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| Freshly picked green beans |
So, with garden beans and farmers market beans in tow, I spent a good part of a day preserving them in a variety of ways. Remember, variety is the spice of life. Here is what I did with them.
First I spent some quality time snapping most of them into 1-inch lengths while watching an episode of an old TV series Christy during which time my husband asked how much crap a person could watch at one time. In case you can't tell, he's not really into the whole mushy-gushy love story thing.
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| Green beans after trimming ends and snapping |
I froze less this year because we didn't quite use all I froze last year and we wanted to try pressure canning some for even quicker use this time around. I ended up freezing 6 bags (3 cups each) as opposed to 11 bags last year. I will still freeze more as the green beans keep coming in. I have picked green beans four times at this point (getting roughly 2-3 pounds each time), and there are still more out there. For a step-by-step guide to freezing green beans check out my post from last year.
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| Green beans, blanched, cooled, and ready for the freezer |
I then used about 3 pounds to make 6 pints of Dilly Beans with Garlic and Chiles. These are delicious as a snack, tossed with potatoes, served with heavier items in winter like roasted meats and stews, or even eaten as a side dish (we often open pickled beets and dilly beans when we are too pressed for time to do a proper side dish). If you are someone who enjoys a drink every now and then, they would make a great addition to a Bloody Mary. For the recipe for Dilly Beans with Garlic and Chiles see last year's post.
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| Dilly beans- this picture is from last year |
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| Raw packing green beans into hot jars |
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| Green beans ready for the pressure canner |
One jar didn't seal so we were able to give them a try a few days after canning them. They were so much better than store-bought canned beans. They were cooked yet still retained a distinct green bean taste and were not at all mushy. We will definitely be adding these to our yearly repertoire and maybe replacing more of our frozen stock with this. I pressure canned about 8 pounds of green beans giving me 8 pints.
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| Green beans just out of the pressure canner |
Green Beans in the Pressure Canner
According to National Center for Home Food Preservation, one pound of beans makes about one pint canned, so you can choose how much you preserve. In my opinion, it makes sense to can as much as will fit in your pressure canner if you are going to take the time to run it. If you are unfamiliar with pressure canning, make sure to follow the steps on your canner carefully to ensure a safe canning experience.
Green beans, about one pound (before trimming) for every pint, ends removed and snapped into 1 inch lengths
Kosher salt or canning salt (do not use table salt)
Boiling water
Sterilize your jars, lids, and rings. Follow the steps for using your pressure canner and Pressure Canning 101 for pressure canning procedures.
Bring a large stockpot of boiling water to a boil. Place about 3 quarts of water in your pressure canner (or the amount indicated by the manufacturer) and heat it up as you pack your hot jars. Place raw green beans in hot, sterilized jars, filling them tightly (if using hot pack method, pack loosely), leaving 1 inch headspace. Place 1/2 tsp salt in each pint jar. Fill each jar with boiling water, leaving 1 inch headspace. Using a bubble remover or plastic chopstick, remove air bubbles from each jar. Readjust headspace, and top each jar with a lid and ring. Place jars in pressure canner and follow manufacturer's directions and Pressure Canning 101 to continue processing. Process pint jars at 11 pounds of pressure for dial-gauge canners (for people at or below 2,000 feet) for 20 minutes. If processing quarts, process at 11 pounds of pressure for 25 minutes. Make sure to adjust pounds of pressure according to altitude. Once processing time is complete, follow pressure canner directions to reduce pressure safely and completely before removing the lid and jars.
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Green beans are my favorite! Ok, I say that about most summer veg, but still. :) This is making me want to get my hands on a pressure canner to go along with my water bath canner...
ReplyDeleteYou really should try pressure canning, Eileen. I was unsure of it at first, but it really is easy if you follow the directions, and you can do so much more with it!
ReplyDeleteYou write: "I chose, for ease and because I wanted a firmer end product, to raw pack mine."
ReplyDeleteCounterintuitively, hot pack methods produce a crisper finished product. That's because the boiling denatures the enzymes in the vegetables that cause them to ripen.
I've found that green beens hold up fine with either method, so I only bother if I'm already boiling water for some other purpose (or if I'm canning early in the morning when it's not already too hot in the house). However, with items like carrots that you want to have some body for the finished product, I make sure to use the parboiling step.
I no longer bother to parboil asparagus because they won't come out as firm as I would cook fresh no matter what and I prefer to puree the finished product for cream of asparagus soup.
Regards,
Mike Quieto
Master Preserver, University of Wisconsin Extension
Thanks, Mike, for the comment. I have pressure canned green beans both ways and personally preferred the texture of the beans from the raw pack (not to mention it is much easier). That could have had something to do with the variety of bean being canned and the size of the beans each time. I do know that beans and other vegetables have an enzyme that is denatured when heated which is why blanching vegetables is definitely a must when freezing. Otherwise, discoloration and a negative change in texture takes place. I have also heard that it is better to hot pack when canning in a boiling water bath and have found this to be true in most cases. Also, one benefit to hot packing is that it removes a lot of air from the food which prevents the food from floating in the jar and allows you to pack more into the jar. That being said, when canning green beans, I am not really concerned with float as much as I would be if I were canning fruit. I think that you can choose raw or hot pack with green beans (as you say in your comment) with no real repercussions one way or the other. There are vegetables, however, for which that is not true. I hope that no one reads my post on green beans and applies it to all pressure canned vegetables without doing their due diligence in the matter.
ReplyDeleteI have never read or heard mention of vegetables remaining firmer in the pressure canner after hot packing, and have therefore always attributed my preference for raw packed beans to the fact that they were heated for less time. I try to be very research based, though, so I would love to know where you got your information so that I can look it up for myself. The only thing I could find was http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/general/ensuring_HQ_canned_foods.html which talks about the advantages of hot packing (with more emphasis on boiling water canners) and discusses the fact that raw packing is better suited for pressure canners than for boiling water canners. It does say that raw packing can have a negative effect on color after months in storage but it applies this more to boiling water canners than pressure canners.
Thanks for the comment and for posting a link or info regarding crispness if available. I am always up for learning new things. :)
My beans have come out 2 different ways. 2 cans are floating to the top and the other 3 are just sitting there and doesn't seem to have any pressure in jar but it is sealed. Is it safe? I dont know what it is supposed to look like in the finished jars.
ReplyDeleteI have basically the same question. ..should the veggies be floating, or not? ?
ReplyDeleteSame question. Annnd, my canner couldn't get all the way to 11 lbs pressure, it was at like 9. My recipe said to can them at 10. Bad idea to eat them?
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