To can black beans, start off by rinsing and sorting the beans – you’ll find rocks, twigs, and just about anything, and you definitely don’t want that going into your jars! Soak the dried beans overnight. Since I was doing 5 pounds at once, I used my huge canning stockpot. Cover the beans with cold water, about 2 to 3 inches over the top of the beans. Mine soaked up a lot of the water before I went to bed, so I just added more cold water to have the 2 to 3 inches extra.

In the morning, drain the beans. You’ll be surprised how dirty these beans are! Put the beans back in your stockpot, and cover with fresh cold water. Put on the stove, and bring to a gentle boil. Cook for 30 minutes at this gentle boil – not a hard boil, or the beans will split.

Fill pint jars approximately 3/4 full with the cooked beans. Add 1/4 teaspoon of canning salt if desired (not necessary), and add the cooking water (or boiling water if you prefer) just to cover the beans. Leave a 1-inch headspace. Place lids and rings; tighten just to finger tight.

Process pints in a pressure canner for 75 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure.

I worked up 5 pounds of dried black beans, and I ended up with 20 pints.