To Keep French Beans for Winter Use
Ingredients
Directions
Pack the jar
Gather young French beans on a dry day.
Layer ½ cup of coarse sea salt in a jar.
Add a layer of beans about 2 inches thick; repeat until the jar is nearly full.
Place a small plate on top and cover the jar tightly with a bladder.
Store
Store the jar in a cool, dry place.
Use the beans
To use, soak the beans overnight in cold water, changing the water several times during the day.
Cut the beans and boil them in water.
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 french beans
- Form the body of the dish, and their texture is what the salt is preserving.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the beans and slows spoilage, which preserves them.
The step that matters
Layering the beans and salt, then sealing the jar. Each bean layer should be well covered with salt and the jar sealed tightly. Salt draws water out of the beans and slows spoilage microbes. Gaps or air exposure let the beans spoil.
“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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