Canning Baked Beans

Remember all those beans I got last fall?

Remember my 101 goal to can something every month?

Yeah, me too.  So with the leftover ham and ham stock from Easter, I decided that I would can my own baked beans.  We really like the "Meijer version" of Bush's Baked Beans, but at $1.79 a pint, it's a once and a while treat.  So I scoured the internet looking for something that might come close.  I loaded the ham bone (still with a lot of meat) into the crockpot.  I usually make bean soup, but just didn't feel like it this time....so....here is the recipe (I actually doubled it, so we ended up with 11 pints and 3/4 of a pint for lunch today.)

• 1 quart dried pinto beans (about 2 pounds)
• 2 teaspoons salt (for soaking beans)
• 1/2 lb lean salt pork, cut into 1 inch cubes
• 3 onions, sliced
• 1 1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons dry mustard
• 2/3 cup molasses

This recipe can be doubled or tripled.

Cover beans with 3 quarts cold water and soak 12-18 hours in refrigerator or other cool place. Add 2 teaspoons salt to the soaking water. Bring to a boil. Cover the pot and simmer over low heat until skins begin to crack. Drain, saving the liquid.

Put the beans into a Crock-Pot or bean pot. Add pork and onions. Mix remaining ingredients together and stir into pot along with 4 cups of the liquid that the beans were cooked in (I used the ham stock instead). If you don't have enough liquid, add water to make 4 cups (at this point use the "bean water"). Pour over the beans. Cook for 8-12 hours on low

Pack into hot canning jars leaving 1 inch of head space. Process pints 1 hour and 20 minutes, quarts 1 hour 35 minutes, at 10 lbs pressure (you might have to adjust for altitude).

Final thoughts.  It was sweeter than I like.  It needed more pepper and salt and then I also added about 2 Tbsp of Ketchup when I cooked the last pint for lunch.  BUT...Though it was somewhat time consuming (I've been working on it for about 24 hours now)....the whole recipe was about $1.84 for 12 pints...about the same as one can of our favorite from Meijer.