This fall I took the last of my green bean harvest and made them into Dilly Pickled Green Beans.
It was a leap of faith-I had never tasted them before, and here I was making 10 jars! What if I didn’t like them (which has happened to me before with new jams). At least with jam you can taste it right away and know if you like it or not. Since you can’t try pickles right away, you have to wait until they age for a while. . .
So yesterday I was down in the basement grabbing some frozen ground beef out of the freezer for dinner, and I caught sight of the neatly stacked rows of salsa, beans and chili sauce. I decided “it was time” and grabbed a jar.
They were AWESOME.
Tangy.
Garlicy.
A little punch of hot from the pepper flakes.
. . . I could have eaten them all night like potato chips while watching TV. Really, they were that good. Next year I will have to make 3X as many. Seriously.
I was so impressed and excited that I had to “tweet” about them immediately. Within 5 minutes I had several people asking me about them. One friend in particular . . .9to5to9. . . . desperately wanted the recipe. So I promised to post it today.
Here we go! This really is a very easy recipe. Even a novice canner can handle this one.
4 Lbs of Green Beans (approx)
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (per jar)
1/2 tsp mustard seeds (per jar)
1/2 tsp dill seed (per jar)
1 garlic clove (per jar)
5 C vinegar
5 C water
1/2 C Salt
- Clean your green beans & cut them to fit in your 1pt canning jars.
- Put pepper flakes, mustard seeds, dill seed, & a garlic clove into the bottom of each jar.
- Pack raw beans into jar. Make these as tight as you can, they will shrink when they cook.
- Boil together the vinegar, water and salt-this is your brine.
- Pour enough brine over the beans in each jar to cover completely while still leaving 1/4 inch of headspace. (that’s empty space between the top of the food and the rim of the jar)
- Wipe rim clean, then add lid and tighten. Process in a boiling water bath for 5 minutes.
- Wait a minimum of 6-8 weeks before eating. They need to “marinate”.
One of the great things about this recipe is you can just make it with however many beans you have on hand-you don’t have to wait till you have 4 lbs exactly, or worry if you have 6 lbs instead. Just fill up jars until you run out of beans, then make the brine. If you have left over brine go ahead and refrigerate it for use later (you have to reheat it to boiling of course). I you don’t have enough brine make some more.
So what are some of your favorite things to can?
Oh my goodness! I LOVE dilly beans! I make approx. 25-30 pints a year and they never last past the end of January! Happy New Year!!!
Kristina
Dilly beans were a special treat when I was growing up. We didn’t use all of the spices, only a fresh head of dill and a clove of garlic with the brine. No matter how many jars you make, it never seems to be enough. I must remember to make some again next summer, if the weather and the garden cooperate. Enjoy and know that at least they are better for you than potato chips!
Yummy – I make a refrigerator version of these that are so good!
One step ahead of me! I love pickles. Pickled all kinds of things. I just got a bunch of pickling/canning equip for my birthday and I’m ready to store and marinate EVERYTHING.
Thanks for the great recipe!
Thanks SO much for posting this! They sound — and look — great! I HAVE to try this.
And I’m so glad I’m not the only one who makes gobs of stuff the first time I try it. I did it just a few weeks ago with a new barbecue sauce recipe. Midway through cooking gallons of it, I wondering what the heck I was doing. What if no one likes it? I’m stuck!
Fortunately, it turned out OK. Whew!
Can we ask dumb questions? Thanks. Do you cook them or is it pickley things you just eat out of the jar?
My family LOVES dilly beans! It’s a great way to get picky eaters to eat veggies as even my not-so-veggie-lovin’ sons will finish off a whole jar of dilly beans if I let them! This recipe also tastes great with carrots, cut in sticks and just barely cook a bit to soften but leave still quite crisp. My friend makes both and my family are thrilled when she gives them as gifts!
I just made a batch of these this morning thanks to your recipe. I modified them slightly and froze them instead of canning them. I’ll let you know how they turn out.