If you don’t like tinned green beans from the store, you’re not alone. Many don’t. But, home canned green beans taste nothing like that.
Green beans must be pressure-canned; there is no alternative way to can them unless you pickle them. On this page, we’re going to work through the USDA directions for pressure-canning them. Their directions make the canning quick and easy.
Green beans (aka string, snap or French beans) can up beautifully at home. Many people prefer them to home-frozen green beans, because while most varieties of green beans can up nicely, only a few varieties of green beans freeze successfully without becoming mooshy upon being thawed.
You can heat them up on their own, or, use them as an ingredient in recipes.
You can also can them half and half in a jar with a veg that takes a relatively similar time, such as carrots. As with all vegetable combos, you process for the longest time (so that would be 5 minutes longer, for the carrots.)
See also: Drying Green Beans
- 1 Quantities of green beans needed
- 2 The recipe
- 3 How to can green beans
- 4 Reference information
- 5 Recipe notes
- 6 Recipe source
- 7 Nutrition
- 8 Can green beans the safe way
- 9 How to wash your green beans
- 10 Soft versus firm canned green beans
- 11 The history of green bean processing recommendations
- 12 Cooking with canning
Quantities of green beans needed
Numbers are approximate guidelines.
On average, as a very rough guideline, expect to need about 1 kg (2 lbs) of green beans per 1 litre (US quart) jar of canned green beans .
- 6 kg (14 lbs) of green beans = 7 litres (US quarts) canned beans
- 4 kg (9 lbs ) of green beans = 9 x ½ litres (US pints) canned green beans
- 1 US bushel green beans = 23 ½ kg (30 lbs) = 12 to 20 litres (US quarts) canned green beans
The recipe
Jar size choices: Either half-litre (1 US pint) OR 1 litre (1 US quart)
Processing method: Pressure canning only
Yield: varies
Headspace: 3 cm (1 inch)
Processing pressure: 10 lbs (69 kPa) weighted gauge, 11 lbs (76 kpa) dial gauge (adjust pressure for your altitude when over 300 metres / 1000 feet.)
Processing time: Half-litres (pints) 20 minutes; litres (quarts) 25 minutes.
Green beans are very easy to can; most of the work is in the prep.
How to can green beans
Ingredients
Instructions
- Wash the green beans, change water, then re-wash the green beans, and give them a final rinse under running water from the tap as you lift them out of sink.
- Top them to get stems off; no need to tail them.
- Leave whole, or chop or break into 2 to 3 cm (1 inch) pieces, or of whatever length you like.
- HOT PACK: Put in a large pot of water, bring to a boil, then boil for 5 minutes. OR RAW PACK: skip this blanching step.
- Pack into half-litre (US pint) jars or 1 litre (US quart) jars. (Pack more tightly if doing raw pack.)
- Leave 3 cm (1 inch) headspace.
- Optional: a pinch of salt or non-bitter, non-clouding salt sub per jar.
- Top up with clean boiling water (such as from a kettle, for instance), maintaining headspace.
- Debubble, adjust headspace.
- Wipe jar rims.
- Put lids on.
- Processing pressure: 10 lbs (69 kPa) weighted gauge, 11 lbs (76 kpa) dial gauge (adjust pressure for your altitude when over 300 metres / 1000 feet.)
- Processing time: half-litre (US pint) jars for 20 minutes OR 1 litre (US quart) jars for 25 minutes.
Nutrition
Processing guidelines below are for weighted-gauge pressure canner. See also if applicable: Dial-gauge pressures.
| Jar Size | Time | 0 to 300 m (0 - 1000 feet) pressure | Above 300 m (1000 ft) pressure | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ½ litre (1 US pint) | 20 mins | 10 lbs | 15 lb | |
| 1 litre (1 US quart) | 25 mins | 10 lbs | 15 lb |
Reference information
How to pressure can.
When pressure canning, you must adjust the pressure for your altitude.
More information about Salt-Free Canning in general.
What is the shelf life of home canned goods?
Recipe notes
- Instead of clean boiling water to fill the jars with, you can use the blanching water if you wish. Some experts say use the blanching water, others say use fresh water.
- Hot pack is an extra step, but it is preferred by most experienced canners for a higher-quality end product. “The hot-water blanch is recommended. If not blanched, beans must be packed deliberately tight.” [1] Hertzberg, Ruth; Greene, Janet; Vaughan, Beatrice (2010-05-25). Putting Food By: Fifth Edition (p. 135). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
- If you do raw pack, the reason that you need to pack them in more tightly is that they will shrink as they lose air during processing.
University of Georgia video
Recipe source
Beans, Snap and Italian – Pieces, Green and Wax. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Complete guide to home canning. Agriculture information bulletin No. 539. 2015. Page 4-8.
Nutrition
Serving size: 250 g, drained (about one half of a ½ litre / US pint jar, if 500 g went into the jar.)
- 78 calories, 15 mg sodium
- Weight Watchers PointsPlus®: 0 points (green beans are free on Weight Watchers).
* Nutrition info provided by https://caloriecount.about.com
* PointsPlus™ calculated by healthycanning.com. Not endorsed by Weight Watchers® International, Inc, which is the owner of the PointsPlus® registered trademark.
Can green beans the safe way
Green beans are the home canned vegetable most associated with botulism.
You probably felt your blood run cold just reading that. But rest assured: it’s never been green beans that were properly processed in a pressure canner. The authors of Putting Food By address the issue head-on,
Green beans are the most popular vegetable canned by North American householders. They also are established as being the single most likely source of botulism poisoning among home-canned foods. But please don’t forgo canning them: just process them in a Pressure Canner for the time stipulated, making any needed adjustment for altitude.” [2] Hertzberg, Ruth; Greene, Janet; Vaughan, Beatrice (2010-05-25). Putting Food By: Fifth Edition (p. 133). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Whenever there’s a case of the nasties associated with home canned green beans, it’s always been because people have water bath canned them instead of pressure canning them.
So just follow the recommendations and pressure-can them. Besides, the water-bathing advice you may see runs up to 3 hours of boiling time. Think of the time and energy expense just to still get an unsafe product. In a pressure canner, it’s only 20 to 25 minutes depending on size of jar. Why on earth would you waste extra cooking fuel, and time, to start with, let alone for something that still wouldn’t be safe to eat?
How to wash your green beans
The USDA Complete Guide 2015, So Easy to Preserve (2014 edition), and Ball / Bernardin Complete (2015) all just say, “Wash beans.” [3] Andress, Elizabeth L. and Judy A. Harrison. So Easy to Preserve. University of Georgia Cooperative Extension. Bulletin 989. Sixth Edition. 2014. Page 87. [4]Kingry, Judi and Lauren Devine. Ball / Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving. Toronto: Robert Rose. 2015. Page 386.
In the 36th edition of it’s Blue Book, Ball said to “wash beans in several changes of water then lift beans out of water and drain.” (Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving. Daleville, Indiana: Hearthmark LLC. Edition 36. 2013. Page 70.) In the 37th edition of the same book, however, Ball changed its directions to: “Wash beans under cold running water…” [5] Ball Blue Book. Muncie, Indiana: Healthmark LLC / Jarden Home Brands. Edition 37. 2014. Page 111.
In our canning directions above, we’ve combined the two Ball approaches.
Soft versus firm canned green beans
Most people feel that the quality of the home canned green bean, in terms of firmness versus softness, comes down to the variety. For instance, some people swear by some varieties versus others.
The authors of Putting Food By don’t agree: they feel that it’s more down to hard versus soft water:
People have written to PFB often about how to avoid having mushy canned green beans, and the answer first and always is never cut down on the Pressure-processing time. The warning holds true regardless of the part of North America the query comes from, and regardless of the varieties, growing conditions, and hardness or softness of the water for canning. Variety is the least important factor in the result, actually. If you grow your own you might plant an old-fashioned pole bean. But do ask your County Agricultural Agent for varieties that do well for canning in your area; especially look at some of the tender new hybrids—these are likely to be more satisfactory when frozen. The hardness or softness of the water in your area of course has a bearing on the texture of the finished product. Rainwater, or water chemically treated to be very soft, can make the beans slough or get soft very quickly when brought to a full, rolling boil for serving at the table. This is the reason why commercial canners sometimes give their beans a meticulously controlled low-temperature blanch for a few minutes before proceeding to Hot-pack and Pressure-process them (a pre-treatment that sets the calcium pectate in the beans’ outer tissues). You can achieve much the same result by Raw-packing your beans. Perhaps the most sensible solution: simply choose beans for canning that are a little more mature than you’d use immediately for the table or for freezing. PFB was given this tip by several plant scientists, who added that signs of bumpiness indicate that the bean seeds are starting to develop and fill the pods, and the tissues therefore will be more likely to stay firm in canning.” [6] Hertzberg, Ruth; Greene, Janet; Vaughan, Beatrice (2010-05-25). Putting Food By: Fifth Edition (p. 134). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
The history of green bean processing recommendations
The recommendation that green beans (and other vegetables) should only be canned with a pressure canner has been around since 1926:
It was not until Farmers’ Bulletin No. 1471, ‘Home Canning of Fruits and Vegetables,’ (Stanley, 1926) was issued in 1926 that pressure canning was the only method recommended for low-acid vegetables.” [7] Andress, Elizabeth L and Gerald Kuhn. Critical Review of Home Preservation Literature and Current Research. II. Early History of USDA Home Canning Recommendations. Athens, GA: University of Georgia, Cooperative Extension Service. 1983.
In its 1930 radio programs, the USDA recommended pressure canning:
The next question is about canning string beans. Beans are among the non-acid vegetables, which should be processed at a temperature higher than boiling, and this is possible only under steam pressure. So we’ll use the steam-pressure canner for our string beans. Pick them over carefully, string them, wash thoroughly, and cut into pieces of desired size. Add enough boiling water to cover, and boil for 5 minutes in an uncovered vessel. Pack in containers boiling hot. Cover the beans with the water in which they were boiled and add 1 teaspoon of salt to each quart. Process immediately at 10 pounds pressure, or 240 degrees Fahrenheit, quart glass jars for 40 minutes, pint glass jars for 35 minutes…. [Ed: you’ll note that research since has been able to reduce those processing times.] [8] USDA Radio Service. Housekeepers’ Chat. Canning Beans and Tomatoes. 1 July 1930.
That being said, for reasons unknown a 1941 circular from North Carolina none-the-less gave dangerous advice that string beans (aka green beans) could be water-bathed:
In ‘Simplified Methods For Home and Community Canning’ the hot-water canner is recommended, as directions are given only for products that can be safely canned at boiling temperature, 212 degrees, F. This list includes only tomatoes, fruits, freshly-gathered, young, tender string beans, and a pre-cooked soup mixture containing a large proportion of tomatoes.” [9] McKimmon, Jane S. and Cornelia C. Morris. Simplified Methods for Home and Community Canning. North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service. Pamphlet #39. March 1941.
Illinois in 1947 got things back on track giving the recommendations that are still used today: pressure-can at 10 lbs, 20 minutes for US pints (half-litres) and 25 minutes for US quarts (litres).
Note as well that the recommendation to double-wash was included here, thus putting that recommendation back at least as far as the 1940s. [10] Tanner, F.W. and Grace B. Armstrong. Canning Fruits and Vegetables. Circular 614. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Extension Service. June 1947. Page 7.
Cooking with canning
Green beans and carrots provençal
References
Ariel
Can this process be used for French cut green beans?
Joakim Berg
Hi!
We grew and harvested a lot of fava/broad beans this year, but I can’t seem to find any recipes for canning fresh beans directly from harvest. The only recipe I find is this one here, but it is only for green beans, still in their shells. Is there any recipe for fresh and shelled (fava) beans, or is my only option to dry them first and then follow the general dried bean recipe also available here on this blog?
I thought drying them and then re-hydrate them would add so many extra time-consuming steps… But if it is my only option, I’ll go with that.
Thanks
EDIT: I found NCHFP had a recipe for fresh shelled lima beans. Lima beans and fava beans are very similar in size and consistency. Would that recipe work?
https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_04/beans_lima_shelled.html
Healthy Canning
We were just about to mention that recipe to you. Write to the National Center to ask if they would support using those directions with fresh fava beans.
Joakim Berg
Brilliant. Thank you very much!
Siberien
If we add spice and maybe pepper, Does the processing time change ?
Thank you
Healthy Canning
It’s fine to tweak canning recipes with dry seasonings such as you mention, see here: https://www.healthycanning.com/safe-tweaking-of-home-canning-recipes/. The downside is, they are less flexible when you go to use them.
Crystal Gaines
This year is my first year to grow a vegetable garden and try my hand at canning. My boyfriend is a seasoned “pro” and has been gardening for years. We didn’t have the items needed to can our greens beans but now that we do he’s wanting me to can them to be used as a side dish as well as in a dish for meals. When we started getting beans ready to pick he had me place straight into the freezer from right off the plant doing absolutely nothing to them. I’m not sure if freezing them like this makes any difference in the canning results with what I’ve read in this article. But would this help prevent them from turning to mush? Or has anyone discovered anything that will help them stay firm? Also, he had me put portions in a sandwich bag, inside another one, and inside another one, and put the portions inside a large ziplock freezer bag. I’ve never frozen any fresh produce so will this method be good enough to prevent freezer burn? Open to suggestions for a very low budget. Thank you for any suggestions or advice.
Needy first-timer in Missouri
Healthy Canning
For best quality, green beans should be canned before freezing. Freezing guidelines for green beans and other things here : https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/freeze.html
phillisa johnson
how long can green beans sit out after beans have been hot packed do you have to process the beans.
Healthy Canning
After they are packed into the jars they need to go straight into the waiting and ready canner.
Linda Bennett
I just realized I canned my quart jars of green beans with the 5lb pressure ring instead of the 10lb ring. What do I need to do to save them.
Healthy Canning
They are underprocessed and therefore not safe. Discard using these directions.
Katelynn
So I don’t have a pressure cooker. Can I freeze my fresh green beans from the garden? If so can you tell me how and also how long they will be good for?
Also for future reference what brand of pressure cooker do you recommend I purchase?
Healthy Canning
Here are freezing directions for green beans: https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/freeze/bean_green.html
The Presto and Mirro pressure canners are good starter models. Many people stay with them forever; some update later to the more expensive All-American.
When considering a pressure canner, if you have a glass / smooth top stove, it’s important to make sure any models you look at will work on it. https://www.healthycanning.com/pressure-canner-brands/
Corrie
Can I use a pressure cooker to pressure can green beans? We looked it up and average pressure is 12-15 psi – so just a bit more than the 10 recommended. Would that be a problem? Not sure what the other differences are. I do not live in the US and they don’t sell pressure canners here, so it isn’t an option to go out and get one…
Healthy Canning
Hi Corrie, where do you live?
Here is the difference between pressure cookers and pressure canners: https://www.healthycanning.com/pressure-cookers-versus-pressure-canners/
USDA safety guarantees are based on using a device big enough to hold 4 x 1 litre jars at a time. That’s because they took the heat up and cool down times a pot of that size would require, and used those parts as part of the overall processing timing, presumably to save energy. As well, smaller ones can plain and simply run dry : “(1) Use only a standard Pressure Canner for processing. In Chapter 6, “Canning Methods,” we went on record as not liking pressure cookers much for canning: here we say a flat “don’t” when the food is low-acid and higher altitude is a factor. These pots simply are too small to trust for psig’s and times needed to make food safe. THEY CAN RUN DRY.” Hertzberg, Ruth. Putting Food By: Fifth Edition (p. 131). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Don’t forget you can pickle green beans, and water-bath them. Or, freeze them, or dehydrate them.
RICHARD MCHUGH
How long do canned green beans last? Do they go bad after so mayy years?
Healthy Canning
Hi Richard, the USDA says for optimum quality, use within one year. After one year, rotate to the front of the shelf to make sure they get used up first before new stuff you may add to the shelf. https://www.healthycanning.com/the-shelf-life-of-home-canned-goods/
Robin Bourdon
If I pressure cook the beans according to the instructions can I just open the beans, using them cold from the jars say for bean salad or do I have to heat them to eat them?
Healthy Canning
Hi Robin,
If you follow USDA directions for canning green beans (which are also the directions given in Ball, Bernardin and So Easy to Preserve books), then you don’t need to heat them — so yes you can use cold for a bean salad. The USDA’s advice about boiling the contents of jars is directed at those who did not follow USDA recommendations, and even then, the USDA cautions that there’s no guarantee that even doing that will do any good. So easiest to just do it right from the start, and enjoy your home canned goods with confidence, as you can with your cold bean salad. What’s the salad recipe you are making?
https://www.healthycanning.com/should-you-boil-your-home-canned-vegetables/
Pat Bollin
We pressure canned our green beens. All the pints look great BUT the last batch processed were quart jars and they are cloudy. They were prepared for canning while the pints were cooking. It was so late that we waited until the next morning to put them in the pressure canner. During the process, the burner was turned down and the pressure dropped from 16 lbs. (our altitude is 8700 feet). When we saw that the gauge read 10 lbs. , we immediately turned up the heat and when it reached 16 lbs., reset the timer for 45 minutes. I am very concerned about the cloudiness and am thinking they need to be opened and thrown out. Can you tell me if the problem is a result of the prepared jars not being processed immediately? Or, it is the drop in temperature after being in the process? I just do not want to repeat the problem. Thank you.
Healthy Canning
Hi Pat,
A lot going on there for sure. I’m going to refer you to a Master Food Preserver’s group, who will be very happy to work through all the ins and outs with you. The group is here on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UCCE-Master-Food-Preservers-of-El-Dorado-County-456649991034665 and they are always very happy to help. Just copy and paste to them what you said here.
Nicole Gallan
I am a beginner in canning. I filled sterilized mason jars with green and yellow beans, with 1/2 tsp of salt in tap water. Then, I put them in a water canner and boiled it for 1 hour. The lids were all sealed and still are. Then, I found out I should of used a pressure canner. I did this last week. Can I eat it right away or should I throw it all away in fear of botulism? How quickly would botulism appear?
Healthy Canning
Hi Nicole, Glad you came here and are asking. I’m afraid that they probably need to be disposed of at this point after a week. But I’m going to refer you to a Master Food Preserver’s group, who can give you exact advice about how to proceed. The group is here on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UCCE-Master-Food-Preservers-of-El-Dorado-County-456649991034665
Nicole Gallan
Thank you so very much for your quick reply. I will throw them all out……sad to lose all of those nice beans. This was my best garden of beans ever….but better safe that sorry!!!!!
Thank you. Nicole
Healthy Canning
I agree, better safe than sorry. If you look at the botulism cases (documented on this site), green beans are quite high on the list, so they are high risk when not pressure canned.
If the beans are still coming in from the garden, and you don’t have a pressure canner, you can of course freeze them https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/freeze/bean_green.html , or there’s two pickling recipes on the site here for green beans: dilly beans, and mustard beans.
Susan Hyatt
Hi,
I have only been canning for a few years. Last night I pressure canned green beans at 15 pounds of pressure for 25 minutes but I didn’t take them out of the pressure canner until this a.m. All the jars were sealed but I got to thinking that leaving the jars in the canner took them a lot long to cool and that may not be a good thing. Should I reprocess the beans this morning and if so please tell me all of the steps to reprocessing.
Thank you.
Healthy Canning
Those were quarts you processed, right, above 1000 feet (thus 25 mins at 15 lbs). You will be fine safety-wise BUT as you label the jars you may wish to place a small x on them or something. The risk you run with such an over-extended slow cooking period is a quality one, something called “flat sour”, whereby they may go skanky. By placing an x on the label you’d be able to easily identify jars from that batch if that happens. Here’s more info on flat sour. Hope that helps. https://www.healthycanning.com/flat-sour/
Darryl G Crum
Maybe a skull and crossbones with a ? mark????
bob
I processed pints 10 minutes instead of 20. Any danger?
Healthy Canning
Hi Bob, we’ve arranged a Master Food Preserver standing by to help you. Please contact her on the FB page here: https://www.facebook.com/UCCE-Master-Food-Preservers-of-El-Dorado-County-456649991034665/ . Leave your question there, she is expecting you. She’ll want to know if they were plain or pickled, what processing method you used, and when you did this.
Percy
Hi,
Thanks for the great site! I pressure canned my first small batch of beans in pints today and when finished the liquid doesn’t fill the jars, it is a quarter-inch below the screw-on rim part so that the tops of beans are out of the water. Is that normal?
Healthy Canning
Yes, that is very normal. No cause for concern.
Donna Robinson
I do not have a pressure canner can I still can my green beans doing the stove-top method in the boiling
Healthy Canning
No you can’t :{ Canning plain green beans in a boiling water bath is one of the highest risk canning activities for causing botulism. Really dangerous. You can see how many times green beans canned that way show up on the botulism list: https://www.healthycanning.com/botulism-from-home-canning-in-the-united-states/
Instead, you could freeze your plain green beans. Or research how to dehydrate them.
Or, preserve them as a “pickled item” such as Mustard Beans or Dilly Beans (recipes on this site.) When you preserve them in this way as a pickled item, the vinegar you add makes it safe to process the jars in a boiling water bath.
Hope that helps.