GREEN BEANS

Green beans are commonly grown in household gardens and the surplus is often preserved for later use. The quality of both frozen and canned beans is good. Preserving beans is not difficult, but it is important that instructions be followed carefully for both quality and safety.

Canning beans requires properly calibrated equipment and following scientifically reliable recipes. Because beans are a low acid food, the bacteria Clostridium botulinum is able to grow in them when oxygen is excluded (oxygen is excluded when a jar seals) and this bacteria has not been killed by adequate heat processing (canning time and temperature).

If you are unsure about using a pressure canner or where to take your dial gauge for annual calibration, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service for USDA printed information. Pressure canners with weighted gauges do not need annual calibration.

The following canning recommendations were developed by USDA through testing in their food preservation laboratories. Following them exactly results in a product that is safe to consume. For an added margin of safety, householders may boil the beans for 10 minutes before eating or use the home canned beans in oven-baked recipes. (The Clostridium botulinum

toxin is inactivated by this heat treatment.)

Wash, trim ends, cut into 1 inch pieces. (1" pieces is for safety, if beans are put in jar vertically, the heat currents are restricted and under processing can result.) The beans can be either hot packed or raw packed.

Raw Pack: Put the pieces into the jars tightly but without crushing. If you like salt on your beans, you may add ½ tsp per pint or 1 tsp salt per quart, or omit the salt as it is for quality only. Add boiling water up to 1" from the top of the jar.

Hot Pack: Put the pieces into a saucepan and cover with hot water. Bring to a boil and boil for 5 minutes. Put pieces into jars, packing loosely. If you like salt on your beans, you may add ½ tsp per pint or 1 tsp salt per quart, or omit the salt as it is for quality only. Pour the boiling liquid you used in the saucepan over the beans leaving 1" headspace.

Process in a pressure canner at 10 lbs pressure with a weighted gauge (11 lbs for a dial gauge) for 20 minutes for pints and 25 minutes for quarts.

The mechanism of preservation in freezing is low temperature; so low that bacteria cannot grow and/or produce toxins. Ideal home freezer temperature is 0 F. As long as the low temperature is maintained, frozen food is considered to be as safe coming out of frozen storage as it was going in. Make sure perishable foods are thawed safely in the refrigerator.

Most vegetables contain natural enzymes that produce color, odor, and flavor changes. These changes can occur during frozen storage and the result is a poor quality product. To preserve top quality frozen beans, these enzymes must be inactivated by a heat treatment before they are frozen. Blanching is the term given this heat treatment.

Select young, tender beans. Rinse them in a basin of water. Cut off the stem and remove any string (this is for quality, not safety). Cut or break the beans into 1 inch pieces. Blanch them by immersing in boiling water for 3 minutes. (See the Ball Canning Book or Food Preservation and Safety or a USDA pamphlet for more information on blanching techniques.) At the end of 3 minutes, stop the heat treatment by putting the beans in cold water.

Pack the cooled beans in freezer containers. Foods are made up mostly of water. When water freezes, it expands about 10%. When food freezes, it expands about 10%. Make sure you leave enough head space for this expansion. Square pint freezer containers usually require ½ inch of head space and square quarts require 1 inch. If using freezer bags, eliminate as much air as possible. (Immerse bottom of bag in bowl of water, or suck air out with straw.)

Blanching significantly reduces quality deterioration due to enzymes, but quality will deteriorate with time. Frozen vegetables are best quality if consumed the year they are preserved. Label packages with date and contents.

Beans can be pickled like any other fruit or vegetable. Select a brine that has at least as much vinegar as other liquids in it and it will be safe to use. The flavorings are for quality. The Ball Corp. publishes a good Dilly Bean recipe. The following is an adaptation of it.

Dilly Beans Recipe makes 4 pints

2 lbs trimmed green beans

4 heads dill

4 cloves garlic

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 c salt

2 ½ c vinegar

2 ½ c water

Pack the beans into 4 pint jars, either in bite size pieces or as whole beans packed in jar lenghwise. (Note: It is safe to pack beans in the jar whole when they are to be pickled, because they are preserved by the acid in the vinegar brine, not the heat treatment which preserves pressure canned green beans.)

To each jar, add: 1/4 tsp cayenne, 1 peeled glove garlic, and 1 head dill