Canned green beans are NOTHING like fresh beans. They're soft and mushy and salty. Very much like canned peas. Which is to say - they're delicious. You just can't admit to thinking they're delicious.
I totally get it. Any food lover or vegetable grower is not supposed to like canned beans or peas. But I do. I grew up on them. I also like fish sticks dipped in ketchup.
That's right. Fish sticks. And ketchup. The most condemned of all the condiments. Voted most likely to be associated with Nascar. Ketchup. I like it on fish sticks and you can just deal with it.
Go figure. I'm a complex woman.
Because I grow most of the vegetables I eat all year that means I also have to preserve them.
With green beans your preserving options are canning or freezing. Either way they're going to be mushy. So I prefer to go with the option that is both mushy and salty.
Part of what makes a canned green bean good is the SALT.
The only thing salt doesn't make better is a wound.
~ KAREN BERTELSEN
If you're new to canning, green beans are definitely the easiest thing to can and they taste, you guessed it, exactly like canned green beans from the grocery store.
In other words, they taste just like mom used to open.
Table of Contents
Ingredients
- 1 lb green beans sliced, frenched or whole
- 3 tsps sea salt
Instructions
Green beans are one of the easiest things to can because you don't have to cook them at all first. You just clean them, push them into a jar with salt and add water.
- Wash and cut the tops off of your beans.
- Cut or french your beans. (frenched beans are thin ribbons you create with this tool)
- Add ½ teaspoon of salt to bottom of 250 ml jar (8 ounces )
- Fill clean canning jars with beans to 1" from top of jar. Pour boiling water over beans to 1" from top of jar.
- Add sealers and rings.
- Process in a pressure canner** for 25 minutes.
**As with any low acid food you have to process beans in a pressure canner, you cannot process them in a water bath.
Hint: Frenched green beans might stick out the top of your 250 ml jars because you leave the length of them, unlike regular sliced green beans. Just pour boiling water onto the beans and let them sit for a second. The boiling water will soften them enough that you can push the beans down into the jar.
Tips for Beginners
Use the freshest green beans you can find. This *doesn't* mean you have to use beans from your own garden. If beans are on sale at the grocery store and they look good and crisp, buy a basket of them for canning.
Press your beans down as hard as you can without bruising the beans. Pack them right in there. Bang the jar on your countertop to help them settle down.
I do my beans in small 250 ml jars because I'm cooking for one, but you can do them the exact same way with the same process time of 25 minutes in 500 ml jars. Just make sure you double the salt if you're using the larger jar.
Reduced salt
Salt is not mandatory for the canning process of green beans, it's just there for flavour, so feel free to leave it out if you don't like added salt in your diet. I happen to love salt in these canned green beans. It soaks all the way into the bean through the canning process.
Bean Variety
I grow French Emerite green beans as my main green bean crop. They're not the easiest seeds to find but they are the BEST fresh green pole bean seed. And they an excellent canning bean.
Just make sure to pick your green beans before they start to develop beans inside (you can tell when they're growing beans because the shape of the bean will go from thin and straight to having distinct bumps along it).
Equipment
If you're thinking of buying a pressure canner you've probably discovered there are two types of them: dial gauge pressure canners and weighted gauge pressure canners.
Dial Gauge Canners need their dial gauge to be tested every year to make sure it's accurate. In the United States this test can be performed through a local extension office. In Canada there is no place that tests pressure canner dial gauges.
Weighted Gauge Canners are less popular, but more accurate everywhere except for at high altitudes. Their weights (jigglers) never need testing.
Because there is no way to test gauges here in Canada plus the fact that it's more accurate, I use this Mirro 22 quart weighted gauge canner.
Because of the issues with testing dial gauges, All American (the gold standard of pressure canners) is now selling a dual pressure canner that has both a dial gauge and a weighted gauge. All American canners have the added bonus of not using a rubber seal so you never have to worry about replacing it.
Storage
Keep your canned green beans in a dark cupboard. I know you really want to line them up on an open shelf in the kitchen because they look cool and old-timey, but being exposed to light is not the best for the beans.
Just throw open your cupboard door whenever someone comes over that you want to impress with your canning prowess.
Canned Green Beans
Ingredients
- 1 lb green beans sliced, frenched or whole
- 3 tsps sea salt
Instructions
- Wash and cut the tops off of your beans.
- Cut or french your beans. (frenching are thin ribbons you create with this tool)
- Add ½ teaspoon of salt to bottom of 250 ml jar (8 ounces )
- Fill clean canning jars with beans to 1" from top of jar.
- Pour boiling water over beans to 1" from top of jar.
- Add sealers and rings to jar.
- Process in a pressure canner** for 25 minutes.
Nutrition
Canned green beans. Add them to the list of foods I like that I'm not supposed to like. You can also add truffles to the list of foods I'm supposed to like, but don't.
To be fair, I might just need to try them out of a can. With ketchup.
→Follow me on Instagram where I often make a fool of myself←
I have to recommend trying out a recipe or two for Hungarian style green bean soup. There are many available on line. A great way to get your mushy beans fix. It's delicious but haven't had it in many years since my grandmother passed. I am going to have to make up a pot soon as I get some sour cream.
Dontcha wanna tell about pressure canners? And how to make your own ketchup? Or did I miss that post. Probably.
Get chickens she said, it'll be fun. So I got chickens. It is fun.
Get dahlias she said, it'll be fun. So I got dahlias. It is fun.
Clean up your stainless steel fridge smudges with micro-fiber cloths, she said, it'll be fun. So I got micro-fiber cloths and it is fun (and more importantly, smudgeless.)
Get a pressure canner she said, it'll be fun. So, guess where I'm going as soon as I type this? Out to purchase said canner to deal with the apples we picked on Saturday. I'm sure it'll be fun because Karen said so, twice! I also love canned green beans, can't stand frozen, so will try those, too, just to get my money's worth out of the canner and jars!
You might not be able to can mushrooms at home but you can dehydrate them!
Our local farmers market, Almonte....small town west of Ottawa...sells a short log that is saturated( seeded?) with mushroom spores of various types and you grow them yourself! When mature pick them, dehydrate them, stick in a huge jar and toss a handful straight into your recipes or rehydrate to put on pizzas!
That is cool!
Karen's gonna grow some and put those little logs in her shop so we can buy 'em.
When the floor is finished.
Will just plain ole canning salt work in this?
Yup, that's fine. You may find you can use a bit less because canning salt is finer than regular salt. That means there's slightly more packed into 1/2 a tsp than of regular salt. But really it all depends on how much salt you like. ~ karen!
WOW your previous commenter mentioned mushrooms and now there is something I really want to know. Can you can mushrooms? Of course you can, since I buy them like that but could I can them? Where would I get a butt load of them anyway? Have you ever grown them and why not? I adore fresh ones but pizza and stew are important reasons to can them. I make fresh mushroom soup enough to keep weight loss at bay but why is this something I've never heard/ read about?
Hi Mary. I've never canned mushrooms nor have I grown them. But they are easy to grow once you get them going. However just because something can be commercially canned doesn't mean it can be home canned. Commercial pressure canners are WAY more pressure in them that can ultimately kill more bacteria than a home canner is able to. Even though you can can diced pumpkin at home, you can't can your own pumpkin puree for example. Which saddens me to no end. So. That's a long way of saying I'm not sure if you can home can mushrooms or not, lol. ~ karen!
You can pressure can mushrooms. Bit of a process, but worth it if you get the aforesaid buttload of mushrooms. Bev. Volfie on Youtube (our half acre homestead) has shown us both mushrooms and (drumrolll) Mushrooms and beans!!!. I have canned mushrooms and been very pleased with the result. you can probably for sure buy them cheaper, but you can can little jars of them, which works better for small households.
Wait, do you not like chocolate truffles or is it truffles the mushroom that you dislike? I don't think the former would can well... not sure about the latter.
In Carol Shields’ book Larry’s Party, one character accidentally kills her mother-in-law by serving her canned green beans: death by botulism. That poor young woman never serves any form of green beans again, and her son grows up without ever eating them. Ever since reading that book, canned green beans always remind me of death. (Insert happy face here)
I've got a better (?) story! A million (or forty) years ago, the town I lived in had a traditional Christmas caroling party that ended at a family's home. There were four grown boys whose mother threw the party every year.
Mom set out a lavish buffet, and people dug in. Except, no one touched the green beans except for the grown boys who made a point to eat them because their mom had canned them just like she had preserved much of her harvest. The boys all died of food poisoning two days later.
Karen,
I don't know if it's time for your beans to give up the ghost to frost, but if it is, I strongly suggest you do the last, young ones as DILLY BEANS! There is no better pickle-y thing created on earth or in Heaven! Do not make the mistake of giving a jar or two as gifts . . . keep them ALL for yourself. They are that good!
Amy
Being in and of “The South” and all that implies, I would gander to say the mayonnaise would be the most closely associated condiment of NASCAR. 😝
Truly love your blogs.
LOL! Noted. ~ karen!
Ketchup--mmmmmm! My husband and I are on a low carb diet and I find that as time goes on, I miss ketchup A LOT! I know there are zero sugar ketchups out there but not available in my area and have you seen what they charge for a small bottle on Amazon??? Which is the long way of saying we aren't using ketchup for the foreseeable future. On the other hand, we have lost a fair amount of weight so it's all good!
All that is missing is the blue ribbons!
I have an aversion to green bean casserole :D Green beans stand alone! They don't need help!
They don't need soup and fried onions! You can imagine my humiliation when a club I was in put out a cookbook and there under a green bean casserole recipe was MY name! Couldn't they have put it under something respectable? Like Peach Cobbler..that would have been solid.
Nevertheless, people tell me often how they love my recipe and make it all the time.
Funny thing about that green bean casserole dish. It seems to be pretty popular/traditional south of the border but its never caught on here in Canada. Wonder why?
Because it's gross, eh? ay?
hmm...wonder how maple syrup would be on gbs
Grandma grew and canned the best beans. Jars and jars and jars of beans, or beans with bacon. I’m drooling just thinking about it! Her tiny kitchen had a tiny back porch with a chest freezer, and the door was left open to the garden, anchored by an enormous Bartlett pear tree. Just smelling a really ripe pear puts me back in her kitchen, eating beans with bacon. Thanks for the memories!
All that from a post on canned beans. :) ~ karen!
My mom used to buy mason jars full of canned green beans with bacon put up by my grandmother's Circle at church. It was one of their fundraisers. Both beans and apple butter were (an exorbitant) 50 cents/quart... Delicious!
I did not can beans this year because I still have some left from the bumper crop last year. And we don't really eat them. "We" being the operative word here - I actually, like you, Karen, Love them. "We" being my children. Who, now that I think of it, moved out this September for University. Huh. Maybe I should pull up some of them ol' cans of beans and eat them all by myself.
.
Meanwhile, another reason I am not canning anything this year? Renos. That's why. Three weeks with nothing but a toilet in my only bathroom. if I am successful, photo attached of view from said throne until last Friday.
I don't DIY - (I could, but I don't).
However, the gentlemen and ladies who come to do the work keep finding scary things like acidic water (did you know that copper pipes and brass fittings can actually shatter? Neither did I. Bullet dodged, every single water line in my house has been replaced -$$$$$$$ - invisible Renos - spend thousands, with nothing to show for it),
and knob and tube wiring (Did you know that knobs and tubes are real things? Ceramic tubes poked through holes in the joists, with cloth wrapped wires stuck through them. Ceramic knobs screwed onto joists, with cloth-wrapped wires wrapped around them. Who knew? ). Electrician gentleman (sigh, a friend of mine for long enough that he knows that it really does need to be fixed and that I really (according to him) want it fixed) has seized the moment and decided that since 9 square feet of ceiling is open, he has carte blanche to finally replace all the knob and tube in my house - more $$$$$$$$ for invisible stuff).
Oh, and while we're at it, let's hire a digger man to find the septic tank so the septic man can pump it - and inform me it hasn't been pumped in 30 year$$$$$$$.
And while digger man is here he (on purpose) knocks down a 60 foot pine tree, digs a 200' ditch to my well, gathers piping and electrical stuff and puts it in the ditch then covers all but the ends up, knocks down a rat infested shed, terraforms all the slopes and digs up all the nasty bindweed infested fencing, multiple random blackberry bramble piles (higher than my head), as well as several errant trees. He then arranges for the bin man to come to haul away lots of green stuff for grinding/composting, as well as lots of wood from the shed for grinding and ? what do they do with ground wood from sheds? , and then he collects all the other bits and bobs of messy stuff and puts it in his own dump truck, digs out the pond and creates a beautiful slope, collects his digger and goes away. for a while.
Aquifer man is due to come to hook up the new well connections, and give me a Farmer's hose bib down in the field, as well as install some kind of sacrificial filter to deal with the acidity in the water. I am feeling like the sacrificial one here, folks!
Meanwhile, on Friday, plumber man (he did the outtake, plumber woman did all the pressure lines) finishes installing my shower and tub faucets. He then fills the bath completely to the overflow (Contractor man asked "are you going to light candles and put out flowers for her, too?") runs downstairs to ensure it doesn't leak, then empties the tub and runs downstairs to ensure that part doesn't leak, then proceeds to carefully clean and polish and inspect the tub.
Plumber man is pretty awesome.
Tub was SPOTLESS on Friday night. No kids at home, haven't had a decent bathtub to bathe in for 25 years. I put on the CBC, lit candles (not for the romance, really - because there is no power in the bathroom) ran a tub and luxuriated.
HEAVEN.
Tonight, after I eat some canned beans, I am going to do it again. the ceiling may be just lath, no plaster, the walls might be just studs, but the tub and the tile? So deliciously glorious!
Sorry for going on a side track with very little to do about beans, but I have to share where someone might understand!
oops, appears the photo is upside down, sorry folks.
that lathe work is actually kind of pretty. By candlelight, at least!
Ah, good times, good times.
All I can think is "omg, the centipedes all this work must have disturbed". There's nothing worse than paying for invisible maintenance! Plumbing, electrical, sewer lines. It costs more than anything cosmetic and there's NOTHING to show for it. Have a fireplace installed by the bathtub. You're already bleeding money, you might as well have a bit of a souvenir as a reminder of all the hidden money. ~ karen!
I don't think I have ever seen a comment that long!!!!! Wow.
When I was a kid (a half century...plus a decade or so...god, I’m so old) we had a farm and Mom had 4 acres just turned into gardens. It was a full time chore! We lived on what we grew (plus sugar and flour from the grocery store) but damn, that food was good!
My parents raised 5 kids on a school teacher’s salary and pinched a penny until it squeaked but I learned a lot about canning and freezing. Life was pretty good in those days!
Bean salad with canned beans is the best! Salty, vinegary goodness. Too bad I don't have a pressure canner (yet) or a garden full of beans (yet). And chickens, of course. It snowed here last week...did you know? Bah, Calgary
I'd heard that yes! Meanwhile it was close to 30 degrees here yesterday. Either way NOT normal. ~ karen!
I suck so supignificqntly at canning that year’s ago my mother purchased for me an upright freezer, so I could freeze jams, tomatoes, etc. I succeed only with apple butter. Go figure
I am so damned co pliant with all the instructions, yet of a dozen jars, only five would seal.. kinda dampens the enthusiasm, ya know?
The mother who bought me the freezer was the same one who sincerely thought the only way to cook green beans was to boil them to death with bacon. I swear, she would pressure cook them, too! All because of the dreaded botulism. I think I grew up with a missing uncle or two due to this, otherwise why would she, who canned nothing, be so in fear of botulism???
We grow tons of green beampns, and manage to consume all of them the good old fashioned way of eating them morning - night...daily. Hmmm, maybe I could can them? And kill us all!!
Loved that one! Just finishing the house (small), in the country (lost 2 of our 4 1/2 acres to the Yellowstone River this spring). The rip-rap went in this week, so the garden was non-exsistant this year. I do like dreaming of my garden, and you provided that. Thank you!
I'm cursing my garden at the moment. It takes SO much time in the fall to harvest and prep the beds for the next year and I'm kind of all out of time at the moment. As long as I get my sweet potatoes out before the frost I'll be O.K. Fingers crossed, lol. ~ karen!
Thanks for making me laugh. You always do. I have too many memories of canned beans made with Not Fresh Enough beans to undertake this canning thing of which you speak, but your shelves are full of beautiful jarred edibles.
Ok, I like canned veggies too. And fish sticks with ketchup. Yum! Also canned asparagus, but I’d rather have that marinated in Italian dressing and then grilled.