Canning Baked Beans

If you like homemade from-scratch goodness, but also want the convenience of popping a can open, this recipe for canning baked beans if what you need! 

Having homemade convenience food on the pantry shelves has saved me on busy days more times than I can count. 

The canning lifestyle is not new for me. Growing up, my parents’ goal was to be as self-sufficient as possible, so we naturally had a big garden, and did a lot of canning every year. 

One of the things we grew a lot of was beans. They were a staple! You can grow and preserve enough beans to feed a large family for a year comparatively easily, and so we did.  

We dried most of them. 

But we also canned a fair number too for last minute needs. 

Another thing we did was dry them during the busy summer season, and can them later in the year when we were less busy. 

These and our canned chili beans recipe are both great for off-season canning! 

Canning Baked Beans

The canning process for beans is pretty simple. I find it best to rehydrate beans (i.e. soak them overnight) before canning them. 

This gives you a better chance to De-gas them, and saves any guesswork for how much water your beans will absorb during canning. 

For baked beans in particular, I not only rehydrate them, but also cook them before canning. I find that raw beans don’t cook properly even in watered down baked bean syrup. 

Other than soaking/cooking the bean, canning baked beans is just a matter of mixing up your baked bean syrup with the beans, filling jars, and processing them in a pressure canner. 

If you’re familiar with pressure canning, you already now this is going to be simple. If not, check out our guide for how to use a pressure canner. 

Ingredients for Canned Baked Beans

Ingredients for homemade baked beans vary depending on your own preference, and the same is true for canning them. 

The sugar and vinegar are important for preservation purposes, but many of the ingredients are based on your taste buds. We’ll cover additions and substitutions in a separate section below, so let’s cover the main ingredients.

• Beans
• Brown sugar
• Barbecue sauce
• Ketchup
• Mustard (prepared, or ground dry mustard)
• Onion
• Olive oil
• Blackstrap molasses
• Apple cider vinegar

Additions and ingredient substitutions

As mentioned above, the exact ratios of ingredients can be changed to suite your taste, and additions can also be made. Here are some common ones: 

• Bacon. I personally like to add bacon to my baked beans, and cook the onion in bacon grease instead of olive oil. It adds a ton of flavor! Feel free to add a slice of two’s worth of bacon to each quart of beans if you want.
• Bell peppers. A lot of folks like to add bell peppers to their baked beans. This isn’t my particular cup of tea, but if it’s yours, add a deseeded and chopped bell pepper to the mix when you’re sautéing your onion.
• Black strap molasses. If you prefer, you can omit this. My mother used to use sorghum molasses (which we grew – so she often completely omitted the brown sugar and used only sorghum) instead of blackstrap. Either one is fine!
• Liquid smoke. I’m a sucker for hickory smoke. I usually use hickory smoke barbecue sauce, as well as an extra teaspoon or so of liquid smoke. It adds a great aroma to the beans!
• Black pepper. Adds a little spice and a lot of subtle flavor

What kind of beans should I use to canning baked beans? 

This is a great question, and once again, the answer can largely be left up to your preference. 

When I’m buying beans, I typically use pinto which are very economical, and widely available, or pink beans. We usually grow a cranberry type of bean, which is nearly identical to pinto beans. 

Other beans that work well are great northern, or navy beans, which are the beans typically used in commercially produced baked beans. 

How to Can Baked Beans

Step one to canning baked beans starts the night before. 

1. Soak four pounds of dried beans in enough water to cover beans by several inches. Beans will more than double in size so make sure it’s a lot of water!

   

2. In the morning, Drain and rinse beans in a colander. For degassing purposes, it’s good to use your hands to rub through the beans as the rinse water washes over them
   
3. Transfer beans to a large pot (or pots), and add 2 teaspoons salt
4. Fill pot with water up to a few inches above the beans
5. Boil until beans are just tender (for pinto beans, this may take up to 90 minutes)
6. While beans cook, dice your onions, and sauté them until translucent, then remove from heat
   
7. Combine remaining ingredients in a large bowl, stirring in the onions last
8. When beans are finished cooking, drain them, reserving the broth
9. In a large bowl, combine drained beans with syrup, and 4 cups of reserved broth, and stir well
   
10. The mixture should be very soupy. You should look at it and think “no way, this is basically bean soup!” But that liquids with thicken, and to some degree, evaporate during the canning process.

    

11. Ladle beans into sterile quart or pint canning jars leaving 1-inch headspace
12. Wipe rims with a clean, damp cloth, making sure they are free from any debris
    
13. Screw down clean lids and bands
14. Prepare your pressure canner according your specific canners instructions. For the standard 16 quart canner, this usually means adding 2 quarts of water, and the inner rack into the bottom of the canner (your canner should have a rack in the bottom to separate the jars from the heat source and prevent glass breaking)
15. Arrange jars in canner so that they do not touch – they can be close, but try to avoid touching so that the heat distributes evenly
    
16. Fix canner lid onto canner with the vent open
17. Heat over medium-high heat until a steady stream of steam is escaping from canner vent
18. Set timer for 10 minutes
19. Once the ten minutes are up, close vent/add pressure weight to canner
20. Bring canner to 10 pounds pressure. If you live in an elevated area, use this altitude adjustments for canning guide. If you’re using a dial gauge canner, you can probably use a specific pressure for your altitude, but if you have a weight gauge, your options are probably 10 and 15. 
21. Bring to pressure, and keep it there for 75 minutes if canning pint jars, or 90 minutes if canning quarts. 
22. Remove from heat
23. Let pressure come down naturally
24. It’s best if you can let the jars stay in the canner until it’s mostly cooled off, but if you need to get them out, let them cool inside the canner until the pressure has returned to zero
25. Remove weighted gauge or open vent to ensure that no pressure remains in canner
    
26. Open canner in an area free from cold drafts or sudden temperature changes (i.e. close your kitchen windows)
27. Use a towel to cover and protect hot jars are you move them from canner to countertop/shelf where they will finish cooling
28. Cover with a towel to protect from drafts as jars cool

There’s a good chance that some of the baked bean syrup will have leaked onto the outsides of the jars as they boiled inside the canner, so after jars are completely cool, you can clean them

After 24 hours, you can check for a seal, and remove screw-on bands if desired

Congratulations! At the end of this process you have delicious homemade convenience food on your pantry shelves. 

Perhaps they’re not technically baked, but the pressure canning process gives you that same thick, sweet and vinegary dish that pairs so well with pulled pork sandwiches! 

Other recipes to try: 

• How to can pork
• How to can chicken
• How to can vegetable soup
• How to can beef stew
• How to can chicken broth

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