Green Beans

[Ridgerunner]

I've never been able to keep beans crisp when canning them, regardless of the variety, although I certainly have not tried all varieties. Maybe Marshall the bean guru can give some variety suggestions. He likes his beans. Marshall, are you up to the challenge!

When you can beans you are pressure cooking them. That's going to overcook them. Maybe you could try pickling some so you could waterbath them, but I know that's not the green beans you are talking about but that's the only way I can think of you might keep canned beans crisp.

Blanching stops or tremendously reduces the actions of enzymes that are present in most vegetables that can cause loss of color, flavor, and texture. It also wilts them so you can pack more into the package. Blanching isn't perfect but it does make a big difference.

I personally prefer canned to frozen. They are not crisp but I just like the flavor better than frozen. Plus my freezer space is tight and it's more convenient for me to open a jar of canned beans and heat them up versus thawing and cooking frozen beams.

I see it as purely personal preference.

 

[plainolebill]

Dilly beans rule! Our frozen beans (vacuum packed) just seem to sit in the freezer until the following summer when the fresh ones arrive.

I know it's a whole different animal but I do prefer canned beans to frozen.

 

[journey11]

Lesa, I don't know if it's possible to preserve them and keep them crisp, other than maybe pickling them. I guess because of the amount of time and temperature in a pressure canner that you have to guarantee no botulism. Freezing might be a little closer on that end and they do keep a brighter green color. It's hard to explain the difference in taste. Canning makes them come out more like grandma would make them (but not necessarily cooked to death either). Nothing compares to steaming or sauteing young pods fresh...I don't know of anyway to preserve them and have them come out like that. To me, the flavor is better canned. Sorta like the green beans you might have with turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy...home cookin'! Yum...I'm getting excited for fall and Thanksgiving just thinking about it.

 

[897tgigvib]

Decades ago when I was a little kid I heard about freezing beans. Mom said ya had to boil them first, then bag them and stick them in the freezer. They were pencil pod wax, royalty purple pod, and probably bush blue lake. Wellp, I did just that, using a chair to stand at the stove. Mom walking around in the kitchen and area, pretending not to be watching or supervising, course she was. I did not do the dry the beans or even cool them down part, because I did not know about that part of the job.

Next day the freezer had a solid mass of frozen icy beans. Dad chipped a few bags out and mom cooked them. They were good, but kind of rubbery.

So, main thing abouyt freezing beans I learned was, yep, gotsta get them kind of dry first after boiling them.

The idea is to make them look like what the inside of a store bought bag of feozen beans looks like.
That's the main part of freezing.

Tendergreen is a really great variety!

As for the finer points of freezing, welll...as you can see, I was raised to learn from my mistakes or to read the instructions if all else fails, and as far as cooking or sewing goes, that was for my sisters, not for me. Kind of old fashioned.

Then again, there is another alternative to freezing or pickling that nobody mentioned.

Leather Britches the beans. They are picked a bit later, and are usually the cutshort varieties, or else the real big kinds like Kentucky Wonder White seeded. McCaslan or Missouri Wonder, or a lot of the cornfield varieties not available in most catalogs work for this.

For Leather Britches, Pick them half way between "tender like ya normally pick them" and "shelly bean" stage. (Don't worry. If you have the right variety this is the best stage).

Boil them almost to your normal boiling time. Make sure you add plenty of "vitamin salt". Salt's good for ya. Lol. These are gonna be dried. They need salting. You can add flavorings to the boiling if ya want. Garlic, Pepper, celery salt, what's your favorite...

Remove the beans from the water. Oh.

Forgot to say! Before the whole thing, bring the kids and the family in for "stringing the beans time". Some may not know...ask grandma or grampa, maybe they know, but stringing the beans time used to be a time for family togetherness. pinch the ends off, and pull down the bean. Depending on the variety, ya get some stringy fiber to remove because they are picked later than your "new fangled" bean picking varieties. Blue lake and tendergreen won't give ya much for strings to remove, so they are not suited for leather britches.

After boiling lightly, or a lot, depending on what your gramma says, take the beans out and put them on a freshly cleaned blanket to dry.
Yep.

When they are just right dried, ya get an "extra large eyed" sewing needle and fanagle a string through the eye. tie a large knot on the back end of the string. Maybe add an old button if auntie eleanor has one. Begin "stringing" the beans onto the string. (get it. string beans). The beans are not quite stiff dried when ya do this. You can get fancy adding garlics or red peppers to the string. I hear tell some added dried fish. not me. You can set up your strings of beans in the back or front porch, dining room, kitchen, but somewhere you can keep an eye on them.

Modern folks don't do these things.

 

[so lucky]

Ha! I can visualize the cooking instructions: "Throw the whole string in a pot to boil. Pull the string out before serving." Or would you pull the string out as you put them in to boil?

 

[ninnymary]

Well after all of the responses, I not feeling very hopeful! Why can't my beans taste at least like the frozen store bought ones? :/ I'll try blanching and drying (per marshall ) and freezing. I don't have that many beans so I don't know why I'm worring about it!

Mary

 

[lesa]

Mary, I think drying is important- but most important the cooling period after the blanching. That immediately stops the cooking, so they don't turn that awful olive green.

 

[desertlady]

When blanching do you put anything in it?

 

[seedcrazy]

Marshall, we always called those shucky beans (think my family always used white half runners but they just strung and broke them and put them in between two window screens in a single layer (so flies/bugs can't get on them) and let them dry and put them in the big gallon glass jars. Mom and granny would soak them overnight and then cook them (and no they do not plump back up like a fresh green beans) but oh the memories you just brought back! I love my white half runner beans and hope to be canning a few tomorrow. I've never cared for frozen green beans (store bought or home frozen), I was raised on canned white half runners so guess I'm just used to them being that way! Thanks for the memories Marshall

- Deloris!

 

[897tgigvib]

Deloris, I have White Half Runner Beans too. Mine are from East Kentucky. A friend sent them to me a couple er 3 years ago.



My White Greasies this year threw a couple sports, and one plant is making a Wide Podded White Greasy, the pod very very straight, pertnear an inch wide, almost true greasy, and the seeds look a lot like my White Half Runners. My white half runner pods don't look like this.

I'm beginning to suspect the bumblebees are digging into bean pollen around here! My beans are beginning to show the same symptoms of getting crossed up as my tomatoes a few years ago. But I like that!

Wow! Another person who knows leather britches and shuckies...