THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE PICKLES. I’VE ALWAYS been a string bean lover, so I may have an innate bias. I can easily decimate an entire pint in an afternoon, eating them out of the jar until all that’s left is a bobbing garlic clove. They stay incredibly crisp after many months on the shelf. When I’m not eating them straight from the fridge, I like them chopped up in tuna salad or on a cheese plate.
2 pounds/910 g green beans
2½ cups/600 ml distilled white vinegar
¼ cup/50 g pickling salt
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
4 teaspoons dill seed (not dill weed)
4 garlic cloves, peeled
Prepare a boiling water bath and 4 regular-mouth 1-pint/500 ml jars according to the process on page 10. Place the lids in a small saucepan, cover them with water, and simmer over very low heat.
Wash and trim the beans so that they fit in your jars. Combine the vinegar, 2½ cups/600 ml water, and pickling salt in a pot and bring the brine to a boil.
Meanwhile, pack the beans into the sterilized jars, leaving ½ inch/12 mm headspace. Add ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (more if you’re a lover of heat), 1 garlic clove, and 1 teaspoon dill seeds to each jar.
Slowly pour the hot brine over the beans in each jar, leaving ½ inch/12 mm headspace. Gently tap the jars on a towel-lined countertop to help loosen any bubbles before using a wooden chopstick to dislodge any remaining bubbles. Check the headspace again and add more brine if necessary.
Wipe the rims, apply the lids and rings, and process in a boiling water bath for 5 minutes (see page 11).
Let these pickles cure for at least 2 weeks before eating.
Note: If you have easy access to dill heads, feel free to substitute them for the dill seed called for in this recipe. I wouldn’t, however, recommend using fronds of dill weed, as they can break down during storage and turn the brine murky.