How to Can Dry Beans

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A simple recipe for canning dry beans safely but without the extra toots! :)

Prep Time12

Cook Time30

Processing Time1 30

Total Time14

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: Mexican

Keyword: Black beans, canning

Servings: quarts

Calories: 343kcal

Equipment

1 Pressure Canner

Ingredients

3.5 lbs dry beans
2 whole bay leaves
sea salt optional

Instructions

Place 3.5 lbs of beans in a large bowl. Fill the bowl with cold water. Allow beans to soak overnight or for at least 12 hours in a cool place. Alternatively, you can do a quick soak by adding beans to a saucepan and fill with it water. Then bring to a boil and after 1 minute turn off the heat. Then let sit for one hour before proceeding to step 2.
After soaking, rinse and drain beans.
Place beans in a 8 quart saucepan and fill it an inch below the rim with fresh water. Then add 2 bay leaves.
Turn the heat to medium and bring the beans and water to a simmer. Cook for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare the mason jars, lids, and rings. To do this, fill a pressure canner or a large canning pot with water and place jars inside. Then turn on the heat and bring to a simmer for a couple minutes. Turn off heat and leave the jars in the pot until ready to fill. Sterilizing the jars isn’t required due to the long processing time.
Fill hot jars with hot beans- it should be about ¾ full of beans. Add the remaining cooked bean water leaving 1 inch of headspace.
Add sea salt or canning salt if desired (½ teaspoon per pint or 1 teaspoon per quart). Stir beans to remove air bubbles.
Wipe jar rims with vinegar, add lids, and rings. Tighten to fingertip tight.
Place jars in a pressure canner filled with water according to manufacturer's directions.
Tighten the wing nuts on the lid and turn heat on medium to medium-high. Keep the vent pipe or petcock open. Once a steady stream of steam is escaping the vent pipe or petcock, set a timer for 10 minutes.
Process jars with a weighted gauge at 10 lbs of pressure canning in an area 1000 ft or below sea level. If you live 1000+ft above sea level use 15 lbs of pressure. For a dial gauge, elevations of 0-2,000ft maintain 11 lbs of pressure throughout the entire process time. 2001-4000ft use 12lbs pressure. 4001-6000ft use 13lbs of pressure. 6001-8000 ft in use 14 lbs of pressure.
Once the correct pressure is reached and maintained, process pint jars for 75 minutes and quart jars for 90 minutes. After processing is complete, allow pressure to come back to zero naturally. Do not remove the weight or open the petcock until the pressure is at 0.
Remove the pressure canner lid and let the jars rest for at least another 10 minutes. Then remove jars. Let sit at room temperature for 12-24 hours, then check seals, remove rings, clean jars with vinegar or warm water. Then label and store in a cool, dark place.

Notes

Use fresh dry beans for this recipe. Most dry beans that are more that a year old will not cook well, no matter how long you process them.
Don't skip soaking or the 30 minute cook, it's essential to keeping this recipe safe for canning.
A pressure canner MUST be used for this recipe. There is no substitute.
If there isn't enough hot bean water to bring each jars liquid to 1 inch of headspace, you can heat more water and add it to the jars.
For black beans, I found the perfect amount for 7 quarts or 14 pints to be about 3.5 lbs dry beans if filling jars 3/4 full with beans. The sweet spot for pounds of beans to make a full canner load may be slightly different for other varieties.
Here's a guide for if you want to do a custom amount of jars. About a half pound of beans is needed per quart jar. A quarter pound of beans is needed per pint jar. So if you were to make 20 quarts of cooked beans, you'd need to start with 10 pounds of dry beans.

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