Pressure Can Green Beans, An Easy Canning Guide

One of the easiest things that you can do as you learn this homesteading lifestyle is to preserve food. If you aren’t sure where to start, I highly recommend learning to can green beans.

Why You Should Can Green Beans

Green beans easily grow abundantly in most growing zones, and they’re one of the simplest things to can for your pantry. In fact, when I wanted to dive into pressure canning, a batch of green beans was what a friend taught me to can for my first time.

Secondly, you don’t have to rely on a freezer to store your extra green beans.

Once properly canned, your green beans can be opened and eaten without cooking in case of an emergency because they cook during the canning process. 

Furthermore, I love that the work is done up front, and I can simply grab a jar off the shelf for a quick side of vegetables with dinner on a busy night.

Lastly, home canned foods taste much better than commercially canned foods. Additionally, we can control what’s in them.

How to Can Green Beans

The only safe way to can green beans is by pressure canning according to the National Center For Home Food Preservation. They are a low-acid food thereby requiring the additional heat provided by pressure canning.

Do some rebels choose water bath canning green beans? Yes.

Am I saying they shouldn’t? No. Their kitchens aren’t mine to judge.

I actually have an old Ball Blue Book Food Preservation Guide with a copyright date of 1937. It gives options of pressure canning, water bath canning, or even oven canning. I don’t know what the last one entails, but the water bath recommendation is to boil the beans in the jars for three hours.

I don’t know about you, but for me, that is a terrible waste of resources. Time and energy are lost, and good beans are obliterated to mush. Not only that, but from what I can see from others’ experiences online, there seems to be a high failure rate of lids sealing. No thank you.

When we know better, we do better. Even in 1937, Ball Blue Book outlined the parameters for pressure canning green beans first, and that’s what we’re going to recommend that you do also.

Supplies Needed

​You’ll need the following supplies to get started:

• working pressure canner
• canning supplies such as jar lifter, debubbler, clean towels, etc.
• clean canning jars
• new lids and rings (rings may be reused as long as they aren’t bent or rusted)
• pots, spoons, tongs to pick up beans from hot water

Ingredients Needed

• 14 pounds of fresh green beans (or figure one pound per pint, 2 pounds per quart)
• large pot of water
• optional salt

Pounds of Pressure and Amount of Processing Time

You might have a dial gauge canner or a weighted gauge canner. This isn’t a total canning tutorial, so I’m going to assume that you know how to use your canner.

You should know your altitude to determine how many pounds of pressure to can with. If you’re under 1000 feet above sea level, then 10 pounds of pressure will do. Over 1000 feet requires 15 pounds of pressure.

Green beans need to be pressure canned at the proper weight for 20 minutes in pint jars or 25 minutes in quart jars. 

Do not start timing until the gauge has reached the proper pressure. If your canner drops below the required pressure for your altitude, then you must start over your timer.

If you have any questions regarding using your canner, please refer to the manufacturer’s instructions for proper use.

Directions to Can Green Beans

Green beans can be raw packed or hot packed. Each has its pros and cons, and they’re very similar processes. I’ll cover both, and you can decide which will work best for you.

Before beginning, wash your beans and snap off the stems. If you’re using a string bean, you’ll want to remove the strings too. You may can green beans whole or snap them into smaller pieces if you’d like.

Your jars do not need to be sterilized to use with pressure canning. If you are reusing canning jars, just make sure they’re free of any debris. Give them a quick wash with hot soapy water and rinse well. 

Hot Pack Method

1. Drop your fresh green beans into boiling water for a one to two minutes. 
2. Remove the beans and fill your jars with them. 
3. Top the jars off with clean boiling water, leaving 1-inch headspace.
4. Remove any air bubbles by gently running a butter knife or debubbler tool down around the edges of each jar.
5. Carefully wipe the rims of each jar with a clean towel.
6. Place new lids onto your jars and fix the rings over them. Remember to screw the rings on just finger tight.
7. Make sure that you have 1-2 inches of HOT water in the bottom of your canner, and place jars into the canner.
8. Place the lid onto the canner, and vent the canner per the manufacturer’s instructions.
9. Then bring the canner up to pressure.
10. Start the timer as mentioned above. Let the canner run, and then remove from heat.
11. Let the canner depressurize completely on its own. Do not try to force your pressure canner more quickly.
12. Remove jars from canner with a jar lifter and place them in a low draft place. Let them sit undisturbed for 12-24 hours.
13. Clean the jars, and label them with the date before shelving them in your pantry.

• Pro: I like the hot pack method because the quick par-boiling of the beans causes them to slightly shrink. You can get more beans into the jars, leaving little wasted space.
• Con: the extra step up of boiling beans for a minute in the beginning takes a little more time.

Raw Pack Method (or Cold Pack)

1. ​Fill empty jars with prepared, uncooked green beans.
2. Top jars with cold water, leaving 1-inch headspace.
3. Remove any air bubbles by gently running a butter knife or debubbler tool down around the edges of each jar.
4. Carefully wipe the rims of each jar with a clean towel.
5. Place new lids onto your jars and fix the rings over them. Remember to screw the rings on just finger tight.
6. Make sure that you have 1-2 inches of  COLD in the bottom of your canner, and place the filled jars into the canner.
7. Place the lid onto the canner, and vent the canner per the manufacturer’s instructions.
8. Then bring the canner up to pressure.
9. Start the timer as mentioned above. Let the canner run, and then remove from heat.
10. Let the canner depressurize completely on its own. Do not try to force your pressure canner more quickly.
11. Remove jars from canner with a jar lifter and place them in a low draft place. Let them sit undisturbed for 12-24 hours.
12. Clean the jars, and label them with the date before shelving them in your pantry.

• Pro: You get to skip the extra step of boiling the beans in the beginning.
• Con: There will be less beans and more water in your final product.

Just remember to place cold jars into a cold canner or hot jars into a hot canner.

​Salt or No Salt

​Adding salt is optional, and doesn’t affect the safety of the canning preservation process in any way. I typically prefer to go saltless, as I never know how I’m going to use the green beans when we’re ready to eat them.

Salting your beans in the jars will make the beans take on the salt better than your typical sprinkling of salt.

If you choose salt, then use 1/2 teaspoon of salt in pint jars or 1 teaspoon in quart jars. 

We use Redmond’s Real Salt with most everything that we do in the kitchen because we buy it in bulk. If you choose Redmond’s too, then you need to be aware that it contains other minerals as well that will not dissolve in the canning process. This consequently leaves a slight pink cloud of mineral dust that will settle in the bottom of the jars. 

This is neither good or bad. If you don’t want this, you can use a fine canning salt that will completely dissolve in the jars.

How Long Do They Last?

​The general consensus is that home canned green beans will last for one year. Most canning jar lid manufacturers now advertise a guaranteed seal of 18 months.

As long as they’re kept around room temperature, the seals should remain intact without any problems.

I’m not telling you to gamble, but I’ve used pressure canned green beans in my home long after 18 months.

How to Use Them

​You may can green beans and use them however you like, but understand that they’re already boiled. The texture will be that of boiled beans, and they’ll never regain their crunch.

Here are the top three ways we use our home-canned green beans:

First, if I’m in a hurry, I’ll dump the whole jar into a pot to bring to a boil on the stove. Add a small handful of bacon grease and a little black pepper. Drain most of the liquid off and butter them.

Next, we use these in our green bean casserole too. We’ll save that recipe for another post.

Finally, if I have a little more time, I drain off about half of the water out of the jar. Put the rest of the water and the beans into a pan over medium heat. Add garlic powder and a little finely chopped onions, salt and pepper.

The key to this one is to let the remaining liquid simmer down so the seasonings are taken up by the skin of the green beans. Add a pat of butter at the end, and toss the beans to coat them well.

Summary to Can Green Beans

Even as a beginner canner, you are able to can green beans without a lot of work to keep some shelf-stable vegetables in your pantry. Whether you have your own green beans from your own garden, or you purchase them in bulk, stocking the shelf with green beans is a great way to add to your family’s food security.

Happy Canning!

Donna and her family have been homesteading for most of their 20+  years together in some shape or fashion. She currently lives on their 20 acre farm where they grow as much food as possible. What started as a just a few laying hens, has grown into large gardens, pastured poultry, pork, and lamb. They are continuously evolving their small farm to not suit their family’s needs, but also providing to their local community. Donna’s favorite part of the family farm is her self-built micro-dairy, where she gets to love on dairy cows while serving her local community. Milking, cheesemaking, and processing dairy have become the soul of their homestead and the center of their farm.