Pickled String Beans

This is a prize-winning home pickling recipe for string beans that has been turning up at country fairs for generations. Fresh-picked green beans are blanched in salted water until just barely tender, then drowned in a sweet-tart pickling syrup spiked with mixed pickling spice and boiled to lock in the flavor.

The sweet-to-vinegar ratio is what gives these their signature flavor: one cup of sugar to a full quart of vinegar means tangy comes first, sweet brings up the rear. Plenty of pucker, plenty of snap.

Do not overcook the beans in the salted water. The directions call for tender, not mushy. Tender means the bean still has a clean snap when bent. From there the spiced syrup does the rest, infusing the beans with whole-pickling-spice depth as everything boils together for ten minutes.

These beans are made for an antipasto board, a Bloody Mary garnish, or just a cold side from the jar with a charcuterie board.

Pro Tips

• Use the youngest, thinnest green beans you can find. Old, fat beans turn fibrous in pickling syrup and lose their snap. Look for slim, bright green pods with no bumps.
• Trim and string the beans before blanching. Fibrous strings ruin the bite of an otherwise crisp pickled bean.
• Use white distilled vinegar or cider vinegar for the syrup. Wine and balsamic vinegars muddy the brine color and overpower the spice mix.
• For long-term storage, can in sterilized jars with a hot water bath for 15 minutes. For refrigerator pickles, just pack the hot beans and syrup into clean jars, cool, and refrigerate up to one month.

Variations

• Add 2 to 3 garlic cloves and a sprig of fresh dill per jar for a dilly bean version popular in the Pacific Northwest.
• Tuck a dried red chile pepper into each jar for spicy pickled beans that bite back.
• Use a mix of green and yellow wax beans for a colorful two-tone presentation.