First, my “canned ham & beans” are not really “canned ham & beans”. Why do folks keep coming back and reading my nonsense? 🙂 Thank you for doing it and for trusting me enough to ask for recipes.
You’ve probably all figured out that I am not a fan those agencies, schools, whatever . . that make the rules about canning. I understand there’s work involved in testing and approving recipes but . . isn’t that their job? It would seem to me that if enough of us are wanting to do something and it isn’t totally off the wall, why can’t they test a recipe and come up with an approved version. My understanding is they have the equipment to test these recipes; they have the knowledge; they aren’t coming up with a lot of new ideas/tips so . . what do they do? It isn’t like they come up with anything new! OK . . rant over . . somewhat.
You know that Vince is a Clemson grad and he loves Clemson and I have nothing against Clemson . . but, before you read the rest of this, please read this page. All the people in the know say you cannot can cured meat. That means corned beef, ham, etc. cannot be canned.
Now, read what I’m going to write and then make your own decision.
This is not an approved recipe but here’s how I make “canned ham & beans”.
I buy a ham with a bone in. Not one that has any kind of honey or brown sugar. I don’t want sweet meat or broth. Then, I cut as much of the meat off as I can. I cut it in big hunks. I don’t chop it. I divide the meat into portions – however much I want per meal and vacuum seal it in separate packages and freeze it. This time I bought half a ham and I think it was about $24 at Walmart. I got 8 packages of meat and most of the time, I will defrost the ham, use a little of it for breakfast and then use the rest in the ham & beans. So, I do not add ham to the jars but . . think about this and tell me what you think. Since they say it isn’t safe to can because the meat is dense, what if we shredded it or had tiny little pieces like you normally find in ham and beans? Based on what they’re saying, I can see how 1″ thick ham slices might should not be canned but seriously, tiny little pieces aren’t safe either?
I took the bones, the skin and fat, because we like a bit of ham flavored fat in our beans, but if you don’t want any fat, toss the fat. For a half a ham, I added three small onions and a couple of tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. I filled the Nesco electric roaster with water, covered it and let it simmer for about 36 hours.
For the beans, I used 4 pounds of Great Northern beans, rinsed, picked out bad ones, did not soak overnight. I added water to cover the beans, brought it to a boil, and let it boil for two minutes, then turned the burner off, added a lit and let it sit for a couple of hours. Then I drained the water, added fresh water, brought it to a boil, then filled the jars, leaving about 2-1/2″ head space. The approved recipe says to cook the beans until the skin cracks. I find that I end up with mushy beans when I do that. Instead of the recommended head space, I leave about 2-1/2″ and give me room for the beans to expand and take up more space since they are not fully cooked.
I strain the broth and add it to the jars, leaving a 1″ head space. Pressure can the quarts for 90 minutes at whatever pressure is right for your level. I also canned the leftover broth.
Because I’m using the broth, which is salty, as the liquid, I do not add salt to the jars.
With 4 pounds of beans, I ended up with 10 quarts of beans and 4 quarts of broth without beans. Perfect! Full load for the big canner.
We like our ham and beans a bit more like soup and we have it with cornbread or crackers and we’ll have a sandwich or a good salad with some kind of extra protein. I figure October – February is soup season so that’s 5 months. We’ll eat ham and beans once a week during the winter so one more batch of canning 4 pounds of beans will give us enough canned beans to have it once a week during winter . . I know . . probably 22 weeks but with Thanksgiving and Christmas in there, we’ll have so many leftovers that we won’t mind missing ham and beans those two weeks.
As far as the cost, it was $5 for four pounds of beans. The ham was $23. That’s $2.80 per quart for the ham and beans.
See that jar of beans? In this post, I shared how I filled 25 quart jars of beans. It was so fun just dumping bags of beans in a huge bowl, stirring them up and then filling the jars. Knowing that I can fit about 2 pounds of beans in a jar, I grabbed enough beans to fill 10 quart jars, which is what I guessed I would need to add to what I had left and make it through winter. Even though the cost of beans has gone up since I filled those jars in July, 2022, they’re still a bargain for a tasty, filling and nutritious meal. For the mixed bean soups, I love having a plain grilled cheese sandwich with it.
We’re set with beans and bean soup for the next few months.
Cilla says
I am such a rebel canner that I can chunked ham and bean. washed, not even soaked beans. PC for 90 min. The abc agencies have not tested recipes since 1970. I’ve noticed canners less than a year new are telling us, who have canned for 60+ years, that we are not canning safely. Yet they have no idea where botulism lives and thrives.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Nor how to kill it. Those abc agencies continue to get the funding but certainly that one isn’t doing anything to help canners, yet several large universities have the huge canning centers. I called one of them a couple of years ago asking about dry canning potatoes or canning potatoes with the peelings (the new type potatoes with the very thin skin that were homegrown). They could not give me any answers as to why it was unsafe. Vince called back to try to get clarification . . nope – we say it isn’t safe so don’t do it. Basically, if they have not tested it exactly as we’re going to do it, they have to tell us it’s unsafe. As many of us as are canning some of these things, my opinion is they should be running more tests.
I can understand not sticking half a ham in a jar and trying to can that but the small chunks – there’s no way the heat isn’t going to get through that and I think it makes them look even more inept to say to say “No cured meat can be canned”. Oh well . . there’s a whole lot of three letter agencies I don’t agree with but it’s best to say “yes, sir” and keep my mouth shut.