I get it. You have no intention of canning dried beans. Neither did I until I did it. And now I never have to worry about soaking, boiling, preparing or preplanning having beans ever again.
First things first. It's VERY difficult to come up with elegant language to convincingly talk about the attributes of beans. The moment you mention beans people think of farting. Not protein, or fibre or versatility or the myriad of other positives that beans have going for them.
Just farts.
I figure if I address it right off the bat we can get those thoughts out of our heads and move on to the work at hand. Canning dried beans. I know. I'm still thinking of farts too. Just keep reading and I promise the thoughts of gas will pass.
You can use your homemade canned beans as a base for refried beans, for adding to soups, stews or chili and of course to make old fashioned baked beans although I prefer to use dry beans for this low and slow recipe.
I guess now is as good a time as any to let you know I've already misled you a little bit. You won't have to deal with preplanning having beans, except of course the one time when you can them.
I promise from here on I will be a straight shooter though.
Whenever I can stuff I try to find my information on best practices from extension offices and the National Centre for Home Food Preservation because they are science based and repeated tested by smart people. Which is where I gleaned this method from.
You can also use reputable canning books like The Ball Book of Canning and Preserving or The Complete Book of Home Canning by The United States Department of Agriculture.
Canning is NOT like a 1970's key party, tinged with the scent of Charlie and regret. There is no fooling around.
Always follow the rules or you might die.
How to Can Dried Beans
You can do this with home grown dry beans or ones you buy in a bag at the grocery store.
The canner I use is this weighted gauge pressure canner by Mirro.
above, Zuni Gold bean.
- Gather up your dried beans (making sure to set aside enough of them for planting next year if you haven't already done that.)
- Dump each variety (if using multiple) into a bowl.
Orca beans, also known as Calypso or Yin/Yang.
- Soak in water overnight for a minimum of 12 hours.
If you're interested in some of the bean varieties I grow and how to make a reallyyyyy easy, reallyyyy good bean salad I show you both things in this post.
- After the 12-18 hours of soaking, drain and rinse the beans. They'll have plumped up but will still be pretty hard.
- Put your beans into individual pots (if doing more than 1 type), cover with water and boil for 30 minutes.
- Keep an eye on the water, the beans will soak up a lot and you need to have a lot of water left in the pot when they're done cooking because that's the liquid you're going to use for canning them. Just top up the water when you see it getting low as the beans boil for 30 minutes.
*** Some people forego the 30 minute boil, and just let the beans come to a boil before canning them ***
- Add ½ tsp. salt per pint ( ) jar or 1 teaspoon per quart ( ). The salt is optional & isn't necessary for preservation.
- Fill each jar with beans and liquid to within 1" of the rim. You HAVE to leave 1" of head space This is more room than you might be used to leaving if you can regularly. The beans expand and go nuts during the processing and if you have too much water or beans in the jar you risk your liquid getting sucked right out of the jar during canning leaving you with a bunch of beans but no liquid in your jar.
You can see here that I lost some of my liquid, but not enough to make it worrisome.
- Process in a pressure canner (not a hot water bath!) according to the times and pressures below.
IF YOU LOSE MORE THAN ½ OF YOUR LIQUID STORE THE BEANS IN THE FRIDGE.
This is a precautionary best practice.
CANNING BEANS - DIAL GAUGE PRESSURE CANNER | ||||||
Canner Pressure (PSI) at Altitudes of | ||||||
Style of Pack | Jar Size | Process Time | 0 - 2,000 ft | 2,001 - 4,000 ft | 4,001 - 6,000 ft | 6,001 - 8,000 ft |
Hot | Pints | 75 min | 11 lb | 12 lb | 13 lb | 14 lb |
Quarts | 90 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
CANNING BEANS - WEIGHTED-GAUGE PRESSURE CANNER | ||||
Canner pressure (PSI) at Altitudes of |
||||
Style of pack | Jar Size | Process Time | 0 - 1,000 ft | Above 1,000 ft |
Hot | Pints | 75 min | 10 lb | 15 lb |
Quarts | 90 | 10 | 15 |
I cooked all of my beans separately and then mixed them in the jars. I made a "chili mix" with beans that I like for making chili con carne, a mix for bean salad and then jars of only black beans for making black bean soup and refried beans.

Canning Dry Beans
Ingredients
- dry beans
- salt optional
Instructions
- Gather up your dried beans (making sure to set aside enough of them for planting next year if you haven’t already done that.)
- If you want to can them separately, dump each variety into their own bowl. Otherwise you can soak them all together.
- Fill bowls with water and let soak for 12-18 hours.
- After the 12-18 hours of soaking, drain and rinse the beans. They’ll have plumped up but will still be pretty hard.
- If canning separately, put your beans into individual pots (if doing more than 1 type), cover with water and boil for 30 minutes. Otherwise you can boil them all together.*
- Keep an eye on the water, the beans will soak up a lot and you need to have a lot of water left in the pot when they’re done cooking because that’s the liquid you’re going to use for canning them. Just top up the water when you see it getting low as the beans boil for 30 minutes.
- Add ½ tsp. salt per pint ( 2 cups ) jar or 1 teaspoon per quart (4 cups ). The salt is optional & isn’t necessary for preservation.**
- Fill each jar with beans & liquid to within 1″ of the rim. You HAVE to leave 1″ of head space This is more room than you might be used to leaving if you can regularly. Leaving less head space you'll risk loss of liquid while canning.
- Process in a pressure canner (not a hot water bath!) according to the times and pressures below in notes.
Notes
CANNING BEANS – DIAL GAUGE PRESSURE CANNER | ||||||
Canner Pressure (PSI) at Altitudes of | ||||||
Style of Pack | Jar Size | Process Time | 0 – 2,000 ft | 2,001 – 4,000 ft | 4,001 – 6,000 ft | 6,001 – 8,000 ft |
Hot | Pints | 75 min | 11 lb | 12 lb | 13 lb | 14 lb |
Quarts | 90 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
CANNING BEANS – WEIGHTED-GAUGE PRESSURE CANNER | ||||
Canner pressure (PSI) at Altitudes of |
||||
Style of pack | Jar Size | Process Time | 0 – 1,000 ft | Above 1,000 ft |
Hot | Pints | 75 min | 10 lb | 15 lb |
Quarts | 90 | 10 | 15 |
SOME QUESTIONS YOU PROBABLY HAVE
Do dried beans ever go bad?? Nope. They do not. They'll keep indefinitely as long as they're kept dry. Older dried beans (2 years or older) will need to be cooked slightly longer to soften them up.
Yeah, but what would I use them in? Dried beans can be used in chili, to make baked beans, and my favourite quick lunch Easy Bean Salad with feta cheese.
Are beans good for you? Beyond the fun of the farting. You betcha. Beans are full of protein and fibre. In order of the amount of protein per cup of cooked beans:
- soybeans - 31.32 grams
- kidney beans - 15.35 grams
- black beans - 15.24 grams
- navy beans - 14.98 grams
- chick peas - 14.53 grams
What's the ratio of dried beans to cooked beans? Dried beans double in volume once cooked. 1 cup of dried beans will become 2 cups of cooked beans for example.
One last thing ...
What happens when you make a bean & onion casserole?
- Tear gas.
→Follow me on Instagram where I often make a fool of myself←

My pinto beans became a solid sludge
Hi Faye. Sorry about your beans, although they will make really good refried beans. My guess is that they boiled too long. It's hard to say how long each takes because all varieties are a bit different in terms of cooking/softening time. When did they turn to sludge? After the 30 minute boil? ~ karen!
Intriguing. I will be doing this very soon. With lima beans.
Back story. My MIL was recently diagnosed with conghestive heart failure. She is doing well but has to watch her sodium intake. Unfortunately, her laxitive of choice is canned lima beans. And we all know regular poops are a really big deal and the topic of a lot of conversation with old people. She is lamenting not being able to have a full can of lima beans on a particularly constipated day.
I'm going to can the beans. WITHOUT salt! Best daughter-in-law ever. Like she needed another reason.
You ARE the best daughter-in-law ever! I can't believe of all things lima beans are her laxative of choice, lol. ~ karen!
I'm getting ready to can some beans and am going to use your technique, but I'm putting a tomatoey liquid instead of water and adding some bacon. What are those canning jars?? I've never seen canning jars with glass lids. I love them!
Needed a good laugh. Tear gas. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
"tinged with the scent of Charlie and regret".....yeah, that pretty much sums up my experience of the 70's......
Sigh, I'm so so sorry and as funny, accomplished, entertaining and informative as you are on so many topics, I would NEVER go through this process to can beans and for what purpose when they are so easy to store dried in food safe 5 gallon containers for years! I bulk buy ALL OF MY GRAINS AND BEANS and store this way. No problems. Dump a few dried cups into an (electric iPot)) pressure cooker after you rinse them, all the spices and onions you like and 20 minutes later you have cooked beans....no soaking, no canning, no muss, no fuss, no jars and no mess and always ready in the refrigerator for a meal. Make too many beans and can't get them all eaten up before they go bad then freeze in sandwich bags for months! Thaw quickly and beans are ready to go for whatever you can dream up. Been doing this for 45 years and I'm not taking up canning beans, LOL! I'll give you full credit for your humor exhibited in most of your articles though and some of the projects you take on you need a good sense of humor to survive them, LOL!
By now I should know better than to read your posts while drinking my morning coffee. It so often results in having to clean up an expelled coffee mess...tear gas indeed....
I really like to can but am scared of pressure canners. I have even taken a canning course to get over my fears, however, the pressure canner didn't work correctly. The person doing the demonstration kept playing with it hoping to fix it while it was processing. That made my fear even worse! Do you have a weighted canner and pressure canner that you prefer? I might go for a weighted canner which might make me less nervous around them. I would love to be able to can more than things with a water bath, now that I know how to do it! I hope some day to become a master food preserver!
Hi Debbie! My canner is a Mirro weighed canner. https://amzn.to/2W45jmT ~ karen!
Thank you so much!
Ha ha ha. Tear gas. You never disappoint. I had no idea there was a National Center for Home Food Preservation. Fascinating! I love my pressure canner. The kitchen isn't boiling hot and full of steam. 75 to 90 minutes of processing time seems so long, but there is a lot of difference in the density of beans when compared with tomatoes and maybe it takes longer to kill any bacteria since tomatoes are acidic and beans are not.