Dilly Bean Recipe for Janelle

Janelle asked for the recipe so. . .

Dilly beans are like pickles but with green beans instead of cucumbers. Plus, they're awesome. This is basically the same recipe I use for cucumbers. I got it from my grandmother.

For the brine combine 3 and 3/4 cups of water, 1 and 1/2 cups of cider vinegar and 1/4 of a cup of kosher salt. This is enough to make 6-8 pint jars of dilly beans.

Sterilize the jars and lids*.

Wash the beans. Trim the ends of the beans, if you like. . . or not. . . depends on how you feel about these things. Stuff pint jars with beans. Wedge in some seed heads or leaves of dill (about 2 tablespoons) as well as 2-4 cloves of garlic. . . again, depends on how you feel about these things. I like garlic so I put in 4.

Pour the brine into the filled jars to within 1/4 of an inch from the top.

Tighten the lids onto the jars and process* the jars in a canner for 15 minutes.

The dilly beans will have pretty good flavor after 24 hours in the jar, but it develops more the longer they're in there. If you can wait two weeks, I think that's the best time to eat them.

*Canning sounds harder than it is. I'm pretty sure Janelle knows how to do this, but here are the basics for those who haven't done it before. I'd suggest picking up a good book on food preservation and investing in a canning pot. They also make pressurized canning pots that you'll probably want if you get into doing this a lot.

To sterilize the jars and lids, put them in a pot of boiling water for about 10 minutes. You can just use a canning pot for this. Then put the jars mouth down on a clean towel to cool until you need them. Same with the lids. It's kind of important to not touch the inside or rim of the jars once they're sterilized. Your hands have all kinds of funky stuff living on them. However, when you're stuffing the jars it's next to impossible not to touch them. I don't worry too much about it as the processing will take care of it most of the time.

To process the dilly beans you need put the filled jars into a pot and cover the jars with water. Bring it to a boil and make sure it boils for 15 minutes. They make a really good tool called a jar gripper to take the jars out. Trust me you'll need it! Once the jars are out of the water bath, check the seal. If the seal is good store the jars in a cool, dry place out of direct light. If the jar didn't seal properly, you can keep them in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks. Jars with a proper seal will last a long time. If you find that one of your stored jars has a seal that failed, go ahead and dispose of it. You don't want to play around with food poisoning.