How to Preserve Green Beans and Prevent Spoilage

Beans can be frozen, canned or even pickled. Yellow or wax beans are preserved the same as green beans. Both are called snap beans.

The quality of frozen beans is better if they are blanched. Blanching stops the activity of enzymes that continue the ripening process, which can make the beans tough.

Water blanch young tender beans for 3 minutes for medium beans and 2 minutes for smaller pieces. After blanching, place the beans in several changes of cold water to cool and drain thoroughly.

Fill pint or quart zip-close plastic freezer bags or plastic freezer containers. Remove as much air as possible from freezer bags. Allow 1/2-inch head space when freezing snap beans in rigid plastic containers.

Another option is placing the beans in a single layer on a tray to freeze. Place in the freezer only long enough for beans to freeze firm.

This method makes it easier to take the amount needed from the package and the beans cook quicker because you don’t have a large mass that has to thaw before the center can cook. Ideally frozen beans should not be cooked more than 7 minutes to preserve their bright green color.

To can beans, cut or snap beans into 1-inch pieces or leave whole. Beans may be packed into jars hot or raw. Cooking beans before packing them into the jar pulls air out of the beans and allows more beans to fit into the jar.

To hot pack, cover beans with boiling water and boil 5 minutes before packing into hot jars, leaving 1-inch head space.

Salt is optional and only added for flavor. One-half teaspoon salt per pint may be used. Fill jars with boiling hot cooking liquid to within 1 inch from the top of the jar.

To raw pack green beans, pack the beans tightly into hot jars (add salt if desired) and fill jar to 1 inch from the top with boiling water. Remove air bubbles, wipe jar rims, adjust lids and process at 10 pounds pressure in a weighted gauge pressure canner or 11 pounds in a dial gauge canner.

Process pints for 20 minutes and quarts for 25 minutes. Lima beans, butter beans, pinto or soy beans require more head space and longer processing times (40 minutes for pints and 50 minutes for quarts).

It is not safe to process beans in a boiling water bath ... not even for long periods of time. Water boils at 212 F, which is not hot enough to destroy Clostridium botulinum spores that can cause a serious or even deadly form of food poisoning.

The temperature in a dial gauge canner at 11 pounds pressure is 240 F. The only safe method of processing low acid vegetables is to process them for the recommended amount of time in a pressure canner.

People reported a white deposit at the bottom of jars of beans. If proper canning procedures and processing times are used and there are no signs of spoilage, a precipitate is not a concern.

Sometimes the calcium level of water or pectic substances in the beans is higher than other years. Calcium and pectic acids (the glue that holds cells together) can combine and form an insoluble precipitate.

The following are problems that are frequently encountered that cause canned beans to spoil.

• Beans were not clean when put into the jars. Soil that clings to the bean contains bacteria that can cause spoilage. Food is not processed long enough or at the proper pressure to reach temperatures adequate to kill spoilage organisms.

• Jars have an inadequate vacuum seal allowing jars to unseal during storage. Use correct head space and process properly. After processing, jars do not cool quickly enough. Allow at least 1 inch between jars when setting on the counter for air to circulate between jars.

• Slow cooling may cause flat-sour spoilage where the food smells like vinegar. Jars left to cool in the pressure canner overnight results in the same problem. If there is any doubt as to the safety of a canned product, throw it out.

If you have food preservation questions, a home economist is available to answer questions on Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.. Call 717-394-6851 or write Penn State Extension, Lancaster County, 1383 Arcadia Road, Room 140, Lancaster, Pa., 17601.

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The Well Preserved column is prepared by Penn State Extension.

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