I notice that frozen French beans sometimes slough off an outer skin when cooked after being frozen, although some of my last year's frozen beans did not. Unfortunately I hadn't noted the name of the particular bean
so I've no idea which ones stayed intact after freezing.
So what particular FB or CFB do you recommend for freezing well.
Grow 3 types that open freeze well
Blue Lake
Cobra
Kentucky Wonder Wax
None! Never found a frozen bean that I enjoy eating.
I tried fermenting beans along with a few other veggies and I really, really enjoyed them. They have a salty, sour twang to them and keep their texture pretty well. That might be worth a try?
My Dad used to do a pickled french beans that were yum - must pinch his recipe he hasn't done them for a while. I find it is how you freeze french beans rather than which ones. I use to blanch them, bag them, wrap with kitchen roll, then bag again - faffy but it made a difference and I told this to someone else and they had struggled but this worked for them.
Veggie do you eat beans anymore or are they still too squeaky???
(02-03-2022, 10:37 AM)Norfolk Grey Wrote: [ -> ]My Dad used to do a pickled french beans that were yum - must pinch his recipe he hasn't done them for a while. I find it is how you freeze french beans rather than which ones. I use to blanch them, bag them, wrap with kitchen roll, then bag again - faffy but it made a difference and I told this to someone else and they had struggled but this worked for them.
Veggie do you eat beans anymore or are they still too squeaky???
NG, wrap up the plastic bag full of blanched beans in kitchen roll, then bag again?? Sounds strange. Any idea why it works?
It was a long time ago, but I think my original issue was they got freezer burn so ended up tasting nasty (sorry to those that don't believe in freezer burn) so it just gave enough protection from that. I may be wrong a lot has happened since those days.
(02-03-2022, 10:37 AM)Norfolk Grey Wrote: [ -> ]My Dad used to do a pickled french beans that were yum - must pinch his recipe he hasn't done them for a while. I find it is how you freeze french beans rather than which ones. I use to blanch them, bag them, wrap with kitchen roll, then bag again - faffy but it made a difference and I told this to someone else and they had struggled but this worked for them.
Veggie do you eat beans anymore or are they still too squeaky???
I'm overcoming my dislike of Squeakies.............and I prefer Squeaky to Soggy from the freezer.
I grow a both yellow (roquencourt I like the best) and green dfb (slenderette is my favourite) and have no problem with sloughing skin. I don't blanch them, just top and chop to length and lob in a bag. I usually have several bags on the go in the freezer so I can sort by size and colour. Cosse violetta freeze will too, picked and frozen small, just as they turn from green.
But, I don't eat plain bolied or steamed beans from the freezer, they're always in a curry, or sauce, or stir fry or even just a strongly flavoured dressing.
Before we had electricity I used to salt them in big jars, as along as I remembered to desalt before cooking they were fine in dishes.
I also do a pickled bean, from the River Cottage preserving handbook.
But I'm certainly going to try fermenting!
I grow Scarlett emperor and Blauhilde beans both get frozen without blanching they're used in soups and curries and taste fine.
I tried runner bean chutney just the once I wasn't to keen on it.