Perhaps I take things too literally...AKA: bean soup, anyone???

"Continuous free flow"

"2 1/4 lbs. per quart"

Two pretty simple concepts with obvious meanings, right?  Apparently not, and that fact nearly sent me (and my apprentice-canner friend Sarah A.J.) to the looney bin yesterday.

It all starts several months ago when the news about BPA and its dangers as well as its pervasive presence in many water bottles, commercial cans, baby bottles, and much more, hit the media.  I was disgusted by it, and continue to be so.  It made me question the use of commercially canned foods, something we don't rely all that much, but they do come in handy for some of the basics sometimes.  Anyhow, Brian and I hatched the idea to purchase dried beans, and cook and pressure can them (the only safe way, by the way...dried beans are low-acid and therefore water bath canning is unsafe for them).  My aforementioned friend Sarah shares these same concerns, and as she is a vegetarian, beans are a staple in her diet.

The Ball Blue Book states that 2 1/4 lbs. of dried beans, cooked, will fill a quart canning jar.  My pressure canner will hold 20 pint jars (two layers of 10).  Therefore we (okay, I will take the blame) figured that 22 lbs of dried beans would be just perfect to fill up a canner load.  Trust me, the math works out, I've calculated it at least a half-dozen times.  Oh, and sure, if we happen to have a little left over, we can throw some beans in the freezer.  (HA!) We purchase 10 lbs of garbanzos and 12 lbs of pintos and soak them overnight on Friday.

The real work began around 9 a.m. on Saturday.  We cook our already-soaked beans.  We remark, "that looks like a lot of beans".  We fill up 20 pint jars of pinto beans.  We notice that we have hardly put a dent in the beans. "Um, should we do another canner load?  No, we've got many canner loads here."   The beans seem to be multiplying, somehow.  Sarah and I exchanged terrified glances from time to time. 

After some deliberation, we finally we decide we're going to have to freeze massive quantities of beans.  My husband and kids arrive home from Aaron's swim class and some errands.  I ask him to go get more pint jars.  Lots more.  How many?  Um, how about 5 cases (one dozen each)...the wide-mouth jars that are freezer-safe.  Meanwhile we continue the process of getting the pressure canner doing its thing.  It needs to be vented, and that requires that it obtain a free flow of  steam and vent continuously for ten minutes.  What does continuously mean to you?  To me, it means without stopping.  At all. The steam gives off long puffs of tunnel-shaped steam (that's a good thing), and just when I'm getting excited, the steam briefly breaks.  So I wait and wait and wait, and I send Sarah home for a while because this is about as exciting as watching paint dry.  That will allow her to relieve her husband for a bit, grab lunch, nurse the babe, etc.  At some point I call my grandma for advice, because it seems that this is never going to happen.  I'm pondering whether the full canner load is too taxing for my gas stove, or if my stove just isn't powerful enough.  Grandma suggests that I can this in two batches of just one layer each, but she does not have experience with two-layer canners so she isn't quite sure what to advise.  She warns me that beans are a low-acid food and that I ought to be very careful, something I've already reminded myself of numerous times.  Okay, her advice seems worth a try.  I open up the canner and there is no water left!  Scary!  I open a jar and taste to ensure that the beans are not scorched, which they are not.  I start the process over...hot water into canner, wait for steam, time 10 minutes, pressurize, and get that half-load canned.  I'm still not entirely convinced that the steam is continuous, but it seems the best it's going to get. 

While canning that load, Sarah comes back, and we, along with my husband and five-year-old, fill up wide-mouthed, freezer-safe pint jars.  All but one!  Yes, 59 pints of beans, in addition to the 20 destined for the canner!  Unbelievable.  Fortunately, Sarah owns a mostly-empty chest freezer.  I save a few pints to freeze, and every remaining one goes into her freezer. 

Aaron's job is to measure and pour a half-teaspoon of salt into each jar, which he does, plus or minus a half-teaspoon, and then he caps each jar.  During this time first half-load comes out (it needs to cook under pressure for 75 minutes and then cool and de-pressurize, so it's not a quick process) and around 5 pm the second load goes in, repeat process above for second half-load, and at 7 pm I turn out the lights and call it a night.  Whew!  Well, actually, my husband and I sink into La-Z-Boys and attempt to watch Food, Inc. on DVD (because apparently I still haven't had enough of food safety for one day!) but I simply cannot keep my eyes open.  What a day!  I actually had difficulty sleeping that night, worried that my canner wasn't working properly and that Sarah, her husband, and two beautiful children might contract botulism!  Death could occur!  How could I live with myself?!

No, you don't need to inform me that this post may make it appear that I need therapy for anxiety or obsessive-compulsive disorder.  I will consider it, thank you very much.  *sigh*

This morning I called Presto, the maker of my pressure canner, to ask for more specifics on the venting process that has so deeply troubled me.  Naturally, they only are available during business hours, M-F.  The customer service rep who answered the phone indicated that "continuous free flow" means, "if you can see, hear, or feel steam".  You have got to be kidding me.  I think I need to consult a linguist because apparently I don't understand the English language as well as I thought I did. 

Trust me, lesson learned:  I am going to write that down and insert it in my manual so as never to make this mistake again. As for the quantity of beans, well, I guess I learned to use my head and not just read the Ball Blue Book.  Being that it's revered as the foremost authority on canning, I'm really surprised at that one.  Okay, whatever. 

Oh, and by the way...for the first time, one of my jars did not seal.   That one went into the fridge to consume this week.

The day's tally:   
19 pints canned pintos, PC, Presto instruction manual
1 pint refrigerated pintos
59 pints frozen (some garbanzos, some pintos)

Photo of the hard-won canned pintos:

I have decided that canning is much like childbirth.  The process is never exactly what you expect; quite frankly, it's excruciatingly difficult, but afterward you forget the pain entirely (almost).  And best of all, the results are sooooo worth it!