THE BEST Spicy Dill Beans!! (Tutorial w/ pics)

Helllooooo! This blog is going to walk you through how to make spicy, garlicky, delicious DILL BEANS, right in your own kitchen. These beans are excellent served as a garnish for a Caesar or Bloody Mary, or in any place you would have a dill pickle (like the back of a Volkswagen.) I like to just eat them right out of the jar and feel the burn in my mouth. Anyway, they are very, very good, and very, very strong. Eat them at your own risk.

Can properly to avoid giving your friends and family botulism.
Seriously.

I won't go into HOW to can things, cause there are sooooo many places you can go to find that, and if you're looking for canning recipes, I'm betting you know how already, anyway.

FWIW, this is my set up: jar boiler on the back left, lid heater on the back right, and my good ol' cooking pot front left and easy to access. I also keep a boiled kettle for when I need to top up the jar water.

Big bunch of beans! Obviously wash them first.

Start with about this many green beans - aka a big pile. This is about 4lbs, purchased for around $8 from my favourite local farm store and U-pick in London - Thomas Brothers Farm Market. It's located on Col. Talbot Rd. between London & St. Thomas - just past the 401. There is always tons of local seasonal produce for cheap cheap cheap! If you don't live near here, sorry for you :(

Wine and decorative watermelon are optional.

Next, assemble your spices! For these spicy beans, you will need dill seed, mustard seed, crushed red pepper flakes, and (ideally locally grown Ontario) garlic cloves.

Aerial view

Once your jars are processed (boiled for at least 10 minutes) - take them out of the water and add to each jar:

1/2 tsp dill seed
1/2 tsp mustard seed
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 whole clove of garlic (use a small or half-clove if you aren't a fan of garlic as a dominant flavour.)

The beans are in their home, now

Then, shove the beans all vertical-like into the jars. You can cut the nibs off if you want or need to. They will shrink a little, float, and soften up once they pickle, so pack 'em in tight, and don't worry if some of the tips touch the lids when you seal them.

It's lidding time!

Once the beans are in their final-resting-place jars, bring to a boil:

5 cups of white vinegar
5 cups of water
1/2 cup of salt (ideally pickling salt, but Kosher salt will work okay, too - just want to steer clear of salt with iodine or anti-clumping agents added)

Pour that liquid gold over your beautiful beans, to 1/4 inch from the lip of the jar. The beans will float, and that is just fine.

The only beans that did not get canned.
I ate them right after I took this pic.

Lid and ring those bad boys, then process them in your boiling water for 15 minutes. Remove and let cool. They will be best after 2 weeks or so, but I opened the first jar from this batch after only one week, and it was still pretty good.

Your beans are now shelf-stable for at least 1 year, but I'm betting there's no way they'll last that long!

Think of the plants...

Don't forget to compost your bean-ends and paper towels!

The finished product!!! Congratulations on a job well done! You are a culinary god/goddess! Go get yourself some more wine!








What are your favourite things to can? Do you have any questions about this recipe or the canning process? Let me know in the comments!

Thanks for reading! xoxo