Here you go. Same as any other dried beans. Pressure canning is required.

Dried beans are not covered in most of my canning books.

Both the Ball Blue Book and the Ball Complete Book of Canning have instructions. What books are you looking in?

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Canning dried peas and beans

Amazingly I don't have the Ball books yet (they're arriving on Monday)... the one I have on my desk right now is "Putting Food By" (I have a few others but I believe they address canning in only a few chapters; they are not about canning exclusively as the Ball books are).

In any case, the link you posted is perfect!! I assume the Ball book will tell me how to adapt if I want to can up some half-pint jars (the link only gives process time for pints and quarts).

Garbanzos have a longer pre-soaking time than other dried beans, so I guess I just need to soak them at their recommended 24 hours first rather than 12-18 hours as the article says.

Thank you again... not sure why that link didn't turn up in all my frantic Googling!!

Half pints are processed in the pressure canner for the same length as pints.
You can freeze them or pressure can them, just whichever you prefer.
I suggest you bookmark and use the Univ. of Georgia's website. They are considered the leading authority on safe food preservation.

Here is a link that might be useful: National Center for Home Food Preservation.

AFAIK, the last edition of Putting Food By was somewhere around 1992.

I would recommend "retiring" that book as a canning reference, as the times and procedures are out-of-date and cannot be trusted.

It can still be used as a reference for root-cellaring and such things.

Carol

Agree with Carol. Putting Food By is a very outdated book to use for canning. While some of its recipes may still be considered safe, the safety guidelines have changed a great deal since it was published. If you are going to be doing a great deal of canning then it is best to stick with relatively newer books. ;)

And yes, 1/2 pints are processed for the same time as pints.

Dave

PS: You don't really need a longer pre-soak time for garbanzos as they finish cooking during the pressure canning. It all depends on how soft you want them to be.

Oh boy... thanks for letting me know about Putting Food By. That's disappointing. Good to know though... will rely on the Ball books instead. Thank you again for all the good info and the two very helpful links!

I love Putting food by...It's a good read even if the principles are not that safe any more.

Ruthie, I'm enjoying reading it too. I still have a book "Back to Basics," that I got in 1984 when I was 13. I was just looking through it and smiling at some of the tips that would never fly nowadays (e.g. a baby's cradle that probably wouldn't meet current FDA standards!). I'm all about following modern safety standards, but there's a charm in the old ways too.

Heck, after I last posted on this thread, I found a 1936 Ball Book of Preserving and Amazon and came close to buying it. Up-to-date safe advice? nah, but it sure rates high on the nostalgia and charm scale!

mrsjohnnyg, I have an old Ball/Kerr book from the 60s when they still cost 35 cents. I keep it because it was Grandma's and has her handwriting in the front. It's a good historical reference, I can compare and see how times and techniques have changed.

Some recipes are still the same, mostly the pickled stuff and jams, but many have changed.

Annie

mrsjohnnyg,
Not sure you need to extend soaking to 24 hours.
I do not soak at all and can dry.
I wash, put a scant 1/2 cup garbanzo beans in a pint jar, add 1/2 tsp. chicken stock base, fill to 1 inch with boiling water, cap and process.
The beans cook while being canned and are used for hummus and in salads. They are cooked but are still soft. They maintain their shape and are not falling apart. The key is not to exceed that slightly less than 1/2 cup per pint.
Just my observations based on repeated canning of garbanzo beans.
Jim in So. Calif.

I only soak beans (including garbanzos) for a couple of hours. Once you've soaked a bean through, it's not going to absorb any more water. How long that takes is a function of how dry the beans are to start. Break one open after it's soaked for a while. If you can see a ring, they haven't soaked for long enough.

Jim and JX, thank you for those excellent tips. I'm very excited about not having to buy $2 cans of organic chickpeas anymore. Buying in bulk and home canning is the only way to fly!

Dave writes: PS: You don't really need a longer pre-soak time for garbanzos as they finish cooking during the pressure canning. It all depends on how soft you want them to be.

Have now tried garbanzo beans (all were soaked for 18 hours) just cooked for 1 1/2 hours, or frozen after cooked and finally a batch canned according to Linda Lou's NCHFP link.

Loved the flavor of all methods, but texture changed quite a bit. The crunchiest and best was the cooked. The cooked and then frozen batch had some crunch too. The canned beans were not 'crunchy' at all, but were not mushy & still had great flavor.

John - have you tried the quick hydrate method on any of your beans? I never soak any of my beans for 18 hours or even 12 hours. I find the quick method outlined by NCHFP gives you better quality.

Dave

>"have you tried the quick hydrate method on any of your beans?"

Dave,

Not for canning, but hope to try it this weekend.

Procedure: Place dried beans or peas in a large pot and cover with water. Soak 12 to 18 hours in a cool place. Drain water. To quickly hydrate beans, you may cover sorted and washed beans with boiling water in a saucepan. Boil 2 minutes, remove from heat, soak 1 hour and drain. Cover beans soaked by either method with fresh water and boil 30 minutes. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt per pint or 1 teaspoon per quart to the jar, if desired. Fill jars with beans or peas and cooking water, leaving 1-inch headspace.

Would it be safe to eliminate the one hour soak after the two minute boil and go right to the boil for 30 min step before packing into the jars? Just fill the jar part way with the beans?
Or just rinse, eliminate the 30 min boil entirely, fill part way and can (as described in an earlier post)?

john

No skipping steps. The quick hydrate method reads To quickly hydrate beans, you may cover sorted and washed beans with boiling water in a saucepan. Boil 2 minutes, remove from heat, soak 1 hour and drain.

Then you cover them with fresh water and boil 30 minutes and then fill the jars with the hot beans and hot liquid. OK?

Dave

"No skipping steps."

Thanks, Dave. I've read this thread quite a few times and just wanted to be absolutely clear.

john

Did the "quick hydrate" soaking method yesterday and canned 4 pints of chickpeas to compare the resulting bean texture with an 18 hour soak.

Opened up one of the jars and tried it today:

No difference at all in my opinion. I think the 75 min process time takes care of any crunch. If I want crunch will have to soak, boil for 30 min & freeze them. The "quick hydrate" method did a great job of soaking them though. Very little expansion during the canning process. However, I find the 12-18 hour soak a whole lot less trouble.

Hi folks,

Glad I found this thread! I recently canned a big batch of chickpeas in my pressure canner according to the Ball book instructions. When they were done, though, it looked like the peas had absorbed some of the water I had packed them in, and the ones at the top are no longer submerged. The jars are sealed, though. Should I be concerned about spoilage?

Thanks!

Hi bestiame - no, they are fine as long as the seals are good. It is common for many varieties to absorb some of the water over time. Those above the liquid may darken a bit over time but they are still safe. I sometimes invert the jars a bit now and then just to keep them moist.

Dave

The canned chickpeas have turned out to be the most useful of all the bean types for me. I love them as fillers in my burritos, added to my garden salads and in my egg mc muffin concoctions. Just bought 4 more lbs and want to try flavoring them a little. Pint jars and will add 1/2 tsp salt per jar this time instead of just 1/4th.

Any suggestions on what else to add & when to add it? Onion powder, garlic powder, hot pepper powder, one of the many Penzey's powders such as BBQ 3000? Never been a fan of onion powder, but love onions. Should I add one of these powders during the quick hydrate or to the jar just before canning?

Thanks...

I have some I also want to can. I did a google and found this thread. So glad there are folks with info on here so I will know what I need to do to make some good chick peas. :-)

John_ShowMe, I haven't used powders but I have added sliced onion and sliced bell peppers before processing with success.

Also, Putting Food By published its fifth and fully updated edition in 2010, so it is good to use again.

I just did this, I soaked the garbanzo beans overnight, rinsed them well, used pint jars, I had 11 jars in total, I processed them for 1 hour 15 minutes, at 15lbs (I am over 3000 feet) and took them out at around 1pm. It is now 8pm and only 6 jars have sealed the other 5 have not sealed, in fact they look like they have alot of pressure in the jars, I guess I have to wait until tomorrow? They are sitting there on the towel now. I put in 1 garlic clove in each and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Was the problem 3" of water in the pressure canner? It seemed to me too full, the water was at the same height of the top of the jars on the bottom, I had a full bottom and 2 jars on top. What did I do wrong? My jars are perfectly new, and so are my lids. The jars that did not seal yet seem to have quite a bit more liquid than the ones that did, they all started out exactly the same. They had 1" space on the top, and they will filled 3/4 full of garbanzo beans. All my equipment is brand new, this was the first time I have pressure canned. The canner was at 15lbs and it is an All American. I do have experience with a regular pressure cooker so it wasn't a huge learning curve to use this one. After this much time do you think they might seal still? I am sure they are not, as instead of indented they are "out" dented!

The jars that didn't seal prpbably did some siphoning during processing and in the process the rim of the jars got some food particles on them so they can't seal. You can either reprocess them within 24 hours after cleaning the rims and putting on new lids or - since the second round of processing will really make them mushy - just put those jars in the fridge and use as soon as possible.

You don't have to wait until tomorrow if you don't want to but you need to figuring out why the siphoning happened and prevent it. It is usually a result of either frequent or to sudden changes in the heat causing the pressure to fluctuate.

Dave