5 Best Food Preservation Methods for Green Beans and Shelling Beans

Reader Contribution by Carole Cancler
Published on August 20, 2015
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Green beans are also known as snap beans because of the sound they make when a fresh pod is broken in half. Shelling beans are snap beans that are grown past the fresh pod stage until a large seed or shelling bean forms. Most varieties of beans are grown for one or the other—fresh green beans or shelling beans. But a few bean varieties produce good results in either form.

Green beans come in other colors, including purple, yellow (aka wax beans), and multicolored. If you garden, you also know that beans are classified by the way they grow: supported (pole beans) and unsupported (bush beans). There are many varieties of snap beans, including stringless beans, large flat Italian Romano beans, and thin delicate French haricots verts. Popular shelling bean varieties include barlotti, black turtle, chickpea, cranberry, edamame (soybean), kidney, pinto, scarlet runner, and hundreds more.

Common food preservation methods for green beans include freezing, drying, pressure canning, and pickling. Dry salting is a practical and inexpensive way to preserve many vegetables, including green beans. Salting was popular in the early twentieth century as an alternative to canning. Many people familiar with technique consider salting to be far superior in taste and texture to canned or frozen vegetables. If you’ve made sauerkraut or kimchi, then you already know the process. Dry salting uses a higher concentration of salt than when making sauerkraut, which prevents fermentation and preserves the vegetable in a condition that closely resembles fresh ones.

Shell beans may be enjoyed fresh if harvested when immature. Immature shelling beans are best preserved by freezing. Fully matured beans are usually dried, and may also be pressure canned, making them ready to use without pre-soaking or long cooking.

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