To Cook Snap Beans
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and parboil
String and snap the fresh green beans.
Parboil the beans for a few minutes.
Add baking soda to the beans.
Drain the beans immediately.
Wash the beans.
Cook
Place the beans in a pot.
Add the bacon.
Cover with boiling water.
Cook until tender, about 2 hours over a good fire or 4 hours over a moderate fire.
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
- Fresh green beans
- Form the dish's main body, becoming tender and soft through long slow cooking.
- Baking soda
- Raises the pH of the cooking water, helping the bean skins and fibres soften faster.
- Bacon
- Adds fat and smoky, savoury flavour that seasons the beans as they simmer.
The step that matters
Cook until tender. Beans need long, gentle cooking to break down their tough cell walls. Stopping early leaves them fibrous and chewy, so keep cooking until they are fully tender.
“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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