Pork n’ beans come with many names and can be made several different ways, but around here we tend to treat them like BBQ beans and keep things simple.

This recipe avoids excessive sugar, no molasses, uses basic pantry items like your favorite bacon, red beans, diced tomatoes, and some spices to make that sweet & spiced flavor we are all familiar with.

Here I go into tools you need, ingredients, instructions, and FAQs on how to make and Pressure Can this version of Pork n Beans.

Let’s Dive In…

Pressure Canning Red Beans with Bacon & Tomato Sauce Recipe

This recipe is based off of Ball’s Bean with Pork & Tomatoes recipe from their Blue Book. I made slight adjustments to fit my pantry and doubled the size to fit a full canner’s load.

This recipe comes out to fit a full 7 quarts (typical canner’s limit).

In the video below, you can see how I used 4 pounds of beans, although this came to be too much. The measurements listed below are adjusted to suit 7 quarts without any leftovers.

One quart jar can easily feed my family for one dinner (when paired with other items) so I prefer to can this in quart jars.

Tools you Need

Pressure Canner
Quart jars with lids and bands (regular or wide mouth)
Large Stock Pot to soak beans and make sauce
Immersion blender
Canning accessories: jar lifter, funnel, ladle

Ingredients

Makes 7 quarts

3.5 pounds of red kidney beans, dried
4 cans (4 pints) of diced tomatoes, blended
1 quart of water
2 large onions, diced (about 2 cups)
6 tablespoons of white cane sugar
3-5 teaspoons of salt (to taste)
3/4 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon all spice
1/2 pack of bacon (about 6 oz, uncured, nitrate free preferred)

Instructions

Please follow the instruction booklet to your pressure canner for proper use and best results. Always practice safe canning.

Soak your beans: you can allow your beans to soak overnight, or on the stove top.
- Overnight: place beans in large bowl or stock pot and cover with 3-4 inches of water. Allow to sit, covered, for 8-12 hours at room temperature.
- Stove top: place beans in a large stock pot, cover with 1-2 inches of water. Place on medium high heat until boiling. Boil for 5 minutes, turn off heat, and place cover on. Let sit for 1 hour.
Once beans are soaked, drain, rinse, and set them aside.
Prepare your pressure canner, and place on medium heat so it can heat up while we prepare our sauce. Also, let your jars soak in hot water while you make your sauce.
Prepare sauce: add tomatoes to the stock pot, and use immersion blender to blend smooth.
Now, add water, onions, sugar, salt, ginger, allspice to your large stock pot.
Allow to come to a simmer, adjusting spices and salt to taste. Allow to simmer for 5-10 minutes until nice and hot and taste is to your liking.
While that is heating up, cut up bacon into small pieces.
Once the sauce is done, it’s time to fill the jars. Pull your hot jars out of the sink.
Fill your jars 3/4 full of beans and bacon. You can layer the beans and bacon, or simply add beans and put some bacon on top of the beans.
With a jar funnel, pour hot sauce over the beans, leaving 1 inch headspace.
De-bubble, very well with a butter knife or chopstick.
Wipe rims very well, and add lids and bands on finger tight.
Per your canner’s instructions, pressure can quart jars for 1 hour and 15 minutes at 10 pounds pressure (adjusting for altitude).
Once done, allow the jars to cool for 12 hours. Check seals. Refrigerate any jar that did not seal.
Wash jars well with lukewarm soapy water, and label. I like to write a note on the lid to remind myself to add water when reheating (more on that below).
Store on the shelf and enjoy!

When reheating you can add water to make it a bit thinner; usually 1 cup of water works.

How to Serve Canned Pork n’ Beans

The beauty of pork n’ beans (they taste like BBQ beans), is that they have a bit of flexibility on culinary creativity.

They simply just need to be reheated in a pan, since it’s fully cooked at this point.

But be sure to add as much water as you need to make them a bit thinner. The canning recipe does come out quick thick.

You can serve this:

As a standalone side dish
On top of crusty bread
On top of rice
Used as a chili or stew base
In a cheesy pasta dish
Used as a gravy with heavy meats like roasts

FAQs

My jar has no liquid left in it? This happened because the liquid siphoned out of the jar. This tends to happen when the jar is too full. Sometimes this happens more often with regular mouth jars than wide mouth jars. The jar can still have a valid seal, even if the liquid was lost. Just add water, broth, etc back to the mixture when reheating and cooking.

Do beans need to be cooked before canning? No. But it’s best practice to let them soak before canning. This way the jar fills up nicely, and you don’t risk overfilling the jar, which can lead to a broken seal. But you don’t have to soak beans prior to canning either. Some skip their soaking their beans altogether before canning to make things easier, but this is user’s choice.

Is canning your own beans cheaper than buying storebought? This recipe cost about $1.75 in ingredients per jar to make. Right now, a quart sized can costs about $2.50-$3.oo. But these comparisons, do depend on the recipe and what brands you are comparing with. But usually you can process beans, for less money when you do it yourself, given you have already purchased the jars and the canner to do so.

Is canning pork n’ beans at home healthier? This depends on your personal convictions on food altogether. Some do not want extra preservatives, food colorings, flavors, thickeners added to their foods; in this case, then yes, it is much healthier to can your own bean recipes because you can easily avoid these ingredients not commonly found in kitchens. If you don’t mind those ingredients listed above, then it makes no difference according to your personal convictions.