I joined a water bath canning group not long ago and am learning so many things. I made my own veggie broth, I've canned water instead of buying water bottles because I have city water and it's a way of potentially saving money down the road. And...there's so much more I can't wait to try. My next project is probably going to be hamburger relish or corn, which ever I get to first.
It's nice to have cans of food on hand to throw together into a meal when you don't have much time. Or energy. I've had about half a dozen bags of hard beans sitting and just never was motivated to use them but then I found that they can be canned similar to the tin cans you can buy at the store. And I want to show you how I did it...
My first try I had 3 bags of great northern beans and I wanted to make baked beans. (I didn't use the seasoning packets because they didn't even have real ingredients in them.)
I found a baked bean recipe for which I had all the ingredients. From what I learned in the canning group you can can the beans raw without soaking but then you want to let them sit for several months so that they will soak up more of the liquid. The recipe is as follows:
Link: https://pin.it/4HDm6puli
In the recipe it said one cup beans so I proceeded to put 1 cup of beans(rinsed and sorted) into clean pint jars. I had washed the jars in hot soapy water and checked the trims to make sure that they don't have any chips that would prevent them from sealing.
When I was almost done I remembered that there was a chart saying how many beans to put in pint jars so I went looking for it.
On the chart it says only 1/2 of a cup of great northern beans instead of 1 cup so I poured them all back in the bowl and measured half a cup instead.
I can fit 11 pint jars in my canner so I had measured out 11 cups of beans, rinsing and sorting them, and then finding out that I was supposed to only use one half cup of beans meant that I needed to do a second canner full.
So next I stirred together the rest of the ingredients from the baked beans recipe. It did not include Bacon but I sure wish I would have added some. One batch filled 3 jars so I had to do several batches to fill all the jars.
I had dried onions that I wanted to use up so I just added a bunch to each batch, making sure every jar got some.
Then I took a hot wet washcloth and wiped off the rims and put on the lids and rings.
My canning basket doesn't work well for pint jars so I just laid old rusty rings in the bottom of the canner so that the jars don't sit on the bottom.
Then I filled it up with water to the neck of the jars and turned on the heat. When it started boiling, I turned the heat back a little but still high enough to keep a rolling boil. And set the timer for 3 hours.
Now with a constant rolling boil even while covered, the water will evaporate, so every 20 minutes or so I checked on it to make sure the water isn't too low.
I keep a kettle of hot, near boiling, water on another burner and then whenever I need to add water I use a big soup mug to dip water out of the kettle into the canner to keep the water level up to the necks of the jars.
When the timer goes off I turn the burner off, remove the lid, and either move the canner to a cool burner or to the counter and let it go for a bit, 3-5 minutes to let it cool down some.
I spread out a towel on which to set the jars, grab my jar lifter, and lift the jars up one at a time, holding them in the hot air above the water for a little bit so it isn't such a big temperature change because it would cause the jar to break. I've watched my mom be in a hurry and shatter a jar because she removed it from boiling water too fast so I go slowly to avoid making the same mistake.
And there you have canned baked beans...
One jar didn't seal so I got to try it and see what it tastes like. The beans were cooked enough to eat but they weren't completely soft like store bought ones. The sauce was watery so I let boil a bit before I ate it to cook the beans a little more as well as evaporate the juice so it wasn't so liquidy. It was good too but this was where I remembered Bacon and wished I had put some in because I think it would have added an even richer flavor.
Now that the baked beans were canned I decided to do another cannerful of just the beans. I put half a cup of beans into 11 more jars and added some salt, filling the jars with water to the neck leaving around an inch of headspace. Then I wiped all the rims with my wet dishcloth and put on the rings and lids. I had dumped out the hot water and refilled with cold water so it doesn't break my jars from the temperature difference. I put the jars in and let it come to a boil before setting the timer for 3 hours again.
I let the jars of food sit on the counter till the next day before taking the rings off and lifting the jar by the lid to make sure its sealed. I don't have a cool basement to store them in like I wish so I just store them in boxes in my kitchen for now.
I also did black beans and pinto beans. I haven't tried any of them yet. Two great northern beans and one pinto bean didn't seal so sometime soon I need to see if I can find a recipe to use them in.
And I'm sure I will be adding more items soon that I've tried to can. Here is the link to the canning group if you're interested. It's the most pleasant one I've yet found....
Let me know if you decide to try it and how it turns for you! Its just so much fun! Trying so many new things...
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