canning dried beans

[feather]

Using the regular method of either soaking beans over night, OR bring beans to a boil, let sit 60 minutes--one or the other.

Then bring to a boil using cold clear water for 30 minutes.

Then pack into jars, wipe tops, add lids and rings. Regular lids get fingertip tightened. Tattler lids get finger tip tightened, then back off 1/4th inch.

Put in the pressure canner, bring to full steam going out the vent pipe for a full 10 minutes.

Quarts--then keep at required pressure for 90 minutes.

Pints--then keep at the required pressure for 75 minutes.

Turn off the heat, do not open the vent. When the pressure is at zero, open the vent pipe and take off the lid. Move the jars to a towel on the counter. For regular lids, leave them alone. For tattler lids, tighten. Let cool.

Remove the rings, put into storage.

Things that cannot be known, how long the beans were in storage before they were bought. They can be over dried and hard to rehydrate. I haven't had that happen in years now.

Someone here, I think tenbusybees, mentioned having problems with pinto beans not staying sealed. I'm not running into that right now.

Pinto beans for me, stay whole and have texture, they are bland.

Black beans well rinsed, keep their shape, are creamy inside, and are almost a black red color after canning.

Garbanzo (chickpeas), keep their shape, good for salads and hummus. I use them a lot.

Small red beans, keep their shape but don't look much different than pinto beans once canned.

White beans, these were already looking a bit mushy before putting them in jars. Once canned they looked like white beans but many were broken. These will work for a hummus or a sauce, but not for a bean salad or a chili. They did cook up fast. I'd probably consider making them without canning, so they stayed in bean shape, for a white bean chili or salad.

There are dozens of kinds of beans besides the ones I use. Please share your experience.

[wally]

We keep pinto, kidney and limas beans in the pantry for use as needed. We put a heaping half cup of rinsed beans in to each pint, fill with boiling water, leave 1 inch head space, put lids and bands on, then process at 10 lbs pressured for 75 minutes

[Mari-in-IN]

I'm definitely starting to feel motivated to start canning some dried beans now after reading your posts feather ...
We have scads of various types of dried beans and boy - it'd be nice to have them already canned to save on prep time with meals!
Thanks for your posts!
~Mari
ETA - and thanks also to you wally!

[feather]

wally, A couple years ago I tried the 'from dry to canned' method. Some of the beans turned out great, some of them were like bricks in the jar. Too many beans too close together, not enough water. The proportion of beans to water is important and I got it right about half the time. And that depends entirely on how dry the beans are to begin with, which is hard to know.

So tell me about the texture/taste of lima beans. I like lima beans but haven't eaten them in 30 years. Are they the big ones or the medium ones or the small ones? What do you use them in?

[wally]

Feather, can't say we have ever had a bean or 2 that came out hard, as far a limas bean size, same procedure for all, really just a preference to suit your wants. About the only things we use the limas beans is in calico beans and perhaps a 3or4 bean salad

[dustawaits]

All depends what kind I am canning. Soaking for an hour or two
is usually sufficient. I have canned quarts and pints . Filling a jar 1/3-
to 1/2 full with beans ....on lentils never more than 1/3 .
Might add celery and carrots to navy beans.

[feather]

May 27, 2019 14:47:05 GMT dustawaits said:

All depends what kind I am canning. Soaking for an hour or two
is usually sufficient. I have canned quarts and pints . Filling a jar 1/3-
to 1/2 full with beans ....on lentils never more than 1/3 .
Might add celery and carrots to navy beans.

Says, lentils are included in canning. www.clemson.edu/extension/food/canning/canning-tips/30canning-drying-legumes.html

I had always thought you couldn't can lentils because the density of the lentils was what made it unsafe. But with the link above, that must not be a fact. Next, lentils go to mush very easily if they are overcooked, so I thought they might go to mush, more like soup. That I don't know about. At least it is safe.

There are safe tested recipes for soups, for split pea soup but I couldn't find one with lentils.

Do you like the canned lentils?

[dustawaits]

They were alright but...I put in a little more than the 1/3 cup.....
They did not go to mush. I think I would rather cook than can
lentils , seems like cooked ones have more flavor than canned.

[feather]

May 27, 2019 16:24:51 GMT dustawaits said:

They were alright but...I put in a little more than the 1/3 cup.....
They did not go to mush. I think I would rather cook than can
lentils , seems like cooked ones have more flavor than canned.

Thanks. I'm still getting my head around lentils. The red ones go to mush cooking more than 20 minutes, so I'm very wary of them.

The brown and green ones seem to hold their shape a little better.

All the lentils I've tried cook up pretty fast.

I made a plant based 'meat' loaf, with lentils and it was good, but it was better when I didn't over cook the lentils. It had more chewy texture when I didn't over cook them.

[dustawaits]

My opinion on lentils is inwant to do the mushing...not cook to mush.
I like the yellow ones best haven’t tried the red and am not fond of the brown ones.

[feather]

www.thekitchn.com/whats-the-difference-brown-green-and-red-lentils-111139

I didn't realize the yellow one's are actually red lentils--lentils range from yellow to orange to red. They are still called red lentils (if that article is correct.)

The reds go to mush very fast, 20 minutes, they are done. The advantage is that they melt into tomato sauce really well, and they add a great deal of nutrition (protein).

I made some green lentils and they DO have a little bit of peppery fragrance after cooking.

[dustawaits]

The yellow lentils I know , are almost the color of corn, no red to them.
The orange ones look interesting!

[tenbusybees]

Yep, it was me. Those pesky pintos. I have no other problems with any other beans and I can lots and lots of beans.

Chickpeas, navy, red, black, black-eyed peas, etc. I do all the same way:
I soak beans in the jars that they are going to be canned in the night before. Rinse the next day, refill with water, add salt (sometimes a bit of bacon and/or slices of jalapeno), process 90/qts or 75/pts at 10 lbs.

I tried to soak and cook the pintos for 30 minutes prior to canning. They still popped. I tried cooking for an hour. They were mushy and still popped. I've resigned to the fact we were not intended to have plain pintos on our shelves.

Now knock-off Ranch Style Beans that's another story, pintos work perfectly for me and I have dozens of those on the shelf now. No problems. I still start them the same way I start any other beans and fill with the rest of the ingredients and process.

Weird, huh?

[feather]

tenbusybees, your pinto beans are possessed by a gassy ghost.

I'm doing the dry to canning, 1/2 cup (plus 10 beans) of beans per pint, boiling water, navy beans (little white beans), then pressure can 10 lbs for 75 minutes. I'll report back later.

[tenbusybees]

Jun 3, 2019 21:13:55 GMT feather said:

tenbusybees , your pinto beans are possessed by a gassy ghost.

I'm doing the dry to canning, 1/2 cup (plus 10 beans) of beans per pint, boiling water, navy beans (little white beans), then pressure can 10 lbs for 75 minutes. I'll report back later.

I know, right? Pesky pintos with a gassy ghost. Bwahaha!

Hope it goes well for you. I love the convenience of canning dry beans. The only reason I soak my beans prior to canning now is just to get rid of phytic acid not to soften them or anything.

[feather]

Navy, dry no soak, canned beans. Okay, well, it looks like some of the beans are split or broken but about 75% look whole and there isn't a brick bean syndrome going on where they are too close together in the bottom of the jar making them impossible to get out of the jar. So it's pretty good. They're done. I might do another batch tomorrow.

So DH comes home from shopping and he picked up 10 of the less expensive bags of garbanzo beans. Then he says, 'I got something to surprise you', woo hoo what could it be? I see bananas and I say, OH WOW, bananas, how exciting. No he says, didn't you see the black beans? They were on sale in the 4 lb bags. Woo hoo, my life is now complete. I wonder what I'll get for our anniversary. Maybe gas reduction enzyme pills....oh yeah. Those old farts are labels for people like us.

[feather]

TEN, I'm going to try your method. I start with 1/2 + 10 beans in the pint, then add the boiling water. Let that sit a couple hours. Drain. Fill with boiling water and proceed to can. These are navy beans, the ones that were 75% whole beans and the rest broken or split. I'm hoping this will help keep them whole by more slowly rehydrating them. It might help, it might not.

I'll report later.

EDIT: first report, after the first soaking, none of the beans had split or broken. Drained, refilled with boiling water, put in canner.

Second report, after they come out of the canner. The beans were broken up as much as the first batch, no improvement at all. Bummer! I'm glad I tried.

[tenbusybees]

Curiosity has the best of me.

Why the plus 10 beans?

[tenbusybees]

Oh, and I had to go look at my beans... in each jar some broken, more beginning to split, the rest whole. Not pretty like a can of store beans but still yummy and made with love.

[feather]

TEN, 1/2 cup plus 10, uses up a full 2 lbs of beans for 8 or 9 pint jars. So I opened 2-1 lb bags for each canner load.

[tenbusybees]

Jun 4, 2019 22:23:37 GMT feather said:

TEN, 1/2 cup plus 10, uses up a full 2 lbs of beans for 8 or 9 pint jars. So I opened 2-1 lb bags for each canner load.

Gotcha! My beans are in 5-gallon buckets so no need for me to divie up that last little handful.

[feather]

Cooking can be poetry, right?

You've probably heard this one.
Beans beans the musical fruit the more you eat the more you.....
See you have heard that one.

This one was new to me.
Cooking beans is quite an art the more you eat the more you .....
I thought it was pretty good.

[Mari-in-IN]

Jun 11, 2019 1:07:55 GMT feather said:

Cooking can be poetry, right?

You've probably heard this one.
Beans beans the musical fruit the more you eat the more you.....
See you have heard that one.

This one was new to me.
Cooking beans is quite an art the more you eat the more you .....
I thought it was pretty good.

You NEVER cease to crack me up my friend!
OK - yeah - the first one - I had never heard of this by the way until I met my husband!  He is such a nut...
Beans beans the musical fruit - the more you eat - the more you @@@@...
The more you @@@@, the better you feel, so eat your beans at every meal!!

NOW, you must finish off the -- "Cooking beans is quite an art, the more you eat the more you @@@@"  I hope I'm not wrong in assuming that there is more to this one as well?

~Mari

[feather]

Mari-in-IN, actually that's all I saw. No more to the poem but given the incredible intelligence and creativity of this group, surely someone can help us finish the poem. You first.

[Mari-in-IN]

Jun 11, 2019 2:06:04 GMT feather said:

Mari-in-IN , actually that's all I saw. No more to the poem but given the incredible intelligence and creativity of this group, surely someone can help us finish the poem. You first.

I'm not near as creative as my husband in that department...  he's a nut!!  Yeah, hopefully someone will indeed fill us in...   

[Woodpecker]

feather,

Beans, beans, the musical fruit
The more you eat the more you toot! 💡

[Ken]

I take dried beans* and put then in a glass jar.  Put the lid and ring on, put the vacuum sealer on and draw it down to about 20 in/HG and then remove the sealer and the ring.  Stays fresh a long time.


* works for all kinds of dried goods besides beans.

[feather]

This is a video comparing the nutritional value of the best beans/lentils, compared to the others, as well as why beans are so healthy to eat.
nutritionfacts.org/video/benefits-of-lentils-and-chickpeas/

(EDIT: summary)

Antioxidants are one measure of nutritional value. Antioxidants defend your body from free radicals. The harm in free radicals is that an accumulation of them causes oxidative stress. Oxidative stress increases the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.

Beans have antioxidants, some more than others.

This is the list of beans/lentils from most antioxidants to least antioxidants.

Lentils

Chickpeas

small red beans

black kidney beans

pinto beans

red kidney beans

mung beans

cow pea (aka black eyed peas)

navy beans

baby lima beans