Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Black Beans

On Monday, I canned two batches of black beans for a total of 20 pints (about a year's supply). I had bought about five and a half pounds of dry organic black turtle beans at the Whole Foods Market a couple of weeks ago (did not use them all canning these 20 pints... about 5 pounds probably). Canning beans is a very long process, but its really not that time consuming, if that makes sense. First I soaked the beans in water overnight (about 12-18 hours). Then drained them, rinsed them, and put the first batch into my largest stockpot (a 12-quart) and covered them with water by about an inch. You then bring them up to a boil for 30 minutes and remove from heat. Using a slotted spoon, I filled the jars with the beans, then used a ladle to add the cooking liquid, leaving a 1-inch headspace. Then I processed the beans for 75 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure. And voila! Home-canned black beans! Not only does this save some money (using the organic beans, it ended up being about 30 cents per pint), but it will limit our exposure to BPA tremendously since the beans only touched the metal lid during the processing time.

1 comment:

The Voogts said...

Wow, way to go on the beans! I'm jealous. I want a pressure canner! :) I feel so limited on what I can can (ha ha) right now. It'll be nice to have those in your pantry all year.