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The beans will not get soggy when you cook them.
Put the broken and washed green beans in a pot and bring them to a boil.
Add the vinegar, sugar, and salt. Bring back to a boil and boil for 30 minutes.
Pack in hot jars, cover with hot lids and rings. No need for a water bath.
When you're ready to cook them, pour the brine off, rinse the beans good, then pour them in a boiler and add a quart of water. Season as you like.
Source: This was my grandmother's recipe.
By Paula Summerlin from Kosciusko, MS
This will make 6 pints. Wash beans removing ends. Cut into uniform lengths and pack in hot jars standing upright. To each jar add some red pepper, 1-2 cloves of garlic and a large spry of fresh dill or a portion of dried dill.
Bring water, vinegar, and salt to boil in saucepan. Pour liquid over beans leaving 1/2 inch space from the top of the jar. Place tightened lids on jars and process in a boiling water bath for five minutes. Remove jars and let cool.
Source: mother
By Sandy from Graettinger, IA
Once green beans become ripe on the vine, they need picked and preserved. Picking goes on for days as a new crop appears. If you have your own garden, you can pick and can until you are sick of green beans and still have plenty to give away. If you don't garden, you will find a big farmer's market is the place to get plenty of beans. If you know a farmer with a stand near his home, you will find him reliable for good green beans year after year.
There are many types of beans and you will soon find your favorite if you experiment. I prefer Blue Lake green beans. If you check the green bean aisle at the grocery, you will see that there are many kinds in those cans.
To can vegetables, you will need a pressure canner. A pressure canner is a bit more expensive than the hot water bath equipment; however, it will last a hundred years so you can get your money's worth. Mom used a pressure cooker to cook almost everything. Potatoes for mashing takes no time on a Sunday after church when everyone is hungry. I like pressure cooked pork chops better than any other way. I discovered after I was married that Fordhook frozen lima beans cook the best in the pressure cooker. If you have never used one, you will find that this is a valuable asset for the kitchen.
You will need some big bowls and a big pot for boiling water. You will already have ladles. You might want salt for your beans. I personally don't add salt.
When you buy your beans, you are looking for the healthy color as well as a filled out bean. If you run your fingers down the bean, can you feel the little beans inside the pod. If it isn't filled out, you don't want it. If you snap an end off the bean, does it snap? You don't want a limp, drooping bean.
When you get your beans home and need to get them ready for canning, get comfortable with your beans and a bowl. Women used to sit around and snap beans together. If you can get some help, that is good too. I don't like cutting beans. I don't like to use metal on any vegetable if I can avoid it. It does quicken discoloration.
I take a bean and snap off the ends. The little tips should be about the size of my little pinkie's end joint. Once I have just the bean that I want to can, I snap it into the size I want the pieces to be. You can cut it if you want. I just remember and still snap beans. Once I have a bowl snapped, I wash my beans in cool to lukewarm water.
To prepare the jars, they can be washed in a dishwasher if it has a sanitized cycle. The jars can be left in the dishwasher on a heat cycle. The lids need to be washed and left in the hot water. The canner needs to be filled so that there will be an inch of boiling water over the top of the jars.
You will need to rinse it out and place the plate in the bottom of the canner. (Read directions for your canner. If their directions are different, follow the manufacturer's directions.) Add about 4 inches of water and put the canner on heat just to warm it up. Do not put the lid on the canner at this point.
At this step, it is time to be sure children are safe. I used baby gates to keep them out of the kitchen when mine were little. However, I would corral them in playpens or high chairs for this step. Boiling water and curious children do not mix. I also kept mine out of the kitchen for the pressure canner time. One child was afraid of the jiggling weight but another was fascinated by it. Keep the kids safe.
By Mary Belk
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I will be canning green beans in a regular canning pot, not a pressure cooker. Do you do as you would with a pressure cooker? Then how long do you need to cook them?
By Mary R.
You will have to google the topic to find out the time you have to have the jars of green beans in the hot water bath. The time is bound to be longer than in a pressure cook. When I was younger I did all of my cooking in the hot water bath. It has been so long since I did any canning that I don't have any idea about the time length. I don't know if it is an old wive's take or the truth, but I was always told that green beans can go bad really easily if not canned properly.
Foods that are not naturally high in acid are not safe to can using a hot water bath canner. This includes most vegetables (tomatoes are on the fence with this one so adding a little lemon juice to each jar makes them safe) and definitely green beans.
If you want to preserve your green beans but dont have access to a pressure canner you could pickle them. Processing beans (and other low acid vegetables) in a vinegar brine makes them safe for hot water bath canning.
I am canning green beans, if my beans are hot when I put them in the jars and they seal before I put them in the pressure canner; do I have to pressure cook them?
By MJ
Yes! Contact your local extension office website for the proper method!
Yes, you still do. The beans don't really 'seal' when you put them in the jars and apply the rings, it is just the heat causing a small vacuum, enough to seem like they seal.
They still need to be further processed. Jams and jellies do the same thing when put into jars.
How long do I cook green beans in a pressure canner and at what pressure?
By Betty
This is a very helpful website for all things canning.
Here is the page for canning green beans.
www.pickyourown.org/
I recently water bathed green beans for 45 minutes. Can I reboil them for the remainder of the time needed?
By Rhonda
I need to know if I freeze my garden snap green beans now can i pressure can them later? I am waiting for my replacement pressure regulator to come thru the mail and my beans are coming on now!
By Jo
How do I can green beans?
By Robin E. from Hillsboro, OR
Don't take a chance if your beans are not proccessed for the correct amount of time as botulism is very dangerous and difficult to detect. This is a page about under processed canned green beans.
This is a page about canning pickled green beans. Home canned pickled green beans will be a special treat after the gardening season ends.
This is a page about preventing canned green beans from getting mushy. After you have spent hours canning your garden produce it is very disappointing to find that the green beans are mushy.
