Canning Seasoned Beans

All right, after that whole post about not having to can foods, I did some canning.  I was making a Mexican-themed meal and was out of canned pintos, so I figured I'd can beans and use whatever didn't seal.  Of course, they all did.  Murphy's Law, if I hadn't needed some that day, they would have all failed.

You can add up to half a teaspoon of dried herbs and ground spices to a pint jar, one teaspoon to a quart, for safe pressure canning of low acid foods.  Plus any salt or acid you may choose for flavoring purposes.  Those don't affect the safety equation.

I wanted to make two jars of white beans with herbs to use in salads, which isn't enough for a canner load, so they were sneaked into this batch.  I added a quarter teaspoon each dried parsley and tarragon to each jar, then 1/8 tsp each garlic powder, canning salt, and citric acid.  The acid was for flavor this time.  I'm calling them Provençal white beans, being themed to the south of France.

Out of five jars of pinto beans, I made two plain and unsalted, and three pre-seasoned.  Those can be served as is, or turned into refried beans.  I added paprika, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, and canning salt to each jar for those.

The canning procedures I followed can be found on the NCHFP website.  There was a lot of siphoning, but all of the jars had sufficient liquid remaining.  I know there aren't enough beans in the two white jars; I was guessing the dry amount.  The important part for those is that the water was up to the 1" headspace mark when they went in the canner.

And now that my annual physical bloodwork came back that I have to reduce sugar and meat, having ready to go beans will help me to get back on track.  I knew that I was having way too much sugar recently, but there's something about seeing the actual numbers to make it a priority.