Pinto Beans

My husband loves pinto beans and ham, but the rest of us are just okay with them. So, I decided to can some with ham broth, onions, and ham so he can have a modest amount instead of the giant batch we usually end up with.

I started by soaking my pinto beans overnight covered by plenty of water. Then I drained them and added them to a LARGE stock pot.

I brought a pot of water to a boil and poured it over the beans until they were covered by 2 inches of water and boiled them for 3 minutes and let them stand for 10 minutes and then drained them.

In the meantime, I heat the ham stock (3 quarts) that I made last year from ham bones that I got at Benton’s ham along with a couple of chopped onions and about 3/4 cup of ketchup.

I also prepped my jars, lids and rings, and brought my canner up to temp.

I put 1 cup of beans in my hot jar and put a handful of ham over the top and then filled the jar to about 3/4 full and then added my broth and onion mixture leaving 1″ head space after removing air bubbles with a spatula. I got 7 quarts from 4 lbs. of pinto beans.

I used sliced ham from Aldi for the ham and cut it into smaller pieces.

I brought the canner up to 10 lbs pressure and canned the beans for 90 minutes. I let the canner come back down to 0 pressure and removed the weight and the lid. I let the jars stand in the canner for about 30 minutes and then removed them to a beach towel covered counter. I let them sit overnight.

I removed the rings and tested the seals and washed all the jars thoroughly with soapy water and labeled them.

My husband had to open a jar as soon as he got home. He declared that they were worth the time it took to make them.

I think that I will use more ham the next time I make them.