Canning Dried Beans

I took off two weeks for the High Holy Days and had time for some projects.  One of them was painting the kitchen ceiling, which I've been putting off for at least two years.  As long as I was going to be on a ladder in the breakfast nook for a couple of hours, I decided to multi-task and put something in the canner.

Side note, doing one home improvement project always leads to something else.  While I was up there, I decided to fix the kitchen recessed-ceiling lighting.  That's when I found out that Papa Smurf had installed a home-made light strip, and you can't change the bulbs.  When one goes out, that's it, and more than half have blown.  I've been ignoring this for 13 years.  I generally use the side lights instead of the ceiling because of it.  Now, I need to get an electrician out to install an outlet where the hot wires are so I can put in lighting that's easier to maintain, like a strand of fairy lights.  Seriously, that's all it would take.

As usual, I'm using the NCHFP procedures for pressure canning.  I'm doing the full soak method, since that's how I always make my beans.  There's nothing wrong with quick soak if you only have a couple hours of lead time.

I did two kinds of beans this time, black and pinto, a pound of each.  Mainly, I didn't realize I was out of canned pintos for the enchiladas and figured if I was cooking some, I might as well cook the whole pound.  I've never made a whole bag of beans at once.  Wow, it's a lot.

I couldn't find how many jars a pound would fill, since recipes are for a full canner load, and just decided to make four of each.  You can always put less than a full jar of beans and fill the rest with water.  Beans will soak up the water regardless.  If I'm using canned beans, I want them on the mushy side.  For firm, I cook them from dry.  Turns out, that's how many pint jars a pound fills with a generous 1" headspace before adding the water.

Beans are processed for the same amount of time as meat, which I found interesting since they're par-cooked before they go in the jars.  It's a density issue, so that's what is considered safe.

They all sealed.  I wasn't expecting that, especially after a couple siphoned.  I think it's the first pressure canning load I've done without a fail.  So I had to cook up pintos for the enchiladas after all.  Some people will open a jar right away, but I spent four hours on this project, and I wasn't going to do that.

I have one can of chickpeas left, then I'll do those.  They get their own load since I'm going to make more than a pound.  I can go through those much faster than the other beans.  No idea where I'm going to store them.  The pressure-canning shelf is full.  I'm keeping home canned away from store bought in case of failed seals or other contamination.  Just because I've never had that happen doesn't mean it won't ever.