"Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take but by the moments that take your breath away?"

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Monday, August 13, 2012

Canning Navy Beans an Ham

      Another first for me. Canning dried navy beans. When I first heard of this, I admit it didnt make sense to me. couldnt understand why someone would take a product with a very long shelf life as it is and can it. But then I thought about it again. How many times had we wanted soup beans and cornbread, but not think about it till later in the day.? Then it made sense. If I forgot to start them early enough we could still have beans at a moments notice. We had them tonight for supper to test my product, and the soup bean eaters all gave a thumbs up. All two of us. Me and my husband. My son wont even try them. Below describes how I did them.
                                                         Soup Beans and Ham
approx 3 lbs dried navy beans
6  heaping TB chopped onion
6 heaping TB ketchup (might use a little more next time)
6 tsp salt. (a little too much for me. next time will reduce to about 1/2 tsp for each of the 6 jars , and add
          more if needed when heating)
approx 6 cups chopped ham
6 quart jars, lids and rings

1. Pour beans into a pot and cover with plenty of water. Let beans soak over night.
2. The next morning heat beans to boiling and boil 2 minutes.
3. Pour 1 cup ham into the bottom of each jar.
4. Pour in beans to just below shoulder of jars, about 2.5" below rim.
5. Pour in 1 Tb of onion.
6 Place in 1 TB of ketchup.
7. Add 1 tsp ( or less , to taste).
8. Pour boiling water over everything leaving 1" head space.
9. Pull lids from simmering water and place one on each jar after cleaning rims well.
10. Hand tighten rings.
11. Process according to altitude for 90 minutes. I am about 800 feet altitude so i used 10 lbs pressure on my canner.
12. Then when ready to eat, just heat and serve.

I served with a warm pan of corn bread, fried potatoes, and canned peaches



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