoy your blog very much and appreciate all of your tips.
February 18, 2011 at 3:35 am
Sorry for the confusion, Madison – when I mentioned freezing I was responding to your sub-thread re cooking them for eating “now”, rather than re canning them, which I don’t have any experience with (yet).