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String Beans

Pickled string beans prepared by boiling, brining, and optionally adding alum for color.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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String Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. String and cut the beans as for the table.

  2. Boil water with a little coarse sea salt. Add a few handfuls of beans and let them boil once.

  3. Skim the beans into a common crock.

Pickle and serve

  1. Pour cold brine over the beans, similar to cucumber pickles.

  2. Freshen the beans overnight before use.

  3. Boil and prepare as you would in summer.

  4. Add a bit of alum while cooking for a greener appearance if desired.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

String beans
Are the main vegetable, providing the texture and body of the pickle.
Cold brine
Salt solution that seasons the beans and preserves them during pickling.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the boiling water and helps firm the beans' texture.

The step that matters

Boiling the beans once. Boiling only briefly, then pickling, keeps the beans crisp. Overcooking softens their cell structure, so they turn limp and mushy in the brine.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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