I wish I had one for you but I've never heard of them before. I'm looking forward to seeing some recipes...are dilly beans green beans or some other type of bean?

I've canned over 20 pints and 15 quarts of green beans so far and there are still more coming...so if there is something else I can do with them that would be great :)

Dilly beans are basically pickled green beans!

PICKLED DILLED BEANS

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4 lb. fresh tender green or yellow beans
(5 to 6 inches long)
8 to 16 heads fresh dill
8 cloves garlic (optional)
1/2 cup canning or pickling salt
4 cups white vinegar (5% acidity)
4 cups water
1 tsp. hot red pepper flakes (optional)

YIELD: About 8 pints

PROCEDURE: Wash and trim ends from beans and cut to 4-
inch lengths. In each hot sterile pint jar (see following
directions for sterilizing jars), place 1 to 2 dill heads,
and if desired, 1 clove of garlic. Place whole beans
upright in jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Trim beans to
ensure proper fit, if necessary. Combine salt, vinegar,
water and pepper flakes (if desired). Bring to a boil.
Add hot solution to beans, leaving 1/2-inch headspace.
Adjust lids and process.

Sterilization of Empty Jars

To sterilize empty jars, place them right side up on
the rack in a boiling-water canner. Fill the canner and
jars with hot (not boiling) water to 1 inch above the tops
of the jars. Boil 10 minutes at altitudes of less than
1,000 feet. At higher elevations, boil 1 additional minute
for each additional 1,000 feet elevation. Remove and drain
hot sterilized jars one at a time as filled.

RECOMMENDED PROCESS TIME FOR PICKLED
DILLED BEANS IN A BOILING-WATER CANNER 5 minutes.

You must use boiled, sterilized jars or process for 10 min. if you just want to use clean, washed jars.
If the brine seems too tart, don't reduce the vinegar, but add just a little sugar to offset the tart flavor.

Mom, I've never had, or even heard of, dilly beans that were sweet. I wonder what the point of that would be?

Most recipes for them are essentially the same. What varies is the forms the dill, pepper, and garlic take.

My recipe is essentially the same as Linda Lou's, for instance, except instead of using dried red pepper I use whole, small chile peppers.

I also bruise the garlic, slightly, before dropping it in the jars.

Here's the exact recipe:

Dilly Beans

2 pounds snap beans, trimmed and strings removed
4 heads dill
4 cloves garlic
4 small chile peppers, halved
2 1/2 cups vinegar
2 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup canning salt

To each of four pint jars add 1 head dill, 1 garlic clove, bruised, and two chile halves (alternatively, use a whole chile that has had a slit cut in it).

Pack beans lengthwise into the jars.

Combine remaining ingredients in a large pot. Bring to boil. Pour hot liquid over beans, leaving 1/4" headspace. Remove air bubbles, adjust caps, and process 10 minutes in boiling water bath.

Ya know, I figured that's what what they were but wanted to be sure. The recipes sound great and I think the green beans would taste good in Italian potato salad. :)

They might at that, Lexilani. I wouldn't know, because ours go directly from jar to mouth with no middle-man to affect their great flavor.

lexilani,

I made them for the first time last year with GL's recipe, except that I made some with tarragon & dill mixed, which came out great. Also, one small hot pepper gives a GOOD kick after it's been pickleing with the beans for six months, so if you like that (I do!), it's great, but if not, be warned!

Oh, and I think they would be great in potato salad too. Haven't tried that, but I did use some to make a multi-bean salad --- it was great: I just opened a couple of cans of mixed dried cooked beans and rinsed' them, opened a can of the "dilly-gon" beans and added them in, then mixed some of their pickling liquid with lemon juice, olive oil, and a few more herbs, tossed it all together and chilled for an hour.

Easy-peasy delicious lunch.

Zabby

Zabby, didn't the dill overpower the tarragon?

I like the sound of tarragon, though, and maybe will put some up that way this year. Tarragonny beans, that is, rather than mixed.

>Also, one small hot pepper gives a GOOD kick.....Depends a lot on the variety, I reckon. I use Sinahuisa for this, which is a Serrano-like pepper from northern Mexico.

While I like hot peppers, I think a variety much stronger than that might overpower the other flavors. I'm thinking, though (this is supposition), that half a small baccatum-type in a quart of beans might provide a nice citrusy addition to the overall flavor. But it would, of course, add more heat as well.

Thanks for the recipes! I'm eager to get started! GardenLad, I don't know what the point of the sugar in the pickled beans was--I bought some at a roadside shop in Ohio (Grandma's CHeese Barn or something like that!!) last summer, and they were totally not what I was expecting!

A followup question: Does "Heads of dill" refer to individual flower clusters (size of a quarter), or to the entire umbrel (size of a hand span)? If it's the entire umbrel, I need more dill!

Re: tarragon in the beans--here's a recipe from The Joy of Pickling. Haven't tried it!

Tarragon or Basil Green Beans
Yield: 6 pints

6 garlic cloves, sliced
36 black peppercorns
3 pounds young, tender snap beans, trimmed, if necessary, to 4 inches
6 tarragon sprigs or 12 basil sprigs
3 1/2 cups white wine vinegar
3 1/2 cups water
2 T pickling salt

1. Into each of 6 sterile pint mason jars, put 1 sliced garlic clove and 6 peppercorns. Pack the beans vertically into the jars, adding 1 tarragon sprig or 2 basil sprigs to each jar.

2. In a nonreactive saucepan, bring to a boil the vinegar, water, and salt. Pour the hot liquid over the beans, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Close the jars with hot two-piece caps. Process the jars for 5 minutes in a boiling-water bath, or pasteurize them for 30 minutes in water heated to 180 to 185 degrees F.

3. Store the cooled jars in a cool, dry, dark place for at least 1 month before eating the beans.

LOl GardenLad... All things pickled, dilled, and or spicey are my cravings. My hubby eats his ice cream and brownies for a snack at night. Me I eat pickles, olives and things like that for snacks. Sounds like the dilly beans will hit the spot too.

Zabby, that's a great idea and I will make a batch with and without the hot peppers..I wonder if the habernaro (sp) would go good in there? I have those growing and the serrano, and chillies and cherrys, and about 3 other kinds.

My father makes a tasty italian potato salad..the kind without the mayo and it's tart tasting...I told him about the dilly beans and he's going to make them too. :)

Like Gardenlad, my dilled beans usually go straight from jar to mouth.

I have a friend who owns a coffee shop in Kentucky and she loves the dilly beans hot. She eats the beans then uses the leftover brine to make a viniagrette style potato salad. She says she can't bear to waste a bit, and even drizzles it over a baked potato on occasion.

Annie

Annie, by "hot" do you mean temperature or spiciness?

GardenLad, my recipe is same as yours. Adjust garlic/peppers according to taste and what's on hand.
Here are the pints I made this weekend. 1-2 cloves of garlic in each (I love garlic) and a small cayenned pepper that I had dried.
Favorite way to enjoy.........as a stirrer in a Bloody Mary, I can do 1/2 pint by myself!! Also right from the jar. I like to include them on a pickle/relish tray for holidays, etc.

OH! A head of dill is the whole palm-sized umbrella. Or more, if you like. I use a couple if they're small.

The rest of the photo: 24 qts of green beans and 1 qt, 1 pt of carrots (had in fridge, didn't want to process the last 3 qts of beans by themselves, so trying to fill it up a bit!!)

Deanna
{{gwi:904136}}

Deanna,
Beautiful! Makes my mouth water just looking at them! Thanks for the info re: head of dill. Guess I'd better go scavenge some more heads from my friend at our community garden (never got around to planting mine)! I love the idea of using them as a stirrer for a bloody mary. A friend of my brother's makes pickled asparagus--now THAT is an awesome bloody mary accompaniment!
Amy

Mom, you can use the same Dilly Bean recipe for asparagus. Ummmmmmmm, good!

lexilani,

Like GL, I would worry that a really hot pepper like that would interfere with the flavours. But you could try, or mabye use a piece of one.

I used Bulgarian carrot peppers, which are quite hot and don't have a heck of a lot of flavour, IMHO, so I don't use them in salsa or chile, but I thought it would be fun to see the bright orange in the jar with the beans. Used a half of one in each pint, I believe. In the first jar of beans I opened, about 1 month after canning, the heat was just right --- all the flavours were there but there was a nice little kick afterward. By the time I opened the last jar just recently, about 8 months after canning, it was more "kick" than was really right for the flavour of the herbs.

All still good, mind you. But if we can't be connoisseurs of dilly beans here, where can we??!!! ;-)

GL, the tarragon was definitely taste-able. I asked about using it here when you posted your dilly recipe for me, and someone --- darn, I forget who --- mentioned that tarragon was called something that means basically "bean herb" in German, it was considered to go so perfectly with herbs. So I made some tarragonny beans and some mixed dillagony ones and some plain dilly ones.

Not enough of any of them, btw --- my bean harvest was distinctly under par last year. And nonexistent this year, as only part of the veggie garden in the new place is put in. I will have to buy some; luckily, the nearest farmer's stand is only two blocks away now (right in front of the liquor store; we like to joke about putting all the necessities of life in one place!)

Zabby

Gardenlad, hot as in spicy AND hot as in temperature. My recipe called for 1/8 tsp of red pepper flakes per pint, and since I didn't get any peppers at all in last year's abysmal gardening weather here, that's what I used.

Renee would simply heat a little of the brine in the microwave and drizzle over plain boiled or baked potatoes. She says she misses the brine more than she misses the beans. :-)

Annie

Spicy hot is all a matter of personal taste, Annie. The Ball recipe calls for twice as much pepper as you used. I've had them that way, and don't consider them particularly hot. And real chileheads (among whom I am not numbered, btw) wouldn't even notice that amount.

But I do like the idea of reusing the brine on other veggies to kick them up a notch.

Okay, I canned the dilly beans last night, and I have a question: Some of the beans are sticking up out of the brine, despite having been trimmed to 4" or less. Are they going to be safe to eat? I used sterilized jars and the shorter processing time.

Mom, they are likely safe. But their quality will degrade over time.

Best bet is to either use those first, or store the jars inverted for two weeks, then right side up. Althernate like that, and all the beans will absorb the brine equally.

LOL, GardenLad, I'll admit it. I'm a chili wimp. That 1/8 tsp was just right for me, it gave the beans a bit of a kick, but didn't make the enamel on my teeth bubble.

Annie

I made the dilly beans with the garlic and pepper but it was too spicy for me. I followed my Aunt's recipe which she used just the same brine as for dill pickles and I liked that a lot better. These also make for a pretty relish plate come the holidays:)

Stacie

I made 1 jar with a habernaro for my Husband. I ended up eating it, cause it was too hot for him. I use the same recipe with some changes in the amout of pepper, garlic and dill to make all my pickles. Our favorite is a mixed pickle. That is just what ever there is from the garden that day. I use the recipe at the beggining and end of the season when there is too much for dinner and not enough for serious canning.
Small chunks of summer squash do esspecially well in the mix. With our favorite being patty pan squash.

What would you all say to someone that has never canned or even seen anything canned in her life, but would like to start now?

Could someone please tell me what I am doing wrong when canning dilly beans. I follow the recipe exactly but my beans always seem to be shriveled after canning...

Marran, they do get a bit wrinkly when they are canned. How do they taste? They will not look like fresh beans.

Can someone please tell me why my garlic turned green after processing my dilly beans?