Canning beans is a wonderful way to have ready made meals on your pantry shelf. It takes very little time to pressure can dried beans and can save you hours at dinner time. Home-canned beans also have a much better flavor than store-bought tinned beans (and they are more nutritious too!). Make a batch of canned dry beans today and enjoy them for months to come.
When I was growing up, pinto beans and cornbread were a regular meal for my family. We loved cowboy beans and my mom would always soak them overnight (sometimes for 2 days) before cooking them. I knew it was a labor of love as I watched her think ahead and plan for one of our favorite foods.
I also knew that any time she made a pot of beans that we would be eating them almost exclusively for the next week.
Now that I'm the mom and main meal maker, I still like to cook beans for the family, but I do them a little bit differently. Instead of spending days planning on making beans, then a week eating nothing BUT beans, I simply spend a day canning beans for ready to eat meals.
Having home-canned dry beans on the shelf means I get the health and gut benefits of soaking the beans, without the time investment. Our meals of beans and cornbread are ready in less than 30 minutes and we only eat them as often as we want, instead of being compelled to eat an entire pot at a time!
>> Here's my mom's recipe for easy sweet cornbread
How to Can Dry Beans
Regardless of the type of dry beans you are canning - black beans, pinto beans, navy beans, and so on - the process is the same. If you've never pressure canned anything before, it's a pretty simple process.
I'll break out each step in more detail, but here's a quick overview of canning dry beans:
- Sort and rinse the beans, then soak them overnight in fresh water (12-24 hours)
- Strain and add fresh water to a pot of beans.
- Bring the beans to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes.
- Pack the beans into canning jars, cover with water and a little salt, and add your 2 part canning lids.
- Load your pressure canner (not cooker) and process the beans in the pressure canner for 75 minutes (pints) or 90 minutes (quarts)* See altitude notes below for pressure settings.
Please also enjoy this video on canning dry beans as well!
Sorting Dry Beans Before Canning
One step that often gets overlooked when prepping dry beans for canning is to sort through them for rocks. While you may only find one or two in a bag, as someone who has bitten down on one of those little rocks, it's worth it to make sure none of them make it into your jars of home canned beans.
Simply dump the beans out into a bowl and sort through them a small handful at a time. Place the cleared beans into a different bowl for rinsing and toss out any found rocks.
We make an event out of sorting and get the whole family involved! It took us only about 5 minutes to sort through enough beans to fill a 7 quart canner batch, so don't skip this step because you think it will take too long!
Dry Canning or Pre-Cooking Beans for Canning
Once your beans are sorted and rinsed, it's time to pre-cook them. While many people can dry beans by dumping the beans right in the jar, filling the jar with water, and pressure canning, I don't love that method.
For one, you miss out on the benefits of soaking beans, which not only unlocks nutrients but also makes them much easier to digest. And for another thing, you risk overfilling your jars and having a jar break in the canner.
I don't like to waste food, and I love making sure my family is eating nutrient dense food, so soaking and pre-cooking is the way to go for us.
To soak beans, simply place your sorted beans in a pot of fresh water (we use filtered Berkey water) and soak at room temperature for 12-24 hours. I usually just soak them "overnight" which means about 5pm until after breakfast the next day.
To pre-cook your beans once they have been soaked, drain the beans, place them back into the pot, and add clean water on top. I like to make sure they are covered by at least an inch of water every time I check them. And dry beans use up a lot of water during the cooking process, so check them a few times.
Once they are covered in water you will bring the pot to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and simmer for another 30 minutes.
This process of pre-cooking helps the beans to reach their cooked size so they don't expand much (if at all) during the canning process. By doing this you end up with more beans per jar because you can accurately fill your jars without having to worry about over-expansion!
Pressure Canning Beans
At this point, your beans are ready for canning! You'll pack the now-cooked beans into clean, hot jars, cover with hot water and salt, and then pressure can for 75-90 minutes (depending on the size jar you are canning).
If you are canning at more than 1,000 feet you'll need to adjust your canning pressure. Here are the changes you will need to make depending on whether you’re using a weighted or dial gauge pressure canner.
I’m using an All American Pressure canner, which uses a weighted gauge, and I’m also well below 1000 feet, so I can beans at 10 pounds pressure, but just in case you're at a different elevation, I wanted to include any changes you will need to make!
See the table below for altitude adjustments for canning dry beans:
Common Questions About Canning Dry Beans
According to the USDA, canned food is good forever as long as the seal is secure, and the jars have been stored in a cool, dry place. They may lose some of their nutritional value over time, but they are still safe to eat as long as that seal is secure.
Though the National Center for Food Preservation says you need about 3/4 of a pound per quart jar, I've found that's very high. I always end up using about 1/2 a pound per quart jar or 1/4 of a pound of dry beans per pint.
While adding salt to your beans before canning is not needed for safety, I do recommend adding salt for a better canned beans experience. It's very difficult to salt canned food after it's been canned, so even if you just reduce the salt to your preferred level, I would still recommend salting it some.
No need for concern if the liquid level is below your beans, this is totally normal as the beans will continue to absorb a bit more liquid during the canning process, even if they are pre-cooked.
Canning Dry Beans
Equipment
- 7 Quart Jars (and lid/ring sets)
Ingredients
- 3.5 pounds dried beans
- 7 tsp salt
Instructions
- Sort and rinse the beans, then soak them overnight in fresh water (12-24 hours)
- Strain and add fresh water to a pot of beans. Bring the beans to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes. I like to cover the pot to keep the water from evaporating away too quickly.
- While your beans are cooking, start warming up your jars and the pressure canner. Don't let the pressure canner come to a full simmer, but it should be close to simmering when you add the jars.
- Pack the hot beans into hot canning jars, leaving a 1" headspace at the top. Add 1 tsp of salt to the top of each quart jar (or 1/2 tsp to each pint) and cover with boiling water.
- Using your canning knife, press out all the air bubbles by moving the knife along the outside edge of the jar (between the glass and the beans) and pressing in slightly. Add more water as needed after this process, still leaving a 1" headspace.
- To each jar, add a 2-piece canning lid and ring set and tighten to finger tightness.
- Load your pressure canner and fit the lit properly for your unit. Bring the pressure canning to full heat until the vent starts steaming. Allow the vent to steam for 10 minutes before placing the weight or setting the dial). See altitude notes for pressure settings.
- Process the beans in the pressure canner for 75 minutes (pints) or 90 minutes (quarts).
- One the timer is up, turn of the heat to the pressure canner and allow it to come to zero pounds pressure on its own. Let rest at zero for a few minutes and then carefully remove the weight. You can now remove the lid and the jars.
- Let the jars cool fully before loosening the rings fully (or removing them) and storing the jars in the pantry.
Video
Nutrition
More Pressure Canning Recipes:
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