# Canned beans a solid lump?



## mousebandit (Feb 14, 2007)

Uh oh. I canned up a load of red beans yesterday. Soaked and boiled 30 minutes to rehydrate. Filled quart jars to within 1" of top and poured over the broth from the boiling. Forgot totally to remove air bubbles with plastic wand. Processed 90 minutes.

Today, I'm looking at my jars. They sealed great, but the beans inside do not have "broth" all the way over the beans (maybe 2/3 the way up), and where there is "broth" it's more like gelatin. Turning the jar upside down, everything pretty much moves together in one big lump and appears to be pretty congealed together. 

Is this okay? Should I reprocess or store in the fridge? They seem pretty darn dense.

THANKS!!
Mouse Bandit


----------



## Packedready (Mar 29, 2011)

I always cook the beans until they are almost done before canning and they come out perfect. I can't keep enough in the house. I will be canning beans as soon as it cools down here. They are always completely covered with broth before I process. I cook them in the crockpot. There will be 3 crockpots running when I get started. Yours may have soaked up the liquid because they were not done enough.


----------



## suitcase_sally (Mar 20, 2006)

Properly rehydrate the beans by soaking overnight. This will allow the beans to absorb more water. Also, don't fill the jars more than about 2/3 full of beans before adding the boiling water because no mater how long you soak them, they will absorb more in the canning process.

The "gelatin" you see in the jars is, in fact, starch. Just rinse the beans in a strainer before heating to serve. It will remove most of it.

I turn my jars upside down and gently twist them back and forth to disloadge the mass of beans. Do this a few times until all the beans disloadge from the "clump".

The first time I made baked beans I had to add water to the beans just to get them out of the jar - then they were too thin. I discovered that I was making them too thick before canning them and they got thicker during canning. If doing baked beans, the recipe says to make them "soupy". I did and they turned out great after processing.


----------



## mousebandit (Feb 14, 2007)

Thank you!! I did soak them overnight and then reboil for 30 minutes - just packed them in too much I guess. Did a batch of black beans today and didn't put as many in. They seem fine. 

THANKS!
MouseBandit


----------

