Canning 101: Chili Beans

I"ll admit it. We're a bean family. We eat beans in just about every form, from green beans we grow and can every summer to kidney beans, Lima beans....and chili beans. We love chili, especially when the guys are lucky during deer season. Venison chili is the absolute best.

While I've canned just about everything under the sun, I've never really canned any kind of beans outside of green beans. My mom, mother-in-law, sisters-in law all canned green beans, but I don't remember any of them canning dried beans. I did can baked beans last summer and again yesterday, which are a big hit in my family by the way, but I decided to do an Internet search about canning dried beans - and boy, did I find tons of information and recipes on how to can them!

I always have lots of dried beans in my cupboard, but let's face it, they're a pain in the behind to use. You have to remember to soak them the night before you want to use them - and I usually forget and end up doing the quick 2-minute boil, let them set and then cook them down. However, if I canned up all these dried beans that are taking over my cupboard, I'd have ready-to-use (and ready-to-eat) beans whenever I wanted them. It was my "duh" moment - why hadn't I thought of this years ago and saved myself tons of hassle??

There's a grocery store near us in West Liberty that caters to its Mexican community, and aside from getting some really great deals on beef roasts, they stock big bags of dried beans, so I came home with 4 pounds of dried pintos and 4 pounds of dried black beans. The pintos are what I used in my chili bean recipe, and the black beans will be used later, canned plain so I can use them in lots of different recipes.

I found the recipe on the Simply Homemaking blog after a search on Pinterest for different recipes. I doubled the spice blend since I was using 4 pounds of dried beans, and I also added a couple tablespoons of chipotle powder because we like a spicy chili. I didn't have any coriander, and I didn't use the oregano it called for.

Seasoning Mix For Chili Beans:  (for a single batch of 8 pints):
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons paprika
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon coriander
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 tablespoon dried oregano
4 more teaspoons sea salt to add to the jars

Soak the pinto beans overnight, drain them the next day, and add them to a large stockpot and cover them with fresh water. Cook at a gentle boil for 30 minutes. Add the cooked pinto beans to clean pint jars, filling the jars approximately 3/4 full. Add 2 teaspoons of the spice blend to each jar. Add some of the cooking water to each jar, leaving 1-inch headspace. Add lids and rings. Process in a pressure canner for 75 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure.

I ended up with 17 pints of delicious chili beans - and now I know how easy it is to make my own chili beans. I can control the spice blend, and I don't have to worry about what else may be lurking inside those store-bought cans. Win-win for me :)