# Beans and dinner in a jar question



## Freyadog (Jan 27, 2010)

When putting together meals in a jar and you want to add beans do you cook the beans then dehydrate them in order to add them?


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## SouthCentralUS (Nov 11, 2012)

According to youtube the answer is yes.


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## Freyadog (Jan 27, 2010)

Went into youtube searching for the information. I found not too much information on the bean question.

Ok first I now get it that the beans have to be cooked first. However the vids that I watched the beans were mostly all split after dehydrating them. Trying to figure out to what degree of cooking do the beans get before putting them into the dehydrator so that they will be whole or mostly whole when taken out.

Also wanted to dehydrate chili but still do not want the beans all split.

any help here would be appreciated.

As I eat a lot of beans and very little meat this is something I really would like to get good at.


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

I wouldn't(and dont) worry about the beans splitting during dehydrating, It'll just make them easier and faster to rehydrate.

I'd just cook them to whatever level of "Doneness" you would usually eat and go from there.


In general the more the beans are cooked, the more likely they are to split when dried.


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## kappydell (Nov 27, 2011)

YES. You can dehydrated pre-cooked (even canned - just rinse them to get off some of that excessive salt) beans and they rehydrate in about 20 min. simmer time. Coincidentally the exact time I need to make the white rice, so they combine well. Season with bouillon powder (you can get not only chicken and beef, but ham and seafood flavors, too, as well as vegetarian 'soup base') and seasonings of choice and you have nice DIY MREs that will still store a while. I have even dehydrated split pea soup and chili (with meat as well as beans!) until dry for instant 'cup-o-soup' and they rehydrated nicely and were still tasty after 14 months on a kitchen shelf in a jar. The dehydrating manuals all say a year is max, though, so don't expect them to last forever. I use home made MRE type mixtures in my BOBs and rotate them every 6 months when I change out the clothes in them for climate changes (hot in summer, frigid in winter, ya' know?). Then I eat the old ones both for practice cooking them and to tweak the seasonings and such. But dried beans work very nicely. If you have bean-haters in your group, try 'soy grits' which are small bits of pre-cooked soybeans. They are the same size as rice kernels, and you can put 4 TB or so in 2 cups of rice. They both complete the vegetarian protein, but also 'hide' well in the rice, being visibly tan specs mixed in the white rice. Add a gravy or sauce and you have hidden nutrition for bean-haters...


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## readytogo (Apr 6, 2013)

I have never try cooking and dehydrating the beans for canning, I just cook the beans with all the spices needed and can then, beans with meats 
take more time, they come out ok


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## Onebigelf (Sep 17, 2011)

Try lentils. I also do a lot of my jar meals with couscous. Most of mine are vacuum packed using the ziplock pump and a square of electrical tape. Nifty. Open, add boiling water, close. 5 minutes or so and taadaa!

John


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