Pickling Sour Beans - A Recipe From Cleaning To Consumption

Interesting facts about beans

For pickled beans, green beans are primarily used, but so-called wax beans or yellow beans are also used. All of these terms refer to bean pods that are harvested unripe. This means that the bean kernels are not yet ripe and the pods are tender.

Raw beans, both the pods and the kernels, contain the toxin phasin. It is sensitive to heat, which is why beans can be eaten cooked. Even with sour beans, you have to make sure that you destroy the phasin: the lactic acid fermentation only weakens the content; You must heat the cut beans thoroughly before consuming them.

How do the beans get sour?

Sour pickled beans are produced through lactic acid fermentation or fermentation. The vegetables used must be stored in the absence of oxygen so that the lactic acid bacteria can multiply and fermentation can start. They also suppress other microorganisms, which is why the vegetables do not spoil. A brine is used to keep oxygen away from the pickled vegetables.

The lactic acid fermentation creates a typical, finely sour taste, which most of us are familiar with from sauerkraut.

Sour beans, fitzé beans, salt beans, salt-cutting beans, cut beans: a recipe

To ferment green beans into lactic acid, you can use the following well-tried recipe. Vegetables have been preserved in the same way for centuries and vitamin-rich food for the cold season is kept.

Clean the beans by washing them and removing both ends. Cut the beans into 2 cm pieces.
Salt the bean pieces with 20g of iodine-free salt per kg, mix well and let steep for at least an hour.
Prepare mason jars by boiling them or sterilizing them in the oven.
Firmly pound the beans into the glasses. This prevents air pockets and liquid leaks from the beans, which is supposed to cover the vegetables.
If you do not get enough liquid in this way, make a 5% brine (bring the water to the boil, dissolve the salt in it, let the brine cool down) and cover the beans with it.
To keep the vegetables under the liquid, weigh them down with a clean stone or other heavy object.
Seal the mason jars with a new rubber ring and let them stand for about 10 days at room temperature.
Fermentation then continues in a cool, dark place for another four weeks. Then the sour beans are completely fermented and can be stored for up to a year.
Before consumption, cook the beans through to render the toxin phasin harmless.