[vegmandan]

I love fresh french and runner beans cooked so they are slightly "al dente"but when you freeze them and then cook them the texture is waterlogged,soggy and hideous.

Is there any other way to preserve them which will preserve their texture ?
 :?

[Lee1978]

We normally blanche ours off and freeze them, they tast fine for us

[vegmandan]

But they're still always soggy once they've been frozen.

If you just let one thaw out it'll be soft and floppy before even boiling it.

It's not the taste I'm concerned with it's the texture.

I know a lot of people boil the hell out of fresh ones anyway so there's probably not much difference between fresh and frozen for them but if your'e after a slightly firm ,not soggy texture then freezing has never worked for me,hence wondering if there's an alternative. :roll:

[Lee1978]

When i freeze beans i literally blanch them for a minute and then dry them with kitchen towel, it is inevitable that you will loose some of the texture as with other veg

[peterjf]

all we ever do with our fresh picked beans,

we top and tail them with a sharp clean knife, cut them into 3-4

place in 1lb lots and freeze them , always rememberiung to suck the air out of them , twist the pack and place in the freezer , we still got 5 packs left from last year

[vegmandan]

Sorry to bang on about this.

I don't want to freeze 'em. :roll:

Is there any other way of preserving beans apart from freezing them which might be possible.

[love-my-plot]

I've heard of preserving the beans in salt. Slice them, then add alternate layers of salt and beans in jar. Apparently they keep as fresh as when first picked ... I can't stand runners so it's not somethin I've tried. Google it though, I'm sure you'll find some info.

[Porcia]

Salting is the way I have always preserved runner beans, my grandmother taught me how to salt them. I still use her old salt glassed stoneware jars to preserve mine,
method
top, tail and slice beans, place a layer of salt in the bottom of the vessel you intend to use , add a layer of beans and then more salt making sure the salt fills all the space, keep adding alternate layers of beans and salt till the vessel is full. top of with salt which after a few days will form a crust.
 To Use
remove beans from the vessel and rinse excess salt from them, stand in cold water for 12 hour drain and cook as usual

[james419]

You can bottle them - but that will also change the texture - we dont bother as they need to boil for 2 hours and fruit takes 20 minutes - any kind of preserving is bound to change the texture to some extent.

[gregmcalister]

Just a suggestion and something I do with courgettes.

Wash the french beans and shake off the excess water.  Sprinkle salt over them and leave for an hour or so.  Rinse off the salt then boil in 50% water/50%vinegar until al dente.  Take them out the water and dry before putting them in preserving jars and covering with olive oil (or oliveoil/groundnut oil mix). You can also put some sliced garlic and herbs in the jars to give some more flavour and experiment with the water / vinegar ratios to suit your taste. Perhaps substitute lemon juice for vinegar.

This also works for globe artichokes although I would tend to go for lemon juice for them.

I still have courgettes left over from last year so it is a useful way of preserving them.