I doubt whether they would work well. They are quite thin and would soften a lot only because they are very different from cucumbers. The seeds in string beans are a different kind as well. A vinegar brine for the string beans may be a better choice. The Dilly beans recipe is a good one too. I may do a couple of pints of them with my Kentucky Wonders.

Follow the link below and scroll down to Bejay's Aug. 3 post.

Maybe Bejay will give us the particulars about this dill crock. It sounds interesting.

Jim

Here is a link that might be useful: Dill Pickle Questions

Anyone else care to weigh in? I have a bunch of flat beans that I'm tempted to give it a try with, but only if the end product will be safe....

Emily

I see that Ken posted while I was composing my message. Neither of us has the answer but, as could be predicted from our previous discussions, Ken leans toward a vinegar cure while I have a bias toward the fermented.

Please find some exact instructions for what you do. That's the only safe way. I'll try a bit of Googling later. Who has a copy of Joy of Pickling? That should have the info.

Jim

I have done some googling and can only seem to find recipes for fermented cucumber pickles and fermented cabbage (aka sauerkraut.) Though it would seem to me that if you can ferment cabbage, you should be able to ferment green beans, no?

Anyone with a definitive answer on this? Thanks a million!

Emily

"Joy of Pickling" to the rescue. Haven't tried this one, by the way, so I can't personally vouch, but I have tried many other recipes from her book and always had good results.

Brined Snap Beans

2 pounds tender young snap beans, trimmed
6 small dried chile peppers
6 garlic cloves, chopped
12 black peppercorns, crushed
6 dill heads
1/2 cup pickling salt
3 quarts water

1. Layer beans, chile peppers, garlic, peppercorns and dill in a 1-gallon jar. Dissolve salt in the water and pour enough brine over the beans to cover them. Push a freezer bag into the mouth of the jar and pour the remaining brine into the bag. Seal the bag. Store at room temperature.

2. Within 3 days you should see tiny bubbles rising. If scum forms on top of the brine, skim it off daily and rinse off the brine bag.

3. Pickles should be ready in about 2 weeks, when the bubbling has stopped and the beans taste sour. Remove brine bag, skim off any scum, and cap the jar. Refrigerate.

Carol

Carol! Thank you thank you thank you! Do you think I could BWB can these like regular fermented pickles to allow for shelf storage?

Many thanks again -- I have a ridiculous number of Dragon Langiere flat beans picked and waiting!

Emily

This is only a guess, but I'd say no. I'm betting Ziedrich doesn't recommend it for the textural reasons Ken suggested; the beans might end up unpleasantly soft.

She does provide instructions for heat processing on a lot of her recipes; when she doesn't I assume it's due either to safety or quality concerns.

Carol

Good for you, Carol!

I'm pretty sure I have that book somewhere, but....

In a brief Googling session, I found lots of hints that any vegetable can be fermented. But I wouldn't trust any of this unless I saw a specific mention of snap beans. I found article (linked below) that says "any vegetable". I like the recipe Carol found better, but the article may be useful as background.

Jim

Here is a link that might be useful: Making Fermented Pickles (Organic Gardening mag)

This is what is says in the directions for my German Harsch fermenting pot:

Green beans
6 - 7kg beans for the 10 liter pot
5 - 8g salt per kg vegetables (max 15g)
Savory, dill, bay leaves, some buttermilk or sour milk to help fermentation get started.
1. The beans must be cooked first. They contain poisonous substances which are destroyed during cooking. Cook them in salt water (15g for 1 liter) for about 5 minutes.
2. After cooking, place the beans on a cloth and allow them to cool.
3. PUt the beans and the condiments in layers into the pot (max 4/5 full).
4. Then procees like the sauerkraut. You can eat the beans after 3 weeks.

The directions that came with mine were in German, but I emailed them and they very kindly mailed me the English version.

The Japanese ferment them all the time, using the salt pickling method.

There are several threads here about fermentation of vegetables, be it cukes, or cabbages.

Thanks for that notation, Melly. I have a small Harsch crock but haven't used it yet. Now you've reminded me I need to go check the recipes in the insert.

Carol

My Grandmother pickled green beans every year just as she did kraut; in a crock. The only other ingredient other than salt was a small amount of corn cut off the cob. The beans were firm and even somewhat crunchy and delicious. She also picked all the green tomatoes just before frost and pickled them the same way. I have made kraut in the jars and would like to do green beans the same way. I don't know if Grams blanched the beans before the pickling process but I assume she did. I hope we can find out exactly how this is done.
Bill

Bill,
you wouldn't blanch beans before fermenting them.

Excerpt from the Harsch fermentation pot instructions for green beans:

"The beans must be cooked first. They contain poisonous substances which are destroyed during cooking. Cook them in salt water (15 g for 1 litre) for about 5 minutes."

I'm wondering if the difference in the prep instructions for the two recipes (i.e. "Joy of Pickling" vs. Harsch) is influenced by the difference in the salt ratio.

Ziedrich's recipe calls for a fairly strong brine with 1/2 pound of salt for 2 pounds of beans, while the Harsch recipe at 7 kg (roughly 15 pounds) calls for a mere 56g salt, at the maximum. That's 2 ounces or approximately 1/4 cup canning and pickling salt for the entire 15 pounds. (Canning and pickling salt is 7 3/4 oz. per cup or 220 grams.)

(I'm happy for correction if I've erred on my gram weights.)

Carol

Sorry for the typo. It's a half-cup or not quite 4 ounces of salt per 2 pounds of beans, not a half pound of salt.

The rest stands as entered.

Carol

Jimster - sorry to be so late answering your post. I have been trying to reclaim my back yard from the weeds and preparing for fall/winter planting - which should be next month. I'm so far behind.

The recipe for the dill crock came from the "Stocking Up III" book. It is a recipe by Euell Gibbons.

I did it as follows:

Make a brine of 3/4 measure of salt to 10 measures of water (enough to cover all the veggies in the crock).

He also added some cider vinegar to the gallon jar (1/4 cup).

He claims he uses a lot of veggies (both wild and domestic) in the process, but I stuck with those I know and eat regularly from my garden.

I just looked around for whatever I could find and came up with some zuccini, crooknecks, small cukes, small multiplier onions, green cherry tomatoes and a few green beans. He does advise blanching the beans, however, and I put them in a steamer for 3 min.

Just to find out how the beans really tasted, I just opened a jar of what I canned, and to my taste, they weren't bad. I did find the brine a bit salty, however, tho I rinsed the first batch that I opened, and added half water, and let the veggies un-salt a bit - to my taste.

The combination of vegetables makes an interesting mixture of flavors, with just a bit of bite - from the half dried red Thai pepper in the bottom. It also has a lot of dill weed and garlic, so these "gems" are not for the timid!

I layered all the veggies - as I said, along with fresh dill, fresh garlic and the hot pepper, then covered over with the brine - as above.

It was allowed to "mellow" for 2 weeks in a fairly normal room temperature with a brine sack on the top to keep veggies under the brine. One thing, because this glass gallon pickle jar had only a metal cover, I put a plastic baggie between the top of the jar and cover - to prevent the brine from "reacting" on the metal.

All-in-all, I liked this recipe very well, and also used it this summer to do my pickles that way.

I hope the green beans alone will not prove to be a problem, but frankly, I have only done them with other veggies - but the one I just ate, tasted fine - just a bit salty.

Hope this helps.

Bejay

I don't have any information that says to blanch the beans. I only have information like Carol posted, it is just like fermenting cucumbers.
It is half a cup of salt per gallon of water on the university food safety site. It provides a list of vegetables safe to use, including green beans. So, Carol's recipe is well within that range.
If you follow their directions for using salt and vinegar, you can even use whole ears of corn, whole onions, peppers, and cauliflower.

Here is a link that might be useful: UC Davis on fermenting vegetables, including green beans.

Linda Lou,

Yes you blanch the beans just like you would if you were canning. The difference in the process is a simple one. This is the only other recipe I have ever used other than crock fermentation. Once you blanch the beans place them about 3/4 the way up in the sanitized quart jars. Using a spoon firmly press around the jar compressing the beans, but not too hard as to split them open. You should have the jar 1/2 full. Add 1 level teaspoon of canning/pickle salt here and then finish filling the jar with the beans packed 3/4 inch from the top. Add another level teaspoon of salt and then pour in the hot water you blanched the beans in to 1/2 inch from the top and cap with sanitized lids. -- allow 8 weeks for fermentation.

NOTES:

This was the late September thru October canning recipe as the crock fermenting recipe smelled so bad they wouldnâÂÂt crock ferment in the homes. Moreover, the cold weather inhibited the fermentation outside.

Recipe from Wilkes County, North Carolina 1800âÂÂs just as the Sebastian, Gentry, and Foster families canned.

I just tasted a batch of fermented, dilled green beans that are a month in the crock. I used "Kings Banquet" beans, a large, Italian climber, and cut them in half so they would fit in the crock. Mess of dill on the bottom, then layerd beans, sprinkled with salt, beans, etc. Half way up, I sprinkled a packet of Kefir starter powder. Put double ziplock full of water on top.

Next day, there wasn't enough liquid, so I boiled water, cooled it, and added enough to cover the beans.

Its pretty good stuff. Very sharp and tangy, acidic wise, but not enough salt. The last time I tried this, I used the recommended brine, and couldn't eat them because they were too salty. This time not enough. Will find the happy medium one of these days.

Why ?
The last time I heard of fermenting anything was in Korea.
They made Kimche by fermenting and it smelled SOOOO!! bad.
How Bad ?? As I said in another Post.
Bad enought to knock a Buzzard off a Honey Cart.
I thought I left all that in Korea.
Fearlessem. God Bless. OOPS ! I can't say that.
LOU

My brother was stationed there some years ago, and used to make his own all the time, even after he left the army. He did make quite a lot, that only he enjoyed, but alas, he his now gone to kimchee heaven..

I have pickled white half runners and whole kerneled corn together in the jars. Cook the green beans until they are fork tender. We just use canned corn. Mix together and put in quart jars. Add 1 tablespoon of canning salt to each jar,now fill the jars with water. Put the lids on loose after 2 weeks they should be ready. Change lids and pressure can them for 10 minutes on 5 pounds of pressure

A tablespoon of salt... What size jar? If its a quart, it may be quite salty. If its smaller, your in for a salt shock..

I make fermented green bean pickles all the time using the Joy of Pickling recipe, no blanching beforehand, and they turn out great! Tangy, crispy and still a little beany. A favorite of all that try them.

I store them in the fridge--I haven't tried canning them, because I was afraid they would soften too much.

I think the statement from Harsh is a crock (pun intended): "The beans must be cooked first. They contain poisonous substances which are destroyed during cooking."

Heck, if that was true, my whole family would have been dead years ago from all the raw beans we've eaten!

Leigh

String beans do have some kind of toxin in them. If you do eat too many raw ones, you can get sick. My niece and nephew said they tasted great when eaten from the garden. That same night, both had tummy aches and a bit of diarrea. The link below mentions the acid and protien in them.

Here is a link that might be useful: Raw string beans info

In the book "Wild Fermentation" by Sandor Ellix Katz, it says, "Fermentation also removes toxins from foods. This is vividly illustrated by the case of cassava, an enormous tuber native to the tropical regions of the Americas that has also become a staple food in equatorial regions of Africa and Asia. Certain varieties of cassava contain high levels of cyanide and are poisonous until they have undergone a soaking fermentation. The fermentation process eliminates the cyanide, rendering the cassava edible and nutritious.
Not all food toxins are as dramatic as cyanide. Nitrites, prussic acid, oxalic acid, nitrosamines, and glucosides are some other potentially toxic chemicals found in foods that can be reduced or eliminated by fermentation".

My Grandmother used to make what she called "pickled beans". She would prepare jars like you would for canning anything else. Then she blanched the beans, packed the hot beans into hot jars and filled them with hot water leaving about an inch of headspace. Then she would pour 1 tablespoon of salt right into each jar and loosely put on the lids. She did not process them but she would put them in a shallow cardboard box lined with newspaper and store them under the sink or in the cellar. She said to wait until they "worked off". After a while they would ferment and overflow the jar a little. She would then take the jars, clean them up and process them. She would just use a water bath canner for this. I guess all the salt killed the bugs and there was no need to process them in the pressure canner. These beans had a wonderfully sharp, sour flavor. Sometimes she would mix the beans with a little white corn, cut off the cob.

Sounds a bit dangerous, as not only can they ferment but also build up a nice culture of botulism.. Today, things are not the same as they used to be as to canning safety. With a tablespoon of salt and water only, this wouldn't really 'kill off all bugs'.

The lactic acid fermentation process produces Lactic Acid, which is an ACID. This lowers the pH so that it is safe to can, although not all folks bother. Most of these can safely be stored for a fair length of time in a cool place-refrigerator, cellar, or basement. Botulism will not grow in an acidic environment, nor in one that is opened to air.

The lactic acid is created during the fermenting process, and doesn't start out acidic. The salt only helps to keep things from spoiling before the lactic takes over. A small amount of salt will not protect the product, until the lactic reaches a high enough level, which can take several days to weeks.