Green Bean Canning recipe?

[IndyGerdener]

I am picking my green beans tonight, and will have more than I can eat in one day. I am wanting to start canning them. what is a good canning recipe?

Mine have a long hard string on the side of them. can you remove this, or do you just leave them on?

[applestar]

I just remove the strings and the stem ends (sometimes cut them into even sizes, sometimes not) and freeze them in freezer zip bags. You can blanch them first if you are not going to eat them right away, but I don't bother and they are still good after 6 months in the chest freezer.

To can them you need a pressure canner.

[cubs204]

I grow stringless green beans but I wouldn't think removing the string would hurt anything. As far as canning, I pickle all but a few meals worth. Recipe as follows:

Brine:
8.5 cups water
3 cups vinegar
1/3 cup pickling salt

In the cleaned jars I put 1.5 tsp dill weed, 2 cloves garlic (minced), about 10 peppercorns and a couple jalapenos sliced if I want them spicy. Then fill with green beans and add another 1/2 tsp of dill weed. Bring brine to a boil, fill jars with boiling brine and then into the water bath for 15 minutes. Let sit for at least 2 weeks, preferably a month. Warning: deadly good in a bloody mary.

[Jeremy brua]

^X2!

I grew them this year just to pickel them.

[treehopper]

Look up a dilly bean recipe...garlic, dill, and as much hot as you like...that's my plan.

[IndyGerdener]

This is what I was left with after snacking and dinner. from left to right: hot packed pickled beans, center 2 hot packed canned green beans, and far right is cold packed pickled green beans

I have never had a pickled green bean, but I am excited to try

[GardenRN]

I pickle about a dozen jars for me, and give a few to a friend. Nobody else in the house likes em except my son. But being only 3...he only eats about 4 or 5 at a time.

I use a "food saver" to vacuum pack the rest and freeze. I have never had the beans last past about 4 months. Not because they go bad, but because we eat them too fast! But after 4 months they taste just a fresh as freshly picked ones! This year I doubled the trellis length, but we have given a lot away too so IDK if we'll be much better off.

[GardenRN]

Oh, another note...if you pickle them wait a good while to open them. After a good 5 or 6 months of fermenting in the jar that taste way better than if you open them after just a few weeks or a couple months. Before 5 or 6 months they have a VERY strong vinegar flavor. After they have fermented well, it tastes more like your regular "pickle" flavor.

[IndyGerdener]

That sounds like a deer season snack to me!!!!! As are pickled eggs and pickled peppers with coli-flour and carrots!!!!

[GardenRN]

Tried a pickled egg once.....half on a dare.....It came very close to not staying down. You can have my share Indy.

[IndyGerdener]

I pickle them with habenro's makes them spicy and awesome!!!

[SLC]

I have a question, just so I am clear.

Can I literally go pick some beans, just put them in a plastic bag and freeze them just like that???

Or do I have to do anything to them first? I don't know what blanch means....

Do I have to cut the ends off first or can I just literally pick, bag and freeze?

[IndyGerdener]

I always snap the ends off. I do not like eating the pointy end, and the other end has the stem, not tasty.

If you are freezing them you will need to blanch them. This is the process of dipping them in boiling water for 15-20 seconds taking them out and immediately putting them in an ice bath.

Then you place them in a freezer bag and remove all air possible. that is when they are ready.

[GardenRN]

I never blanch mine. I just stick em in the vacuum sealer and shove em in the freezer.

you can freeze them in a regular ziplock bag, but they are more likely to get freezer burned if you leave them in there for a long time. I hate that taste, that's why I vacuum pack.

But to answer your question, no, I don't believe any prep is needed before you freeze. I actually don't even wash mine before I freeze them. Just pick, and freeze.

[IndyGerdener]

I have tried just throwing them in the freezer, and they don't cook right. something in the chemical compound breaks down and they will loose all of their moisture as they are thawing. I experienced this 2 days after I put them in the freezer. did I do something wrong?

[Smallgardener]

We have not ever canned GB because we don't have a pressure canner. Supposadly botchulism is a problem with them if not done right.
We freeze them after washing and snapping them. I use a Ziploc hand pump vaccuum bag. I would love to be able to can them though.

[GardenRN]

I have tried just throwing them in the freezer, and they don't cook right. something in the chemical compound breaks down and they will loose all of their moisture as they are thawing. I experienced this 2 days after I put them in the freezer. did I do something wrong?

Maybe its because you thaw them. When I am ready to eat them I just take them out of the freezer, open the package, and throw em in boiling water.

It may have to do with vacuum sealing them if you're not doing that. If they are getting freezer burnt they (I personally think) have a dry taste to them. That's what I don't like.

[applestar]

I cook them frozen too. Boiling water, stir fry, whatever. That's why I don't always trim them to size before freezing. It's just as easy to break the frozen beans into smaller pieces if uniform size isn't an issue.