String beans are one of my favorite vegetables around. My idea of a perfect easy summer meal is a tangle of lightly steamed string beans, dressed with a bit of butter and salt, along side some scrambled eggs and a sliced tomato. A couple of summers ago, I ate that for dinner three or four times a week for at least a month. Of course, that was before I had to think of Scott’s likes and dislikes when making dinner and sadly, he is a string bean hater. So my perfect little meal has been relegated to a once-in-a-while, solo experience (however, it’s a trade-off I happily make for love).
Thing is, I still find myself buying string beans like they’re a four times a week vegetable, which becomes a problem when trying to keep the refrigerator eco-system balanced. That is where the dilly bean comes in. It’s a gentle, zippy little pickle that preserves my green beans for months to come (well, if they last that long) and maintains the dinnertime peace.
I use the basic pickled green bean recipe from So Easy to Preserve (the food preservation bible out of the University of Georgia), altering it only to crank up the heat a little bit with some extra cayenne. One thing to note about string beans. They are perfectly safe to can in a boiling water bath when you’re making pickles out of them. They are NOT safe to can without the brine unless you’re using a pressure canner. One of the few documented cases of botulism that occurred last year was because a family ate some poorly preserved green beans. So if you want to preserve your beans but you don’t want to pickle them, either get yourself a pressure canner or blanch and freeze them.
Enough safety warnings, on to the recipe…
Ingredients
- 2 pounds green beans, trimmed to fit your jars (I had to trim mine a bit more after taking the photo you see above)
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (I used nearly two, but tread carefully here if you're not a spice person)
- 4 teaspoons dill seed (not dill weed)
- 4 cloves garlic
- 2 1/2 cups white vinegar (5%)
- 2 1/2 cups water
- 1/4 cup pickling salt (use a bit more if you've only got kosher)
Instructions
- Prep your canning pot by inserting a rack to keep your jars off the bottom of the pot, place pint jars in (wide-mouth pints work best here. A 12 ounce jelly jar is also nice, as it's a bit taller than a standard pint and makes for less trimming) and fill it with water. Bring to a boil to sterilize while you prepare the rest of your ingredients.
- Wash and trim your beans so that they fit in your jar. If you have particularly long beans, your best bet is to cut them in half, although by doing so, you do lose the visual appeal of having all the beans standing at attending.
- Combine vinegar, water and salt in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. While it's heating up, pack your beans into the jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace (distance between the tops of the beans and the rim of the jar). To each jar, add 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 1 clove of garlic and 1 teaspoon dill seeds.
- Pour the boiling brine over the beans, making sure to leave that 1/2 inch headspace. Use a plastic knife to remove air bubbles from jar by running it around the interior of the jar. Wipe the rims and apply the lids (which have been sitting in a small saucepan of water at a mere simmer for at least ten minutes in order to soften the sealing compound) and rings.
- Process for 5 minutes in a boiling water bath (remember that you don't start timing until the pot has come to a roiling boil).
- These beans want to hang out for a least two weeks before eating, to thoroughly develop their flavor.
Notes
Adapted from So Easy to Preserve
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[...] Dilly Beans [...]
These dilly beans are delicious! But a little too salty for my tastes. Is it safe to reduce the salt? Or will this affect the quality of the brine?
Thanks!
You can reduce the salt a little. Don’t eliminate it entirely. It pulls the water out of the beans to make room for the vinegar.
I’ve just made these Dilly Beans & they did not ping. I think I felt my heart break. As best I can figure out, I may have tightened the jars too much. And the stock pot I’m using is barely deep enough. I have ordered a new pot and will try again.
Does anyone have anything to offer about newbie mistakes? I want to succeed.
[...] you’re finding you have too many beans, consider canning them. You might like to try Dilly Beans from Marissa McClellan’s canning blog, Food in [...]
these are so good! i just ate a ton of them, i can see how you could kill a pint in an afternoon for sure.
[...] also made some dilly beans with another FIJ recipe. I used these unusual-looking big handled jars from Korea that I picked up at a restaurant supply [...]
[...] of my favorite blogs that I follow, Food in Jars, has a great recipe with simple instructions on making dilly beans. I altered the recipe a little [...]