I recently pressure canned some cooked pinto beans. We like them in chili and other Mexican-type dishes. They make an easy to prepare quickie meal.

However, I chose not to add the hot spices, because I feel spices usually need to be refreshed after opening many long-time processed foods.

As beans are pressure canned (something like 90 minutes), the danger factor shouldn't be a factor here.

I grew a large number of hot peppers this year, and elected to make a hot sauce, which I then froze. It had a chicken stock base, and I preferred not to pressure can it. This sauce will be used in a variety of foods - that I can season to my taste, including the pinto beans, if I want to.

Just my 2 c's.

Bejay

Jennie, no reason to not add the dried herbs or dried chili if that is how you like yours. It is safe to add dried things like that to foods when canning.

have you done beans before? I reallly like them canned -- they're like instant food and DH can even make a meal this way. The seasonings sound good. Don't add anything tomato, though, because the beans stop "cooking" once the tomato is added. I find it tricky to get just the right "doneness" to the beans and the right amount of beans to allow for swelling during processing. About 2/3 jar of soaked beans and 1/3 jar of water seems about right. Let us know how they turn out.