Learning how to can black beans is easy so it is great for any beginner canner. If you are nervous about using your pressure canner for the first time, read ahead to learn how to pressure can black beans. You’ll enjoy homemade black beans and never want the store-bought version again. Welcome to your complete guide on canning black beans.
Canned beans are a staple in a homestead pantry. They are one food that nobody should ever be without! Toss a can of black beans into some grass fed beef, some tomato sauce, and some seasonings and you are well on your way to a delicious meal!
The way the black beans are canned is the exact same way to can any kind of dried beans. Pinto beans are a great bean to can and turn into refried beans. You can add some garlic cloves, cayenne pepper, onion powder, and/or a bay leaf to each jar to add flavor.
This recipe works great because organic black beans are available to purchase in bulk for cheap. This is something that our family pressure cans on a regular basis as we usually always have dry beans on hand. This is great to do a bunch of in January and February when not a lot is going on.
Why not buy store-bought cans?
Store-bought black beans are not expensive, so why not just buy those? Well, for a few reasons.
Firstly, remember in 2020 when the world went bonkers and you couldn’t get food? Knowing how to preserve your own food is important.
Secondly, canned beans from the store have not been prepared properly to neutralize the phytic acid that is present in all legumes and seeds. That phytic acid basically takes the nutrients from your food so you don’t get them. Phytic acid is known as an anti-nutrient and enzyme inhibitor. When you eat food, you want that nutrition so canning your own black beans will give you the nutrition you’re looking for from your beans. So the next time you see a can of beans at the store, remember how easy it actually is to can a lot of black beans.
Supplies Needed
Mason jars, lids, & bands
Canning funnel
Jar scraper or knife
Clean towel
Ingredients Needed
Black beans – I order in bulk from Azure Standard
Salt – I recommend Redmond’s Real Salt, I like to bulk order this.
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Getting Ready to Can Black Beans
Before canning black beans, you will need to overnight soak the beans. Water plays an important role in bean canning. You want to make sure you are using good water. Our family filters our well water through the Berkey water filters.
In a large pot, soak beans and water for 24-36 hours. Expect the beans to expand by about three times. So, what that means is 1 cup of dried beans will give you about 3 cups of canned beans.
To get one quart of canned beans, use about 1 1/4- 1 1/3 cup of dried beans.
To get one pint of canned beans, use about 3/4 cup of dried beans.
After soaking beans, rinse them thoroughly.
Fill the pot with just enough water to fully cover the rinsed beans. Make sure you are using filtered water to cook your beans in.
Simmer beans for about 30 minutes. This allows the beans to finish absorbing all the water that they can absorb. They should have started softening but not fully cooked. The cooking process will finish in the pressure cooker.
Next up is the actual canning process.
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How to Can Black Beans
Fill your pressure canner up with a few inches of water and place the canning rack into the bottom of the pressure canner. Turn the heat on low. If you have hard water , you can add a tablespoon or two of vinegar in with the water to keep the jars pretty. Most of the time I forget to do that.
Fill quart jars up with hot beans to about the shoulder of the mason jar, leaving room for headspace.
Add a half a teaspoon of salt to pint jars. If using quart jars, add one teaspoon of salt.
Fill the jars with fresh water to cover the beans.
Remove any air pockets by taking your jar scraper and scraping it along the sides of the jar. Fill with more water if needed so that you have 1.5 inches of headspace.
Wipe each rim with a clean paper towel to remove any food particles. I like to put a little bit of vinegar on the towel to wipe but that’s not necessary.
Place new lids on top of each jar and finger tighten bands on them.
Put Your Jars into Pressure Canner
Carefully lift your jars one at a time and place them into the pressure canner. Your canner load will depend on your personal canner. The All American 910 pressure canner can fit 4 quart jars or 7 pint jars at one time.
Bring heat to medium-high and let the canner come to a full steady steam. Allow steam to go for 10 minutes.
Place the pressure regulator onto the vent for your specific PSI based on where you live. If you aren’t sure of that, check out this page to figure out the proper pressure.
Allow pressure to slowly come to full pressure.
Once the canner has come to full pressure, set your timer. Processing time for pints is 75 minutes. Quart jars process for 90 minutes.
When time is up, turn off the burners and allow the pressure to come down naturally. Let it get all the way to zero.
Remove the pressure regulator and allow steam to escape for another 5-15 minutes.
Remove the lid carefully, facing away from you. Using a jar lifter, lift the canned black beans out and place on a towel on the counter where they need to sit undisturbed for 12 hours.
After they have cooled and sat undisturbed, remove the bands and check all the seals.
Label each jar before putting away with the item and the date you canned them. This step is necessary. You think you will remember, but a lot of the times, you forget. Plus, it’s nice to have the date with each thing you can just in case something goes wrong, you know what batch that jar came from and you can then check the rest of the batch.
How to Store Canned Black Beans
Home canned black beans have a shelf life of up to five years. That is a long time. However, you will want to eat them up by a year because the nutritional value goes down after that time.
Black beans can be stored in your pantry. If you don’t have a large pantry, a basement, root cellar, or any other place you can imagine works just fine. Just make sure the temperatures don’t get too hot.
There is a lot of controversy over whether or not you can stack mason jar on top of mason jar. Personally, I do it. However, If you are worried, you could place some cardboard between each layer.
Check Out These Black Bean Recipes:
Burrito Bowls
Taco Soup
FAQ’S
How long does it take to can black beans?
If you only soak for 12 hours, then canning black beans takes about 15 hours from start to finish. However, you do need to leave the jars undisturbed after canning for 12 hours so, bare minimum total time is 27 hours. That sounds like a lot, but much of it is hands off time.
Hands on time is about 2- 2 1/2 hours. But that includes sitting there and watching the beans simmer for a half an hour and sitting and watching the pressure canner do the work. ACTUAL hands on time is maybe 30 minutes.
How do you cook beans from a can?
The same way you would use store-bought canned beans, you can use home-canned beans.
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