How to Can Green Beans

Step 1

Wash and clean your jars. Make sure they are preheated enough to not crack when placed in hot water.

Step 2

Wash your lids with hot soapy water and place them in a clean bowl.

Step 3

Snap or cut beans to remove any strings, and cut into 1-inch pieces. Note: once the string has been removed, you may also leave them whole if you prefer.

Step 4

(HOT PACK & COLD PACK INSTRUCTIONS) If you are hot packing, add the beans to a pot of boiling water and let them cook for 5 minutes. If you are not hot packing, allow 8 (ish) cups of water to come to a boil in a pot or kettle.

Step 5

Add 3 quarts of water to the pressure canner and put it on a burner set to high. Make sure there is a canning rack in the bottom of the canner.

Step 6

Add the beans to the jars. If adding salt, do that now. Tap the jar a few times to pack them in there as well as possible.

Step 7

Using a canning funnel, carefully and slowly add the clean boiling water from the kettle/pot, leaving 1-inch of headspace. Headspace is the distance between the top of the food and the top of the jar.

Step 8

Using a long utensil (I prefer a plastic chopstick), remove air bubbles from the jar.

Step 9

Clean the rim of the jar very well with a hot damp rag. Any food debris left on the rim may impact the seal of the lid in the canner.

Step 10

Place a clean lid on the jar. Add a ring, and tighten to fingertip tight.

Step 11

Using canning tongs, gently place the jars in the canner.

Step 12

Lock the lid. Soon, steam will start coming through the vent pipe. Allow the steam to pass through for about 10 minutes. Then put the pressure regulator on top.

Step 13

Pretty soon, the air vent will pop up.

Step 14

In a dial-gauge pressure canner, process pints and quarts based on the elevation guide below (see processing chart in post for altitude adjustments):*0-2,000f ft {PSI: 11 lbs of pressure} = Pints 20 min, Quarts 25 min*2,001-4,000k ft {PSI: 12 lbs of pressure} = Pints 20 min, Quarts 25 min*4,001-6,000k ft {PSI: 13 lbs of pressure} = Pints 20 min, Quarts 25 min*6,001-8,000k {PSi: 14 lbs of pressure} = Pints 20 min, Quarts 25 min

Step 15

When the dial gauge reaches the appropriate PSI, reduce the burner temp to medium, and start your timer. The pressure must stay at the PSI or (a little bit) above for the duration of the cooking time. You’ll likely need to adjust the temp on the burner a few times depending on your stove.

Step 16

When the time is up, remove the canner from the burner and allow it to sit until you hear a distinctive “click” of the air vent dropping. Remove the pressure regulator and carefully remove the lid of the canner (Pro tip: I always use oven mitts when I take the lid off because the steam is super hot).

Step 17

Let the jars sit for 5 minutes in the canner and then lift them out with canning tongs. Pro tip: allowing the jars to sit in the canner with the lid off can help reduce the siphoning of liquid in your jars.

Step 18

Remove with canning tons and place on a towel where they can sit undisturbed for 12 hours.

Step 19

After a few hours, to check for sealing, gently press down in the middle of the lid. If the lid has no give, it’s sealed. If you can press the lid in and it pops a bit, your jars are not sealed.