Salting beans

[Alison]

As ever I have a lot of beans. I usually eat most of them fresh and freeze some, mainly in dishes as I think they taste rubbish frozen in comparison to fresh, especially runner beans. As you can imagine, this can take up a lot of valuable freezer space so isn't ideal.

This year I am keen to try salting some beans as I'm told they can taste almost as good as fresh. I've googled a bit and found various ways of doing it but have no idea which is best. Does anybody do this and can they advise on the best (and worst!) ways.

Thanks

[valmarg]

My dad used to salt runner beans, and they were fanblinkintastic. We had them on Christmas day, and they were absolutely wonderful You could have picked them out of the garden that morning.

I have tried to do them myself, and they were absolutely dreadful. They went mouldy.

I think the difference with dad's and mine was, he did his before they added 'anti caking agent' to the salt.

I think I shall have another go, using pure sea salt.

They were the nearest thing to fresh I have ever tasted.

I'll post my old Good Housekeeping recipe in the next day or two.

valmarg

[Polly Fouracre]

You would need preserving salt which you can buy online. If you use table salt the beans will go slimy.
Another way of preserving them is to dry them.

[Alison]

Thanks both, will investigate preserving salt (which, fingers crossed, will be cheaper than sea salt flakes which is all I could find in our local shop last night that wasn't the coated stuff). Any ideas on the best containers to use? Do they need to be air tight?

[Polly Fouracre]

Glass sweetie jars if you can get them, otherwise any large jar will do. Keep them in the dark though.