Canned Beans

Dry beans are the cheapest protein in the bucket and take an hour of fuel and a quart of water to cook. Canned beans are the same beans already cooked, ready cold from the can in an outage, and that is why both belong in the store. Low acid, so they keep 5 to 10 years at full quality stored cool, and safe past that in a sound can.

Black, pinto, kidney, navy, chickpeas, cannellini, baked beans and refried beans, in the sizes you cook with. Plain beans over sauced for flexibility; baked beans for calories and a meal that needs nothing added. Low-sodium if salt is a concern, though rinsing drains most of it. Case lots at the low price. The dry version, for the deep store, is on the dried beans page.

Cool, dry, dark and off the floor, between 50 and 70°F if you can manage it; twenty degrees cooler, 70 down to 50°F, roughly doubles how long the contents stay at full quality. Never let cans freeze (the seams can fail) and never store them over a furnace, in a garage or in a vehicle. Rotate first in, first out, with the buy date written on the lid. A dented can is fine if the dent is small and not on a seam; a deep dent, a dent on a seam, rust that pits the metal, or any bulge means the can goes unopened.

Look before you open: bulging ends, a leak, rust that has eaten into the metal, or a seam dent. Listen and look as you open: spurting liquid, a hiss outward, cloudy liquid where it should be clear, foam, or a foul smell. Any of those and the whole can goes, unopened if possible, into the trash where nothing can get at it, because the thing you are guarding against is botulism, which has no taste and no cure outside a hospital. A can past its date with a sound seal and a clean smell on opening is food.

A 15 ounce can is about 380 calories and 20 to 25 grams of protein and feeds two as a side or one as the main. Rinsing takes a good share of the salt off; the liquid from chickpeas whips like egg white. A can of beans, a can of tomatoes and a can of meat is chili with no water and ten minutes of heat. Plan four to six cans a week per person as the protein beside the rice, and keep the dry beans for the months after the cans are gone.

The outage food. Open, eat, no heat needed; better warmed on a camp stove in the can's own liquid.

Shelf-life figures are from the Survival Foods field guide; fridge, freezer and pantry times are from the USDA cold and pantry storage charts. Run the look, smell, taste check before eating anything past its date.