CANNING GREEN & YELLOW BEANS!

The whole idea of canning green beans started last year when a colleague of mine brought a jar of beans for me to try. At the dinner table my wife and kids licked the jar clean because they were that good. So this year I asked for the recipe and here it is:

Ingredients:

4       pints or 2 quarts (2 lbs) of green/yellow beans

1/4    cup of canning salt / kosher salt

2 1/2 cups vinegar

2 1/2 cups water

1       tsp cayenne pepper

4       cloves garlic

4       heads of dill

Best place to get some nice beans is to go the local farmers market. Most of the time the deals are much better than in the store. 

I doubled the green bean portion and decided to try using the same recipe for yellow beans. It will probably be a month or two before we open the first jar.

1. Combine the salt, vinegar, and water in a large saucepan and bring it to a boil. While it boils, the beans can be prepared. My wife gave me a hand in prepping the beans since we had 12 quarts and it does require some time to individually cut each end of the bean. 

2. Prior to working on the beans, the jars and lids were washed and placed in the oven to be sterilized at 200 degrees for 20 minutes.   

3. Also set the canning pot filled with water to be heated up to a boil sometime prior to preparing the beans because it does take a few minutes to boil that much water. 

4. Wash the beans nicely. Trim the ends of the beans. When trimming the longer ones, trim them so that there is 1/4 inch from the top of the lid. I also learned that its easier to if you sort and separate the short and long beans right away. Its easier to pack the jars later.  

5. Pack the jars with 1 clove garlic, 1 head of dill, and instead of adding 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper to each jar, I divided it up among 4 jars.

6. By this time the vinegar marinade should be ready by now to ladle into each jar. Fill each jar to 1/4 inch from the top. After each jar was filled I closed it with the lid. 

7. This time I decided to go about the proper way of canning. I bought a large pot with the jar holder and an individual jar holder. Make sure that about 1-2 inches of water is covering the top of the jars. Boil the jars for 10 minutes. 

Remove the jars and place on kitchen towels. Allow them to sit for 24 hrs so that they can properly cool and then be stored.