Today I want to talk to you about canning green beans straight from the garden!
I had actually put off using the pressure canner for my green beans for a few years because I prefer mine blanched and frozen, however, last fall we lost one of our chest freezers, realizing I needed to just break out the pressure canner and get with the program so I wouldn't lose beans and whatever else I had in the freezer from the season before of gardening.
It sure was an awesome experience! Don't know why I hadn't done it years before, well actually, I do know, I prefer them blanched 5 minutes and frozen, not "cooked" in the pressure canner but as a backup, at least now with some of my garden harvest actually canned, if something were to go wrong with my freezer in the future I would still have green beans!!
So let's begin, to start with you will need these items:
Pressure Canner
jar grabber
jar funnel
lid lifter
plastic knife
spoons and ladles
large pots for boiling water
quart jars, seals and bands/rings
hand towels
cloth for wiping down rims before you add seal
pickling and canning salt (optional)
green beans (or pole beans, lima beans, runner beans, etc.)
Ok the importance of using a pressure canner for certain items such as beans and sweet corn, is so you can get the high temperatures you need to kill any bacteria, simply something a water bath canning method cannot do (or reach those high temperatures).
So, lets get started today . . .
Green beans, get those picked, snapped (break both ends off the bean, the tail end and the blossom end), cleaned and chopped down into the size you prefer, I do roughly an inch for mine just because they pack so much tighter into the jars. (Whatever size you prefer) Be sure to use very fresh, crisp beans, don't use those limp old beans because you won't like the end product, cut off any bad spots. For a bushel of beans you can expect anywhere from 14-20 quart jars of finished product, depending on the size you cut them and how tight you can pack them into the jars.
Here is am using my Rattlesnake Pole Beans, I love these, have grown these for 20 some odd years, they have lovely purple splotches on them, stay extra crisp and turn a lovely shade of green when cooked.
There are two methods for your beans you can choose before you get them into their jars, you can blanch them for 5 minutes beforehand, making it a hot pack, or as I have done here, just cleaned and chopped them to size without blanching, this is the raw pack method.
Get your pressure canner onto your stove top, my pressure canner shows a line to where I add water, usually about 2 inches in the canner is all you need, BUT always follow your canners manufacture directions, place the little rack into the bottom, it keeps the jars from sitting directly on the bottom on the canner, thus helping them from bouncing around and breaking them. Turn on burner to start heating water, just a simmer will do for now. Leave the lid off!
Get your other large pot filled and start it boiling, you will need this to pour into the beans once you get them into the jars.
You need to have another large pot filled with boiling water to sterilize the jars, this is important, do not skip sterilizing the jars, let them sit in the boiling water for at least 15 minutes and then keep them hot in that water until you are ready to put your beans in there, I also throw my seals in this same pot so the rubber seal can start to soften up. Normally my husband would be doing this part, outside on the back porch, with the largest pot we have, he keeps me in sterilized jars :) (But today I have it on the stove top to get photos because I realize some folks just don't have a hubby on hand to do this step on the back porch with a large pot and a propane turkey cooker LOL and I did not have my hubby home to help me out today either!!)
Ok at this point you should have your beans snapped down to size, the pot of boiling water on, another pot of boiling water with jars and seals, and your pressure canner heating up.
Get your beans and a sterilized jar, this is where those jar lifters sure do come in handy, because these jars are smokin' hot! Be careful, I lay out a hand towel, sit the jar on the hand towel, add the funnel to your jar (add 1 teaspoon per quart jar of canning/pickling salt if you like, not mandatory, completely optional) and start filling the jar with your cleaned and cut green beans.
Canning & Pickling Salt is what you need to use if you choose to add salt to your bean jar, do not use regular table salt as it will turn your beans cloudy!!
1 teaspoon per quart jar of beans, I put the salt in first, then start stuffing with beans
fill your jar to within 1 inch to the top, this space you leave is called "headspace" this little plastic "knife" I have also has inches marked on the opposite end, to make it super easy to know the amount of space left in your jar, when you have your beans packed in the jar, ladle or pour the hot water into the jars, leaving 1 inch of headspace
hard to see, but you sit this on the lip of your jar and it tells you at what level you are at.
You can push and shove as many beans as you can get down into that jar, don't be shy, shove them in there, because once you add the hot water they will shrink a little and you can even add some more beans in at that point. The reason for running the plastic knife around the edges is to remove air bubbles and it helps to settle the beans down in the jar, remember you can add more hot water and more beans to reach the desired level in the jar, always remember you need 1 inch left of headspace before you put the seals and rings on!!
Now that you have your jars filled, its time to wipe the lip of the jar off from any salt particles or bits and pieces of green beans that could have gotten onto the lip of the jar, grab your lid lifter and get into the pot and get you a hot seal
Place your seal on your jar, grab a band/ring and just using your fingers start screwing the band/ring onto the jar, do not over tighten!! it is important to only finger tighten the jar, I use my fingertips and screw it down until the jar actually starts to turn with the ring, if you over tighten this ring it can cause the seal to be too tight and the air can't escape from the jar, it can also cause the seal to "crinkle" up during the cooking process and not allow it to seal properly, and with all the work you have put into this I am sure you want your jars to seal!!
As you fill each jar and get the seal and rings onto the jars, gently place them into the pressure canner that you have had water in there simmering this whole time, be sure to double check your water level at this point to be sure it hasn't evaporated, fill canner with your jars as you get them sealed and banded up, mine holds 7 quart jars when filled.
DO NOT ADD THE LID YET
once you have all your jars into the pressure canner, you are ready for the fun part to begin.
Put the lid on and twist it into place, follow your canners instructions, mine just sits down onto the slots and turns and locks into place, do NOT add the weight yet (or do not close the valve if you have that type of pressure canner)
The next important step is to turn up your burner to start that pressure canner to boiling, you need to leave the weight off so that during this time your canner can vent steam, once it's boiling the steam will start escaping out the valve, it's important to allow a steady stream to escape for 10 MINUTES, this gets the air out of the pressure canner, once you have seen a nice steady stream of steam escaping for 10 minutes it's time to add the weight to the valve, use an oven mit or pot holder when you put it on, you don't want to get burned from the steam, it simply just sits right onto the valve.
It's time now to start watching that pressure gauge, your burner should be heating the canner up and the pressure will start building, get the pressure up to 11 pounds, you may have to adjust your burner to keep it at the 11 pounds of pressure, do not allow it to drop below 11 pounds or you will have to start the timing process all over again!! you can see in the photo below mine was trying to sneak over to 12 pounds, I had to reduce my burner temperature to keep it at 11 pounds
As soon as your pressure gauge reads 11 pounds, start your timer for 25 minutes, you have to keep watching the pressure gauge during this time, I started out reducing my burner temperature by one notch every few minutes until I had about 10 minutes left, by that point I was clear down to the lowest setting on my burner!! Very important to keep an eye on it during these 25 minutes!!
*yes I know alot of websites show 10 pounds of pressure, as well as my Ball blue book of canning, it also shows 10 pounds of pressure, however, my canner tells me it should be 11 pounds, so I followed my pressure caners instructions, use your own judgement on which you would want to use.
Alrighty then, when your 25 minutes are done, it's time to turn off the burner, gently move the canner off the hot burner and don't touch it, let it cool down, as it cools the gauge will start dropping, do not touch anything until the gauge reaches 0 and the little safety release will drop back down into the lid, it's very important not to take off the weight or open the lid until it's ready, this could take some time, usually 25-45 minutes until mine is ready, the reason you don't do anything until it's completely back to zero and the safety drops is because you could lose liquid in your jars. Too quickly cooling jars causes the loss of liquid in your jars and you do not want that to happen.
I tend to walk away and forget about it, getting my next batch of jars and seals into the hot water to sterilize, tidy up the kitchen, do something just don't mess with the canner! Trust me, my kitchen is a pig sty when I am canning, so this is the time I take to tidy up a bit or sit down and relax, there is nothing left for you to do until it's back to 0
tick tock
tick
tock
tick tock
While I am waiting I get a space setup with a hand towel in a draft free spot where I can sit the jars and not disturb them for 24 hours.
So now, your gauge has dropped to 0 and your safety release has dropped, it's time to finally open that lid, using pot holders unlatch it and when lifting the lid be sure to open it carefully and away from you so the steam still in there that comes out is not coming up into your face!
Set the lid aside, grab your jar lifters.
Carefully remove one jar at a time and place onto the hand towel without touching, they need a little air space between jars to cool down.
Leave them alone, you will start hearing the popping sound of the seals actually sealing, you will know when they are sealed by the way the seal has been sucked down onto the jar, using your finger you can push on the lid and it doesn't give any, (or pop up and down) if it does move up and down it means it did not seal properly for whatever reason and you need to put it in the fridge and use within 2 weeks. Some people I know have removed and replaced the seal and processed them all over again, I have never done that, I feel it's way over cooked product and prefer just to use them up within the 2 week time frame.
Aren't they just beautiful!!!
Don't forget to label them with the date!
Freshly canned green beans, ready on your pantry shelf for when the occasion calls for them. The day I did these beans I did 2 batches, 14 quart jars, I have probably 40 some jars on my pantry shelf already from my garden this year :)
Happy Canning Everyone!!
