How to can green beans

I've been doing all these canning posts and I realized that I should probably do an actual "how to" post, so here it is. I canned beans today, so I took enough pictures to show the process from start to finish.

To start with, here is what you will need to do your canning, along with a pressure canner and jars.

The Ball Blue Book has all the information that you would need to can almost anything you would want to can, plus some information on freezing food. In the picture you also see a canning funnel, a jar lifter, a "lid wand" that has a magnet on the end for fishing the lids out of the really hot water that you heat them up in, a flat "bubble remover thingy" for getting the air bubbles out of the jar after you put the water or juice in it, measuring spoons, and the lids. I forgot to put the jar lid rings in the picture.

I started by putting 2-3 inches of water in the canner and putting it on the burner to get it hot.

Here's the beans and the pint jars. The jars should be freshly washed, and you should check the rims of the jars for cracks or chips. If a jar has a crack or chip on the rim, it won't seal and can't be used for canning.

Filling the jars. I prefer using the cold pack method, it's easier for me. After I fill a jar to just below the neck, I cover the top with one hand and shake the jar to settle the beans down, I can usually get a few more beans in the jar that way.

When the jars are full, I put 1/2 tsp of canning salt in each jar. Using salt in the jar is optional, it won't affect the preservation if you don't, I do it for the taste. Make you use non-iodised canning salt. The iodine in iodised table salt can have an effect on the color and taste of the produce that you can.

The next step is to fill the jars with hot water. I use my big stainless camp coffee pot to heat up the water for this step. The small pot is for heating up the jar lids. It makes the seal on the lid softer and more pliable to the jar rim. Once you know how many lids you'll need, you heat them up in almost boiling water.

Once I have the water in the jars, it's time to remove any trapped air bubbles from the jars. This is how you use the "bubble remover thingy" to do that. You push the thingy into the jars along the edge, and push in a little bit on the beans, you do this all the way around the jar. I also use it to pack the beans in a bit more.

When you get the air bubbles out of all the jars, top off all the jars with whatever water they need. The Blue Book says to leave about an inch of headspace from the water to the rim, which is basically the length of the neck of the jar. I tend to put a bit more water in the jars than that, but not much. Be careful, it's easy to over fill the jar. Then you have to take a bit of water out with a spoon.

I leave the jars in the heating pot until the water in the canner is almost boiling. When the canner is ready, I clean the jar rims to make sure there's nothing on the rim to interfere with the seal, and then I put the lids and rings on the jars. This is what the lid wand is for. Don't stick your fingers in the hot water that you've been heating the lids with. Place the lid on the rim of the jar, and screw the band down on it hand tight. You don't have to get it real tight, that could damage the seal on the lid. Just get it snug.

Once the lids and rings are on all the jars, you put the jars into the canner. Use the jar lifter, the water in the canner is hot.

Lower the jar into the water fairly slowly, don't just stick it in the water. The heat shock could break the jar if there's a big temperature difference between the jar and the water in the canner. As you put the jars in, make sure that there's a bit of space between the jars. This canner will hold 8 pint jars, so there's plenty of room for 6 jars.

After all the jars in the canner, put the lid on the canner and lock it on, then turn up the burner. With most pressure canners, you put the lid on and turn it to lock the lid on.
This canner has a pressure gauge and a vent. The vent will let all the air out of the canner as the water starts boiling. Once the water is generating enough steam, the vent will close and the pressure will build up. You have to watch the pressure gauge to see when it gets up to the recommended pressure, usually 10 PSI. Then you turn down the burner enough to stop the pressure rising any more, but make sure that it doesn't fall below 10PSI either. I generally end up holding at around 12PSI. A bit more pressure won't hurt anything, but there's no reason to exceed 14-15 PSI unless you live in a high altitude area. The Blue Book has a chart for proper pressure at higher altitudes.

The Blue Book recommends that you keep the pressure at 10 PSI for 20 minutes for pint jars and 25 minutes for quart jars of beans. Other foods may require more time at pressure, the Blue Book has that information.
After the required time has passed, you turn off the burner and just let the canner cool off by it's self. You have to wait for the pressure to be all the way down before you take the lid off the canner. When the pressure gauge is at zero and the vent plug on this canner drops down, I know the pressure is gone. Then open the lid and let the jars stand in the water for about 5 minutes to further cool. Then you can take them out of the canner and put them on a towel to cool off. Sometimes the lids are sealed when you take the jars from the canner, sometimes they seal shortly after you take them out. Don't check the seals by hand until the jars have cooled off. If the center of the lid is pulled down slightly, the jar is sealed, if the lid still has a bit of a dome to it after the jars are cool, it's not sealed. There are a number of possible reasons why a jar didn't seal. You can either change the lid and do the pressure run again, or put the jar in the fridge and eat the contents within a few days.

Well, I hope this post has been helpful for all the people who might be wondering how to can things like beans.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my "how to" post, eh!

As always, feel free to leave a comment or question if you'd like.

And don't forget, keep on steeming on!