Canning Bean Soup - Dry Bean Method

I was going through my freezer and making a meal plan for the week and noticed I had two beautiful ham bones in freezer bags. They both had a good amount of meat on them from Sunday Hams. I am not one to waste food if I can avoid it. I thought PERFECT! I will make bean soup with these! I usually save those for either bean soup, potato soup or split pea soup.  

Making homemade bean soup is one of those comfort foods that goes great with corn bread or a hearty baked bread, especially on cold days. What is better still, having it ready to eat on a cold day OR being able to just throw it into a crock pot and let the family munch on it all day.

Ingredients:

• 2 medium carrots, sliced
• 2 celery ribs, chopped
• 1 med/large onion chopped
• 4 Cups chicken stock
• 2 lb of dry beans (northern, navy, pinto - your preference) washed and rinsed 
• 1 large meaty leftover ham bones
• 1 Tbsp thyme
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• Large stock pot
• Water
• 7-8 or so Quart canning jars with lids and rims (clean/sterile)
• Pressure canner & canning tools

 

Place the ham bone with meat attached into the stock pot and fill the stock pot with stock, thyme, garlic, pepper, bay leaf and top off with water to about 2/3 full and set it over medium heat to boil. You are going to let this boil down until you have reduced the water to about 1/3 left. (This is going to take a while and your kitchen will be warm and muggy which is why I tend to do this during the cooler months.)

Chop up your veggies while this is cooking down and set aside.

Line up your clean canning jars 

Measure 1 Cup dry beans per Quart (or 1/2 cup per pint)

Once you have reduced your liquid to about 1/3 full, remove the meat and bones. With a sharp knife cut/cube the ham that you want to go back into the soup and set aside. I usually chop up about 2 cups or so, sometimes more. 

Stock has reduced down and the steam
smells amazing!

Then distribute your veggies evenly between the jars and add your meat. I like the look of the layers in my jars but theoretically you could just mix the meat and veggies and then divide the mix evenly between your jars. Whatever blows your hair back I say.

NOTE: There are times where I will have too much meat and I will throw that into 1 or 2 pint jars and pop those into the pressure canner at the same time as the soup because the processing time is the same as the soup. 

This can be very handy when cooking and a spot of ham would really enhance the recipe so I will just grab a jar of canned ham from my pantry and it does the trick. This makes great baked ham mac-n-cheese and ham-n-scalloped potatoes. 

See my post on Why I Can Meat for more info on this.

Remove the bay leaf from the broth. Ladle hot mixture into jars leaving 1 inch head-space. Wipe rim and add lids and bands. Tighten to finger tip tightness. 

  

Process jars 75 minutes for pints & 90 minutes for quarts. 

(You will need to adjust the pressure for your altitude. For my altitude I use 10 lbs of pressure)

Once done, let jars sit for 24 hrs. Lids should all be sealed. If not, I place mine in the refrigerator and consume within 2 wks. 

My soup tends to be thick and that is how I like it. When I am ready to serve it I can add 1/2 - 1 cups of water to thin it out to the consistency desired. This is delicious with a hearty baked bread. This has saved me more than once on busy nights.

 

If you try this please share in the comments below or show me pictures of your canning success!