Beans, Beans…Bottle Your Fruit

I am giddy.  My good friend Lori taught me how to bottle my own beans.  We bottled 14 quart jars after about 15 minutes of effort (not including the processing time in the pressure canner).  This is a fantastic way to rotate your dry beans and make them simpler to use in your weekday meals.  Here are the recipe and directions:

1.  Measure 1 1/4 C. dry beans (pinto, black, white, kidney) into each clean quart jar.

2. Measure 1 tsp. salt into each jar.

3. Fill jar to neck with water.

4.  Process in pressure (not steam) canner per manufacturers instructions.  Our canner held 14 quart jars and we processed for 90 minutes + pressure up and pressure down time. (If you are thinking of buying a pressure canner, we’ve found Amazon to have the best prices and we highly recommend buying an All-American Pressure Canner because it has all metal parts and no gaskets to replace.)

We bottled pinto, black, and white beans.  We found that the pinto and white beans cooked faster than the black beans so they were softer. We used the pintos to make delicious refried beans.  We sprinkled in a little cumin, garlic salt and black pepper for seasoning.  Next time, if we want firmer pinto beans for soups or chili, I think we’ll process them for about 75 minutes.  All of the jars have a great brine.  The salt alone made them taste nicely seasoned.  We couldn’t wait to taste test, so we opened a jar of pintos right after processing.  Even my children were filling their bowls.  They were THAT good!  I can’t wait to try the black beans over rice.

I doubt I will ever buy canned beans at the store again.  The beans taste so much better this way, and I can bottle my dry beans for a fraction of the cost (especially if you figure in the reuse of my jars).  This is a great process to learn in this tight economy.  Thanks, Lori!