Canning Pork N Beans

My garden is pretty much finished, still getting a little okra and peppers once in awhile, but nothing to can... so when I got the itch to can something recently, I headed towards my dry bean stock... Pork 'n' Beans!

Here's what I did...

I recently learned from a reader that there is an easier way to can beans than to soak overnight, cook part way and can... this is so easy and turns out so nicely, I'll never go back to the traditional way ever again!

For 8 pint jars of pork 'n' beans...

I used about 2 pounds (+ or -) of dried Navy beans...

In each hot, sterilized pint canning jar, I added

1/2 cup Navy beans (just dry, straight out of the bag! Well, actually, I DID rinse and sort through them)

I chopped two medium onions and divided them evenly among the 8 jars (something like 2-3 Tablespoons of onion per jar)

In a large stainless steel saucepan I mixed my sauce using...

2-15 oz. cans tomato sauce (you could use homemade)

1/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 teaspoons prepared yellow mustard

2 tablespoons molasses (you could use honey, corn syrup... or any other liquid sweetener)
3 cups water

I brought this mixture to a boil, stirring to make sure everything was dissolved.

I added one cup of the sauce to each pint jar of beans. At this point, 1/2 teaspoon of salt could be added to each jar, I chose to leave out the salt because I added, instead, a small piece of salt pork to each jar (fatback or bacon can be used)

Next I filled the remainder of each jar with boiling water, leaving a generous one inch headspace.

I wiped my jar rims with a damp cloth and tightened on my hot lids to fingertip tightness, then processed the jars in my pressure canner at 10 lbs. pressure for 75 minutes.

After processing, I allowed my canner to cool naturally and the pressure to drop to zero... then waited 10 more minutes before removing the weighted gauge and taking the lid off the canner.

Then I removed the jars from the canner using my jar lifter... setting them on a folded dish towel on the counter to cool and to listen for the PING of each successfully sealed jar. Yay!

Pork 'N' Beans! Great with so many things... an easy side dish for an easy quick meal!

For a printable copy of this recipe, click here.