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Friday, November 18, 2011

Canning refried beans

BOOM! So there are pictures out there of exploding jars of refried beans. I know some have figured out how to do it with only small failures. But the simplest fix is to not mush up the beans before canning.

you will need

1 cup dry pinto beans (soak over night then drain)
1 whole bay leaf
1/4 cup bacon fat
1 yellow onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced jalapeno, seeded
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
dash cayenne

In a heavy kettle or pot, bring beans, the bay leaf and enough water to cover by 2 inches to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for up to 2 hours. Stir occasionally, add water as needed. Removed from heat. Discard bay leaf. Place beans into your jars.

Heat up the bacon fat in a skillet, add onions and cook until soft. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Mix well and remove from heat.  If the mixture seems too paste like, stir in some of your bean cooking water to thin out.

Using a tablespoon at a time, evenly distribute the onion mix into your beans jars. Pour cooking water over top to cover leaving 1 inch of head space.

Process in a pressure canner. 15 lbs pressure for 90 minutes.

When ready to eat, puree or mash the entire jar of beans. Pour into skillet and refry.

(tried to take a photo, but the lighting in my kitchen is awful, and the pics looked bad)

6 comments:

Basic Humanity said...

Nom nom nom these sound sooo good!
This post has got me excited. Being the cool dude I am I've asked the BF for a cast iron skillet this Christmas. I'm really looking forward to using it so I can collect grease etc because my current frying pan is only non-stick in theory. The teflon is massively ruined. I blame my mum for ruining it during the summer it spent at my parents' house, but she insists it's actually her very old pan.... I digress. I've been dying to be able to collect up the fats from meats, but they get mixed in with the cooking oil. Once I have my skillet I'll be collecting grease for cooking and delicious bacon scented candles!

HermitJim said...

You always have a way of making me hungry in the mornings!

Being an ol' Texas boy, I could eat beans in one form or another every day (and did so many times)!

Thanks for the information, my friend!

Phelan said...

I love my cast iron. Just don't drop it on your foot.

Hey Jim! I like beans too, just don't like Husband eating them :D

Mamma Bear said...

Yummmm....I'm gonna try this recipe. I have read of others having theirs to explode as well. Mashing them before use makes a lot more sense. We're really not supposed to can dense stuff but that doesn't keep us from trying...LOL

Phelan said...

I know, we try a lot of things that maybe we shouldn't. But sometimes they work out well.

Brenna said...

Sounds so good! I'm still busily pickling up the last of our fall green beans and cukes, so this idea will have to wait. Thanks for sharing it.

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