Canning Dilly Beans

Last updated: July 23rd, 2021

I’m sure you can imagine that this time of the year becomes very busy for me. I am always planning, gathering, processing, and reorganizing (notice weeding didn’t make the list) all in an effort to have as many canned and frozen items for winter as we need… maybe a few cans too many. My latest and greatest task was to can dilly beans. If you have never had these delicious salty treats let me tell you- they are outstanding. I once saw a pint in a store and the price was over $6… Are you kidding me?? I am not sure what my final cost is per pint- but I know it is nowhere near $6.

For all the ‘flower pot gardeners’ out there- don’t be discouraged. You can buy from a local farmers market or even a grocery store enough beans to give it a try. Even I had to buy a bushel (anywhere from 24 to 50 pounds depending on what site you believe) of beans to complete my madness. This year I have beans out of my ears– but with the anticipation of the new baby and still needing to have enough for our regular consumption and baby food- I thought, “what the heck let’s buy 50 more pounds!”

Now, I mass produce dilly beans, however, I have to give complete props to my friend Caroline for coming and helping me until the last jar was pulled out the canner (11:15pm). As we were standing in the kitchen and she was snipping file box #2 of beans she informed me that she doesn’t even like pickled things (good friend, WHAT?).

How to Mass Produce and Can Dilly Beans

I roughly follow Ball Blue Book canning process- however I do change some of my ingredients around, see below.

Ball Recipe: Yields 4 pints

• 2 pounds green beans
• ¼ cup Ball Salt
• 2 ½ cups vinegar
• 2 ½ cups water
• 1 teaspoon divided Cayenne pepper
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 4 heads dill
• Ball Pickle Crisp (optional)

Trim ends off beans. Combine salt, vinegar and water in a large sauce pan. Bring to boil. Pack beans into hot jars. Add ¼ tsp cayenne pepper, 1 clove garlic and 1 head of dill to each pint jar. Ladle hot liquid over beans leaving ½ inch head space. Remove air bubbles. Adjust two-piece caps. Process pints for 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner.

Back to the Basic Lindsey Version

I pretty much follow the recipe above EXCEPT: I double the dill, double the garlic, sometimes I had a chili pepper or a jalapeno. Delicious! Let set for 2 months after canning for best taste and result. Happy canning!