Today was my first experience ever using a pressure canner/cooker. I'm not gonna lie.... My nerves were a wreck! I just kept waiting for the lid to explode or the pressure gauge to go flying off. I was babysitting a little girl, and every time she dropped a toy on the ground it gave me an instant heart attack!
So after reading the instruction manual 5 times over (just to make sure I didn't miss anything) I started with step 1. Process water in pressure canner to make sure pressure gauge works properly. Ok, so sounds pretty easy.
Now, it's pretty big and heavy and I'm sure could demolish my kitchen but the water process went good! Now for the real test! Today I canned black beans, which actually began last night since the beans had to soak for 12-16 hours. Start with a 2lb bag of black beans. Sort through it to remove all broken beans and foreign debris. Then cover the beans with 3 times the water and let 'em soak!
When I woke up this morning was a big bowl of black liquid. I though the beans had all disintegrated, but after rinsing them I found most of them were still intact! I sorted out the ones that had split and transferred them to a big stock pot, then covered them with water again and started to boil. Once the beans were boiling, and that's not a very pleasant smell, I filled my jars with hot water to get them up to temperature. I used pint jars since I figured was closest in size to a can of beans. Fill the pint jars with beans and pour boiling liquid over beans leaving 1" headspace.
Now, at this point I'm a little worried... Though I can for the preservation and readiness of food, as well as knowing what goes into what I'm eating, I also can because it's fun and I think "home canned food" is so pretty. This however, is not pretty!! I figure, well at least it will be in the cupboard and nobody will see it! So now that the beans are in the jar, I added 1/2 teaspoon of canning salt and used the little spatula to get out all the air bubbles. Put the lid on 'em and we're ready to go into the deadly pressure canner.
I absolutely love this little "jar grabber" I finally invested in. Previously, I was using tongs and a spoon. This is much nicer!
I got 7 pints out of my 2lb bag of beans which was nice!! Now with all the liquids filled and jars in place time for the cookin! This part was kinda tricky! Once the lid is on and sealed you have to get the water really boiling. Once steam is "escaping" the pressure valve, you let it steam for 10 minutes. Then apply the pressure gauge with recommended weight. For these beans it's 10lbs of pressure. So I put the "weight" on and let the pan fill with pressure. Once the gauge is "gently rocking" you start the timer. 75 minutes these bad boys take! That's 75 torturous "please don't let it explode" minutes. That sound like this "rattle rattle rattle hiss hiss hiss clack, rattle rattle rattle hiss hiss hiss clank." I kept thinkin at any minute something was gonna fly off! When the timer dinged at 75 minutes, all parts were still where they belonged. Yay!! At this point I removed from heat and allowed pot to "depressurize." I just want to see if those darn beans turned out! but I was patient and it was worth it!
And look! They got pretty after they cooked! I am a happy canner! It seems now this is only the beginning. Originally, I wanted to make black beans with roasted green chilies, since this is how I normally eat them, but didn't want to go through the trouble of roasting and risk wasting my home grown green chilies. Wasting a $2 bag of beans is one thing, but the delicious peppers from my beautiful garden that's a whole different ball game! Now that I've successfully utilized the pressure canner the fun begins!
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