Green Beans: I can tell that the summer is winding down when I am picking the late last crop of my string beans. By the way, did you ever wonder why they are called string beans? I just took a moment to google it and found out the long-ago the bean had a tough fibrous string that ran down the length of the bean. It makes sense – string bean.
I love fresh string beans that are a little crunchy after cooking. Freeze those same beans whole, and you have a soggy, mushy, green bean when defrosted.
So what is the SIS (simple is smart) secret to keeping string beans from becoming green mush when you freeze them. The SIS secret is frenching them first. I have tried about every green bean frencher on the market. Now I like kitchen gizzies and a green bean frencher is definitely in the gizzy category. I can tell you the best one, also happens to be the least expensive one, here on Amazon.
Here are the quick and simple steps to delicious – non-soggy green beans.
- Remove the stem and blossom end. French the beans with the string bean frencher.
- Bring a large kettle of water to boil. I like a spaghetti kettle to make it easy to remove all the beans at the same time. Plunge the beans into the boiling water.
- Set a timer for 3 minutes. At the end of the 3 minutes test the beans. They should still be crunchy with just a little bit of softness. If they are still completely crunchy cook for 1 – 2 minutes more.
- Remove the beans all at once, and plunge into icy water. This rapidy halts the cooking process.
- Place in a ziplock bag or food storage bags and vacuum pack.
- I let the beans freeze before vacuum packing to prevent moisture from being sucked into the vacuum pump.
- Label and freeze. Beans will keep frozen for several years.
Need some green bean recipe ideas. Check out the above recipes by clicking on the captions.
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