Cooking/Baking

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Canning Dry Beans

Let me start off by saying that I have canned dry beans this way off and on for several years, and this is my preferred way of doing it, but it does differ from the Ball Blue Book!  Please, use your own judgment!

Canning Dry Beans

Canning Dry Beans

To can dry beans, I wash my jars & check for any chips on the edges.

Place approximately 3/4 to 1 cup of dried beans in each quart jar. (If you’re canning larger beans, you may only need 3/4 cup per quart jar.)  Remember, the beans will EXPAND while soaking, so do not put any more beans in the jar than what will be able to fit once they are done expanding.  (If your jars are too full after soaking, you can always take some off and place in another jar.)

Fill jar with cool water & cover with a towel.  Let soak for 12-18 hours.

Drain soaking water from each jar.  If jars are more than 2/3 of the way full, you will need to remove some of the beans from the jar.  Add them to another jar.  You may end up with enough to have another jar to can, or save them to cook after you’re done canning.

Fill jar with boiling water.  You may add salt, but it is not necessary, and I do not since it can make beans tough.

Dry the lip of each jar.  Place seal & band on, according to manufacturer’s directions.

Can quarts of beans for 90 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure.

These are great to have on hand to help get a meal on the table quickly!  Enjoy!

This post is linked to:

Heritage Homesteaders

The Chicken Chick

Homestead Barn Hop

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Update to My Canning Raw, Bone-In Chicken

Canning Chicken - after being pressure canned

Canning Chicken – after being pressure canned

As I promised, this post is going to update you on my thoughts on canning chicken raw.

Here’s a pic of the jars after they had cooled & been washed off.

Well, as it happened, I canned this on a Thursday and then had the perfect opportunity to give it a try when I found out that  a dear, sweet friend of mine came back from her camping trip sick.  Her sweet little girl came down with a stomach bug on the way home, & then she came down with it.  So, I fixed a big pot of homemade chicken noodle soup.  I had all the ingredients in my pantry, including some store-bought egg noodles, so it was super easy & quick to throw together.  I made enough for both her family and mine for supper that night.

Canned chicken after removing from jar.

Canned chicken after removing from jar.

Here’s what the chicken looked like after I pulled it out of the jar.  Remember my telling you that these roosters were a little over a year old?  Most birds at this age are starting to get chewy & tough.  When I pulled these four chicken breasts out of the jar, they literally fell off the bone!  It was so tender & juicy, you would’ve thought that these were very young, tender birds if I hadn’t told you any different.

Chicken noodle soup made with home canned chicken.

Chicken noodle soup made with home canned chicken.

In fact, look what happened when I put it in the soup pot.  It literally fell apart.  It looks like a put shredded chicken in the pot when, in fact, I just cut it into bite-sized chunks before placing it in the pot.

My verdict:

The taste was great!  It was very moist & tender.  I will definitely be doing this again in the near future.  In fact, I have a few bags of frozen chicken that were some of our older birds.  These will now be canned up first chance I get.  It definitely makes it quicker & easier to throw a meal together this way.

This post is linked to:

Heritage Homesteaders Blog Hop #4

Homestead Blog Hop #151

Farm Blog Hop

Clever Chick Blog Hop

Oak Hill Homestead

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My Next Adventure…..

It really does help to know your meat processor! Or, in our case, his son!  He has been such a blessing to us, and he’s a wealth of information!  When we began discussing having a cow processed last fall, we found out that most people do not save the soup bones, liver, heart, tongue, or suet from their cows.  If you ask, he will save the soup bones & suet for you – FREE!  How amazing is that?!  (He will also save the lard from pigs when they get them in!)

I recently put in a request for some lard/suet, and yesterday, I picked up 3 boxes full of suet (beef fat)!

Beef fat!

Beef fat – 2 of the 3 boxes I picked up!

Here, you can see what it looks like!  Isn’t it beautiful?!  I can’t wait to render it down into tallow very soon.

Frozen Beef Fat (Suet)

Frozen Beef Fat (Suet)

*A tip we received from his son (my sweet husband works with him) is to save some of the best suet & keep it in the freezer.  When we want to make hamburgers, pull it out and & grate some over the top of of the ground beef!  That is an awesome idea!  This keeps the lean hamburger meat from falling apart on the grill.

If you’ve ever had hamburgers fall apart while grilling them, it’s probably because they did not have enough fat in them to hold them together.  Some fat is okay for you.  There is no reason to cut it all out of your diet.  Your body needs some healthy fats and, believe it or not, lard & tallow are good fats – just like butter!  Yes, you can have too much of a good thing.  Moderation is the key!

Stay tuned for my new adventure into rendering tallow!  Blog post coming as soon as I get a chance to get this done.

This post has been linked to:

Heritage Homesteaders

Chicken Chick Blog Hop

Homestead Blog Hop

Oak Hill Homestead