Friday we finally got around to making Dilly Beans. Here's the recipe, ala Ball Blue Book, as translated by moi.

Dilly Beans
(as stated in the recipe)
Yield: about 4 pints or 2 quarts

2 pounds green beans
1/4 cup canning salt
2 1/2 cups vinegar
2 1/2 cups water
1 tsp cayenne pepper, divided
4 cloves garlic
4 heads dill

We sextupled the recipe, so we used:
12 pounds green beans
1 1/2 cups salt
15 cups vinegar (we used white vinegar so that the vinegar wouldn't color the beans)
15 cups water
6 teaspoons cayenne pepper, divided
30 cloves garlic (2 per quart)
1/4 and 1/8 tsp dried dill per jar (We also divided a package of fresh dill--can never get that stuff to grow!-- amongst the 15 quart jars)

The recipe is as follows:
Trim ends off green beans. Combine salt, vinegar, and water in large pot. Bring to a boil. Pack beans lengthwise into [hot] jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Add 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, 1 clove garlic and 1 head dill to each pint jar. Add 1/2 tsp cayenne (we used a scant 1/4tsp per quart since I'm not a big spicy food person), 2 cloves garlic, and 2 heads dill per quart jar. Ladle hot liquid over beans, leaving 1/4 inch head space. Process in hot water bath for 10 minutes for both pints and quarts.


Our batch was about 12 pounds of green beans. The recipe of sextupled vinegar mix filled enough for 12 cans (unfortunately our batch of beans filled 15 jars...so we had to remake the vinegar mix in order to fill our jars)


All of the jars 'popped' but one--so we stuck that one in the fridge. I'm not sure how long it'll keep for. Pickles don't really taste right until they've had a week or two to sit, though...so I'm hoping they'll be ok for that long!


The next day, we inverted the jars to make sure that even the beans poking out the top of the vinegar solution would get well-covered and pickled. Later that day I flipped them back over to upright.

I can't wait to taste the jar in the fridge--they look pretty good...

Lots of things have happened so far this weekend. Unfortunately, due to my satellite internet connection FAP-ing me, (funny, but we weren't doing anything that's mentioned on their website as being a potential issue....listening to youtube when canning shouldn't be a crime...) I've been unable to share them. Not exactly thrilled with that. Here's an overview, though. Full posts to follow:

Friday, July 31 evening we canned our Dilly Beans. All but one quart sealed (even after reprocessing that one--I think maybe there was some dill or something left on the rim of that jar that kept it froom sealing)

Saturday, August 1 morning we were letting the chickens out of their coop, when I noticed that one was in a nest box (not unusual: there are still a few that insist on roosting/sleeping there) staring at something in the box. I went over to check it out and there was an egg---the first egg from our chickens.

Saturday, August 1 evening we finally went and bought a chest freezer. Good thing too, since the kitchen freezer was pretty packed. Interestingly, when we pulled the old fridge out of the mudroom (It came with the house and must have been about 10-15 years old. It wasn't even keeping the beer cold anymore) it dropped about 10 degrees in there. Must've been running awfully hot, is all I can say.

Anyways, full posts to follow as I get my pictures in order. (Satellite internet allowing.)