Canning 101: Pork and Beans

I've always wanted to try a homemade pork and beans recipe to can, and I found several on Pinterest. Kevin and the boys love baked beans, complete with tons of bacon on top, so I thought it made sense to try and make my own version to have on hand whenever the need for a quick side dish arose.

This recipe was found on sbcanning.com, and there are tons of delicious canning recipes there that are on my to-do list for someday. I had leftover sauce from today's canning session (I doubled the recipe for canning), so I got more beans ready to eat for supper tonight as well. I do think I'll cut back just a little bit on the amount of vinegar next time, but I'll wait to see how everything tastes straight from the jar in a few weeks before I decide for sure. The recipe claims to be a clone for one of the Bush's baked bean recipes, and so far, I think it's pretty close.

Cloned Bush's Maple Baked Beans

1 pound navy beans, rinsed and picked over
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1-1/2 teaspoon mustard powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 cups ketchup (I used Heinz but homemade would be great too)
1 cup pure maple syrup
2 cups water
1/2 cup vinegar, either cider or white (I used cider)
Salt pork, cubed in 1-inch pieces (one piece per canning jar)

Add dry beans to a Dutch oven and add 8 cups of water to cover the beans. Cook on high until the beans come to a boil, for about 2 minutes, and turn off the heat. Cover and let the beans sit in the pot covered for 30 to 45 minutes. The beans will soak up quite a bit of the water during this time.

Drain the beans and add 8 cups of fresh water to the pot along with the chopped onion. Cook the beans and onions for 15 minutes at a full boil.

In another saucepan, combine the brown sugar, molasses, mustard powder, salt, black pepper, ketchup, maple syrup, water, and vinegar. Cook to get a slow boil. It will be sweet but not thick.

Prepare 6 pint jars. Fill each pint jar with 1 cup of the bean/onion mixture. Add 1 piece of salt pork. Add more beans until the jar is about 3/4 full. Ladle hot sauce over the beans, leaving 1-inch headspace. Seal.

Pressure can pints for 75 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure.

Yield:  Approximately 6 pints

I did double the recipe and ended up with 9 pints. I used navy beans that were small, so I'm sure if you use a larger white bean, the yield will be higher.