Dilly Beans – Pickled Green Beans

Overabundance in the garden is a problem I can deal with. To even use the word ‘problem’ is a stretch. Nonetheless, when there is too much of a given crop in the heart of its harvesting season, the gardener must find a way to use it all lest it spoil and be wasted. I cook every recipe in my repertoire, gorging on this vegetable until we are sick of it. I share it with family, friends, and neighbors. And when there’s still more left over, I pickle it.

Such is the case with green beans; they are a boom-and-bust crop every summer in my garden. I happily pick pounds of them for a few weeks in early to mid-July. We eat, distribute, and pickle them, and then they are gone. Absent from the garden and our table for a few weeks, until the mid-August second crop – both on the same plants and from a second sowing – is ready for harvest. Again, a surplus. It continues this way with highs and lows into early fall. I suppose this cycle is good, as 1) it gives us a break so we don’t get too tired of them, and 2) it allows me to pickle them into dilly beans.

My friend Lise has been preaching about dilly beans for years. Green beans brined with garlic and fresh dill, they’re one of her favorites. Someone in her family must have made them when she was young and she still eats them today whenever she gets the chance. When we visited this summer, out of the fridge accompanying every meal, a plate of dilly beans made by her brother-in-law. She loves them. Her husband Will, not so much. (Let me clarify. I think she loves Will, I mean to write that he doesn’t love dilly beans.) When I met them in college before they were married, he had never even tried a pickle of any sort and he still doesn’t eat many today; a sad state of affairs.

Inspired by Lise, I honed my recipe for dilly beans. I have not advanced enough in my food preserving techniques to properly can my pickles to a shelf stable state. Rather, I make refrigerator pickles, which last for weeks, but must stay cold. Zesty, tart, and crisp, dilly beans are a great way to start a meal by themselves or as part of an antipasto platter; they make a perfect gift when dining at a friend’s; and of course, they are a great way to deal with the problem of overabundance in the garden.

Dilly Beans

When I make dilly beans – or any other pickle for that matter – I start with the same basic brine. I vary the herbs and spices that will permeate the pickle with additional flavor. If I’m making horseradish pickles, I add fresh ground horseradish root, brown mustard, and garlic to the cucumbers along with the brine. To pickled tomatillos, I add garlic, cumin seeds, and searing hot Thai birds eye chili peppers. For pickled peppers, most of the flavor comes from the peppers themselves, but garlic and a bit of oregano add the right note. When you have a great harvest in the garden – or when you’re overly ambitious at the farmers’ market – make pickles. The brine is simple, and you can experiment with different combinations of herbs and spices in every jar to make any kind of pickle imaginable.

makes 1 quart, about a half hour, plus 1 week to ferment

¾ lb. fresh green beans, trimmed

several hefty sprigs fresh dill totaling about a ¼ to ½ cup

1 dill flower head (optional)

1 large clove garlic, peeled and thinly sliced

1 Thai birds eye chili pepper sliced in half lengthwise (or more to taste), or other hot chili pepper (optional)

¾ tsp. coriander seed

2 cups white vinegar (or a little less if you like it slightly less tart)

2 cups water

3½ Tbsp. kosher salt

4 tsp. sugar

1. Wash green beans thoroughly in cold water and trim.
2. Pack green beans into a sterilized 1-quart pickling jar, adding dill sprigs, dill head (if using), garlic slices, and chili peppers (if using) interspersed among beans, leaving about a half inch of space at the top of the jar. Add coriander seed on top.
3. Prepare the brine. Add vinegar, water, kosher salt, and sugar to a pot and bring to a boil. Allow to boil for 5 minutes, stirring until salt and sugar are dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool for about 5 minutes.
4. Place jar in a sheet pan or pot to catch any brine that spills. Pour hot brine into jar, filling completely to the top. (There should be extra brine, which can be discarded.) Allow the brine to cool completely, then seal jar with top, rinse and dry jar, and place in the refrigerator. Turn jar occasionally to evenly disburse spices. Pickles are ready in about a week and will last at least a few weeks, refrigerated.

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