Thanks KatieC. Good to hear from someone that actively does this.

I already figured out the must cook before canning thing.. lol, some of the older threads around here are very humorous in their commentary about uncooked beans. Glad to know the 3/4 and 1" are good.

I want to do some canning like you- specifically baked beans, and flavored black beans for soup. A few others too. And also, if I'm gonna make a pinch for dinner, I'd rather make the pound of beans in general. Rather just be able to set up a canner and do a whole batch at once and be done for a while for plain packing.

I am a bit of a bean nut. I got somewhere around two dozen kinds of dry beans on the shelf.. and split peas and lentils, sooner or later will probably want to can up those soups too, lol.

And good to know about freezing to save up stocks. I do tend to reduce my stocks anyway, but they still take up too much freezer room that could be better stored shelf-stable.

I use the recipe on the National Center for Home Food Preservation website for dry beans & peas. Here's a link: https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_04/beans_peas_shelled.html. They also have recipes for canning various types of stock. And here's a link for their homepage: https://nchfp.uga.edu/index.html.

Thanks Tom, that's the site I already use :) What do you can up?

I also can stock, beef and chicken mostly, but I also do turkey and duck sometimes. I just toss all my bones and "parts" into my big Nesco roaster, add vegetables and aromatics and when they brown a bit, add water. I let it simmer at least 12 hours, then strain the stock. I save the vegetables and meat bits for the dog's supper and can the stock. I seldom get much siphoning on stock.

Beans are a different matter altogether. I have canned fresh shelled beans but I like them better frozen so I save space in the freezer for those. I canned a couple dozen pints of beans, half beans and half liquid and at least half of them lost their seal. I haven't tried since. I did get a lot of siphoning with the beans.

Good luck.

Annie

I can mostly crushed tomatoes, green beans, and purple hull peas. I also make Annie's salsa every year and Ball's recipe for Grandma's Chili Sauce most years.

Thanks annie... I'm starting to feel more confident about doing stock now that a couple folks have chimed in to the positive with that. Interesting you seem to have had bean problems that KatieC didn't seem to have... I'll start out with my cheaper beans before proceeding on, lol.

Tom, you pressure can crushed tomatoes and Annie's salsa? I always WB my tomato products because they can be done like that, never considered doing them in the pressure canner. Does pressure canning them go quicker or better than WB canning?

And you have reminded me that Grandma''s Chili Sauce was rather good when I made it a few years ago, maybe I should do a batch again this year. Probably some steak sauce too- but I WB those. Do you pressure can the chili sauce too- and if so, what pressure/timing/jar size do you use?

TBH I don't have much interest in canning green beans- we just aren't huge canned green bean eaters in general for some reason. They are just... boring. Maybe home canned ones would be better, I don't think I've ever had home canned to compare. I tend to pickle them, or use them fresh or from frozen more often.

I have often wonder on the quality of canned vegetables. My thought is they are better frozen, but I could be wrong.

Beesneeds - I will join you on your pressure canning adventure. I intend to start with stocks...once it cools down here which is at least a month or so away.

I like some things better frozen, like corn and berries, but I like other things better canned, like green beans and tomatoes. I also can meat when I'm short on freezer room, like the year Elery shot three deer and we also raised beef and chickens.

I don't know what happened with those beans, but I considered the effort a dismal failure. Truly, I'm blaming the failure on a bad batch of lids, I also had a couple of canners full of beets fail to keep their seal and I've never had problems canning beets before. I just haven't tried to can beans since because I really like the freshly shelled beans frozen. And, of course, I didn't trust any of that batch because I wasn't confident that the seals on any of them were good since I lost so many.

Annie