Freezing Beans

What's the best way to freeze green beans once you've blanched them?

Also, I think I may have cooked them too long. Since I generally cook them about 4 minutes, then plunge them into cold water, should I just drop them into the water for a minute or so?

Thanks for any advice.

Sequee, according to not only a book I have that rates different methods of preservation and my own experience, green beans are one of several veggies that don't need blanching before freezing. I did without the blanching for the past two years and since I tend to cook mine longer, with onions and flavoring like bacon fat, unless they're filet beans, it's worked perfectly well for me. This year I decided to try blanching them to see if I noticed a difference. When I do that I cook or steam them just until they become a bright green, and then plunge them into cold water.

And then how do you freeze them? Plastic containers? Ziplock Bags?? ???

Howdy, Sequee...

I freeze mine in freezer bags, usually the quart sized ones. Plus I'm such a cheapskate that I don't always buy a true "freezer bags" of that size because I think it is more economical to freeze the beans in standard storage bags, suck the air out of them, then place as many as you can get in a gallon sized freezer bag. That way you only have to buy the gallon sized box (or the 2 gallon size, if you like) of freezer bags, you save money by not having to buy numerous quart sized freezer bags ("storage" bags are much cheaper than "freezer" bags) plus I tend to use the gallon sized freezer bags over and over, most likely cus they aren't all gooped up from the veggie contents and are more easily rinsed out, dried and stored.

Shoe (who just blanched and bagged Kandy Korn today)

Shoe I've been doing that bag trick for years and thought it was an original idea. Just goes to show that us cheapskates think alike.

Next year I will have new dentures AND Kandy Corn if there's any justice. I missed that treat this year.

Hah! Twiggy, we cheapskates, or actually we're probably better known as "misers"(!), probably have a lot of tricks up our sleeves, eh?

About them dentures and K-Korn, I actually cut it off the cob the past two years so no dentures needed!

Shoe ( off to pick butter beans before dark.)

I don't even have freezer bags. I generally fill the ziplocks, suck out the air, and place them in (generic brand) tupperware-type containers.

FRUGAL is good!

Hope this will work here, too, as I really want to get these put up.

Just made several batches of Zucchini Bread from the Recipe forum... Zucchini/Cheese, Chocolate, and Lemon.

Oh, yeah - I'll worry about the diet NEXT week!

Thanks all!

Sequee, I freeze mine in ziploc freezer bags, sucking the air out with a straw. But I reuse my bags at least once, saving the Fortex bean bags from one year for the Fortex beans for the next, and so on. I normally freeze my veggies in pint bags, which I had to order from the internet because my farm supply store stopped carrying them. But pint bags hold 8 to 10 oz of most of the things I freeze, and that's a good size for the two of us at a meal. I like the idea of storing them in a big bag; in fact I did that with my asparagus just to stop it from migrating all over the freezer and getting lost when I need some. But I'd be afraid that if I didn't use freezer bags for the smaller ones I'd lose too much in quality over the winter.

Turns out the gallon sized bags are freezer bags, so I should be good to go. They went into singe-serve ziplocks, then into the gallon storage. Now let's just hope I didn't cook them too long. Next batch I won't cook first and we'll see how that does.

Thanks!

I tried freezing pole beans without blanching them first and when we went to eat them, they tasted so bad, I threw them away! I then found out:

That's the usual reason for blanching, but I haven't found that with beans and the book I mentioned says the same thing - it's not necessary. My beans were fine without blanching, but I thought I'd experiment and blanch them this year and see if I noticed any difference, especially for the filet beans

Leslie

G-Gal, what book is it you are using? I'm the same way, choosing to only blanch certain things.

I've tried blanched and non-blanched corn before for comparison but it was on the cob and I've decided I just don't like frozen corn-on-the-cob so couldn't give it a proper grade. Cobless corn I blanch because it is so fast and easy to do.

Okra I don't blanch and it does great! Peppers don't need blanching nor do tomatoes and they both come out just fine. (I often freeze tomatoes whole because I don't have time during "tomato season" to process them.) (Sorry to mention tomatoes, Sequee, I feel for ya this year!) :>(

Butter beans (and cowpeas, too) I tend to cook in a big pot, season to perfection, then cool them down and freeze in quart bags, perfect size for pulling out and just heating up during the Winter.

And now, off to pull up dead garden plants, cages, stakes, etc and hopefully till some ground and have some clover and/or rye sown before the day is over.

Happy Gardening (and Happy Eating!), Folks!
Shoe

Shoe, the book is The Busy Person's Guide to Preserving Food by Janet Chadwick. I think I had to get mine from Amazon.ca because it wasn't available here. A woman I know who also grows organically mentioned to me that it's her bible for preserving food. It lists the possible methods for preserving each fruit and vegetable and ranks each one in terms of excellence of results. It also had a recipe for freezing cucumbers, similar to the one I got from an email friend in Oregon.

Leslie

Thanks! I'll keep an eye out for that one, it sounds like a good one.

One I also like is "Keeping Food Fresh" (Old World Techniques and Recipes). It covers how to preserve food using the old methods not requiring refrigeration and such like drying, root cellar-ing, lactic fermentation (I bought the book mainly for the fermentation part), preserving in oil, or vinegar, or with salt, etc.

I guess since we're referencing good books we really oughta go add them to the Garden Bookworm, shouldn't we!? :>) Maybe when I come in for the evening I'll do that!

Thanks!
Shoe

I didn't know about the Garden Bookworm! There are a lot of areas I guess I haven't explored yet!

OH yeh....the Garden Bookworm is great! I really need to remind myself to enter more books and input.

And when I finish this big bowl of fish stew I'll head over there to add an entry.

Sequee, sorry if I've taken this thread too far off topic. I'll do better, I promise!

Shoe

Shoe if you're pulling up all those plants I don't know why you won't have to time to come to KY for the RU!!!

Doug

Dagnabbit, Doug! And I just saw you post that you are bringing fixing BBQ again...you're killin' me here! (Especially since I thought we'd have a BBQ competition cook-off this year.) (And we'd tie, of course!)

But alas, it's not in the cards for me again this year. Bummer. I sure love that gathering, the place it is held, and all the good folks, food, camaraderie. Guess you'll have to cover for me.

Shoe

That's half the fun and information of it all. I never even knew you could freeze Okra - though I've never grown enough to get sick of...YET! Next year I shall give it a shot, as I will have more space. I am giving up on the cole crops once and for all. I think a 5 year trial is MORE THAN ENOUGH WASTED SPACE!

And how do you freeze your peppers? Just cut'm and bag'm?

Giving up on cole crops? *thunk (Sound of passing out from the vapors, weak-kneed and woozy) I could never do w/out my collard greens, kale, broccoli, etc.

As for peppers, yes, just cut 'em up and bag 'em. I usually wipe the seeds out though. And, as you may know, they lose their crunch so are mainly used for soups and spaghetti sauce and the like.

Shoe

You OK Shoe? Hope you didn't hit your head when you passed out - lol.

I cut and bag and freeze peppers and onions too. Great for when you need a few to throw in some fried taters or pasta sauce and such . . .

Kelly

Oh, I might give the kale and collard greens a shot - leafing is not a problem. However - I never get a head on my cabbage or my cauliflower, my brocolli looks like the Joker's take on a bizarre briday bouquet, and the Brussel Sprouts...un, sprouts, uh... Hrmph!

I've been lurking, learning about bean blanching (amongst other useful tricks) and I have to say, Sequee, that the mental image your broccoli description brought up has been the highlight of a very long day! :)

What a great idea to put the little pkgs in the big one. I actually have visions of an organized freezer ~ or is that delusions? 8 )

Sequee ~ I blanche to bright green, cool them and lay them out on cookie sheets lined with waxed paper. I loose freeze them and then bag them. The waxed paper is used to loosen them to bag. By freezing them in this manner, I can take out just a few or a lot to cook. I do the same (freezing not blanching) with sliced okra, bell peppers, tomatoes and then bulk pack the frozen vegies. This way, I am able to cook for one, two or a crew.

Thanks for the book recommendations. Will add them to the wish list too. pod

I've done it with small bags of roasted chiles and peppers, things you don't necessarily need a whole lot of all at once. SO nice not to be chasing them around the freezer, and you know when your stash is running low! I also do the same thing with basil leaves; I freeze tiny bags of 10 leaves each for use in my gramma's spaghetti sauce year-round.

Jill - how do you freeze your basil? I usually freeze it as pesto cubes because it turns colors if I freeze the leaves 8~(

I wash, dry thoroughly, and freeze on a wax-paper- or foil-covered cookie sheet. If the leaves are dry and frozen quickly, the color and texture stays not-too-bad, but then I only use it in cooking where it doesn't matter if it's not "pretty."

Got a ton of basil I need to turn into pesto--when you start smelling garlic up there in Phoenix, you'll know what I'm up to! :)

We pick the leaves of basil off the stalks and just stuff it in quart freezer bags. I keep a bag in the upstairs freezer off my kitchen, or in the freezer in the refrigerator, and I can pull off whatever I want when I need some. I also save the bags from year to year. We do blueberries the same way; I freeze them in quart bags and just shake out what I need for cereal or whatever.

Thanks girls! I'll be smelling for that garlic, Jill . . . love garlic . . .