Pressure canning ham and bean soup is a great way to make ahead quick meals to use later. The next time you have a leftover ham, be sure to make this family favorite!

Ham and bean soup is a simple recipe that makes hearty meal that is actually fairly cheap. If you have extra ham from Easter or a Sunday brunch, this is perfect to make sure that no food goes wasted. The best part? When you wake up late and realize you don’t have time to pack a lunch, all you need to do is grab a jar and you have your lunch for work ready to go! Just heat and eat!

If you have never used a pressure canner before, you might be a bit intimidated. Don’t worry! It’s really not quite as scary as some of the horror stories told. For a beginner guide on pressure canning, check out How to Use a Pressure Canner for Beginners.

I have pressure canned ham and bean soup two different ways. One way, is to make your favorite ham bone soup and if there is any leftovers, throw them in some jars and get to pressure canning. The only concern I have when I do that, is over-cooking the ham and potatoes. Therefore, for best results, this is best done canning fresh. I will normally freeze any leftovers of this soup that I have, which honestly, does not happen a lot of time.

The other way, is the way I am about to show you. The foods all cook together in the pressure canner, using the canning process to cook everything. It is quite easily, one of my favorite soups.

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Tools Needed

• Pressure Canner
• Canning jars
• Debubbling tool
• Lids & rings

Ingredients Needed

• 2 cups ham pieces, cut around 1 inch chunks
• 4 cups ham broth or chicken broth
• 1 onion, chopped
• 5 carrots, chopped
• 5 stalks of celery, chopped
• 4 medium potatoes, cut around 1 inch chunks
• 2 cups great northern beans or any other white beans – to reduce phytic acid from beans, soak beans ahead of canning
• 1 tsp salt per quart jar- Unless you have salty ham, then use less

Preparing Ham and Bean Soup

If your ham and broth is hot, go. ahead and place about an inch of water in pressure canner and start warming the water up now. This is the hot pack method.

If your ham and broth is cold, wait to turn on stove until all jars are filled and ready to be canned. This is the raw pack method.

Wash quart jars in hot, soapy water. If using hot pack method, keep warm in oven at about 200 degrees F or in pressure canner. Remember hot food goes into hot jars.

Cut up all veggies and ham into your preferred size chunks. Since we have little kids, I like to do smaller chunks normally, However, a typical size to cut up ham and potatoes would be about an inch.

Place ham chunks into quart jars.

Place beans into quart jars.

Evenly distribute the vegetables into all quart jars.

Add salt if desired.

Ladle broth into quart jars to 1 inch head space. If adding a lot of beans, I like to do closer to the 1 1/2 inch headspace mark, since those beans will expand.

Remove air bubbles from each jar.

Wipe rims and place lids onto jars. Screw bands on finger tight.

Pressure Canning Ham and Bean Soup

Place filled jars into pressure canner. If you are raw packing, now is the time to turn on pressure canner. Place lid onto your pressure canner and turn up the heat to about a medium level.

When a steady stream of steam is coming out vent, place 10 pound weight onto steam vent.

Once the weight starts jiggling, start processing times. Quart jars will be processed at 90 minutes. Pint jars need to be processed at 75 minutes.

When the processing time is over, turn the heat off but leave the pressure canner alone. Allow pressure to come down naturally without any disturbance from you. When it is at zero, remove weight and wait a few more minutes to allow any extra pressure to release.

After a few minutes is up, open the pressure canner. Take the lid off, pointing it away from your face so that no steam gets you.

Remove jars and place on a towel on the counter. Never place directly onto counter as the jars could break due to a drastic temperature change.

After 12-24 hours, check seals. If any did not seal, place in the refrigerator and eat within a few days. The ones that did seal will need to be labeled with contents and date and then stored in a cool, dark place, such as your pantry.

Notes

I like to pull out a smoked ham chunk and place in a slow cooker for an hour or two on low right before cutting it. Slow cooker ham is possibly the most easy meal to make by the way. Place a ham in the slow cooker, set on low, and walk away.

Afterwards, I will save the smoked ham hocks in a ziploc freezer bag with some veggie scraps to make ham broth for another time. Typically, I will start the ham broth the day before pressure canning ham and bean soup. However, chicken broth works great too.

To learn how to make your own homemade broth, check out this post on how to make homemade chicken broth. To make it ham broth, just substitute the chicken bones with ham bones.

We order 2 full pigs from a local producer every year. To see how much meat you get when you custom order a pig, check out this youtube video:

Print Recipe Here

FAQ’s

What is the best way to can beans?

There are a few different ways to can beans. When doing this recipe, I haven’t noticed any difference between pre-soaking the beans and just placing the dried bean right into the jar. However, if you are just looking to can straight beans, check out this step by step guide on how to can beans.

How long does pressure canning ham take?

When pressure canning any meat, process quarts at 90 minutes and pints at 75 minutes with 10 pounds pressure. If you are in high altitude, your pressure poundage will need to be higher.

Other Home Canning Recipes

• Canning Chicken
• Canning Leftover Chili
• Beef Stew

Pin Pressure Canning Ham & Bean Soup For Later

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