Sunday, January 9, 2011

Basic Beans - Pressure canning Pinto Beans

This is a short blog about how easy it is to put up Pinto Beans or any dried bean for later use. My husband didn't understand why I didn't "flavor" them up, but I wanted to use them later in other recipes. The basic recipe comes from the Ball Canning book since I have seen so many variations and want this batch to come out perfect. You can use this recipe to process dried Kidney, Navy, Black eye peas and Peruano beans which come from Mexico.

Here is the process:


5 lbs of dried beans will yield 7 quarts of beans

3 1/4 lbs of dried beans will yield 9 pints of beans  


You can soak the beans overnight or

put dried beans in a large saucepan. Add water to cover beans by 2 inches.
Bring beans to a boil, boil 2 minutes.
Remove from heat and let stand covered for 1 hour. Drain.
Cover beans with fresh cold water by two inches in a large dutch oven.
(Because the beans have plumped up you may need a bigger pan.)
Bring beans to a low boil for 30 minutes, stirring frequently. (Hard boil tends to split beans.)

Pack beans using a slotted spoon into the hot pint jars filling about 3/4 of the way. Add 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt to each jar (optional). Ladle hot cooking liquid over beans removing air bubbles and add enough to fill to 1 inch headspace. Clean rims, add lids and rings. Process pints in pressure canner at 10lbs of pressure for a weighted gauge canner and 11lbs for a dial gauge for 65 minutes, quarts for 75 minutes.

For more instructions and a checklist on the processing in a pressure canning click here!


9 comments:

sunflowergrl24 said...

Can this recipe be used for black beans too, or is there something special for them?

What about soaking the beans overnight instead of boiling, waiting an hour and reboiling?

Canning Homemade! said...

You can use this recipe for any dried beans. You can do the soaking and is preferable if the beans are larger. Then boiling just before filling.

TSprings said...

I read somewhere that you could just put the dried beans in the jars with the liquid (with plenty of headspace) and Pressure Can them that way. Is this an option? I of course did not bookmark the site, and cannot remember where I saw it. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks!

Canning Homemade! said...

TSprings,
I have never heard of this and my only concern would be that they may not be fully cooked. If you want to try this it's up to you but I wouldn't know what a reasonable headspace would be since you still have to consider the remove of the air and you don't want to much head space.

cp said...

Is there a way to cut down on pre-cooking or re-hydrating time? I've followed this formula with pinto beans and garbanzos and end up with over-cooked beans. Thx.

Kat said...

I have made beans without the precooking...I just put 1 cup washed beans in a hot quart jar, add 1 t. salt, and fill the jar up with boiling water, leaving plenty of headspace. Then process them the above mentioned time in a pressure canner. We have also added ham chunks and onions to the jars. They cook just fine!

CRICKET said...

At what point do I put the fatback in?

Helpmeet @ Home said...

what about quarts - can I can beans in quart jars?

cometkatt said...

I have also canned beans without soaking/cooking ahead of time. worked perfectly, BUT -- be a tad scant in your measurements. those puppies EXPAND with the liquid & if you dont want a bean cement at the bottom of the jar - go easy on the the measurements. you Can do a quart but i personally prefer them in pints. i add them to everything & LOVE them. have fun :)