Dilly Beans, Fermented

The ferment I point beginners at right after sauerkraut, because it teaches added-brine arithmetic and is almost impossible to ruin. Green beans hold their snap far better than cucumbers do, so the texture anxiety that makes pickles hard simply is not there.

Ingredients

• 1 lb green beans, trimmed to fit the jar
• 1 litre water
• 32 g salt (about a 3.2% brine)
• 4 garlic cloves
• 2 dill heads or 2 tsp dill seed
• 1 tsp black peppercorns
• 1 dried chile (optional)

Directions

1. Key ingredients

Green beans, a 3–3.5% brine, dill and garlic.

1. Compute the brine: Water weight × percentage. One litre of water is 1000 g, so a 3.2% brine is 32 g of salt. Water makes this easy arithmetic, which is why it is a good teaching ferment.
2. Pack upright: Stand the beans in the jar so they hold each other down. Slip the aromatics between them.
3. Brine and weight: Cover completely; a small weight or a brine-filled bag.
4. Ferment 1–3 weeks at cool room temperature. Bubbles in a few days. The beans go from bright to olive and the brine goes cloudy — both correct.
5. Taste from a week, refrigerate when you like it.

Notes

PROVENANCE. My own; the dilly-bean idea is a common American farmhouse one and the fermented version is simply the older way to do it.

WHY THESE ARE EASY: beans have far less water and a much tougher cell structure than a cucumber, so the pectin-softening problem barely applies. They also have no blossom end to worry about.

Everything else in this style works the same at 3–3.5%: carrot sticks, cauliflower, radishes (fast, and they turn the brine pink), turnips, whole garlic cloves (slow, and they may go blue-green, which is harmless), asparagus, okra, celery.

Excellent in a Bloody Mary, alongside cured meat, or straight from the jar.