[PREP] Leather Britches

[TerriHaute]

I first heard about leather britches, dried string beans, in one of the Foxfire books. It seems that preserving beans this way is common in the south and among the mountain folks. The beans are strung crosswise in long strings, using a darning needle and stout thread, fishing line, kite string, etc. and hung up to dry.

To cook them, the beans are fixed much like soup beans: soak overnight, cook in fresh water until tender with onion, side pork, bacon, or ham for flavoring.

I planted an overabundance of beans this year and thought I might make "leather britches" out of some of them. I really don't like canning and I don't want to depend on the freezer!

Has anyone ever tried this?

Terri in Indiana

 

[Gingergirl]

I tried this many years ago and ended up with yucky brown britches.

"How To Dry Foods" recommends Blue Lake and Tendergreen with a pre-treatment, before putting in a dehydrator. The pictures show them to be olive green when dried, so maybe I could get better resultes, but I think I would still like them frozen better.

 

[blueberry]

I only tried it once, and even after long cooking, they were still too tough.

Maybe I did not do them right, but I never tried again.

 

[Tadpole]

The beans need to be steamed or boiled for 5 minutes just like if you were preparing them for freezing. It stops the enzyme activity that makes them overmature.

Still, dehydrated beans aren't very good compared to fresh. The only way I would use them is in soups or stews.... and only if I had to! But if that is the only way you can have green beans through the winter, it is worth doing.

If you ever dehydrate potatoes, they will turn black unless you pre-steam them until they are slightly translucent.

The only vegetables that I know of that don't need the steam pretreatment before drying are tomatoes, peppers, celery, and herbs, although there may be others.

Basically, any vegetable that you need to pre-steam before you freeze will also require pre-steaming before drying.

I don't know if the old-timers did that or not. If not, they must have had some pretty lousy food by the end of winter!

 

[hummer]

re:string beans

Hi TerriHaute. I have never dried string beans by the hanging method you describe. However, I have dehydrated both green and yellow beans; cut to length or leave intact, par boil for 3 minutes or steam as stated in another post, and then place in dehydrator. I have used 2 year old ones in hotdishes and they have been fine......tasty and tender. Of course they are never as good as fresh out of the garden beans...........yummmmmmmmmmmm. Hummer

 

[cormorant]

My great-grandmother dried string beans somewhat like this, but there was no cooking involved. The "strings" were stripped from the beans, then the beans were placed in a large pot of cold water (plus a few shakes of salt) overnight, covered with paper towels. In the morning they were patted dry and set out in the sun for 6-8 hours. Then they were threaded with a needle, and hung from the rafters in the attic to dry for winter use. They were added to soups and stews, never used in any other way in our house.

 

[Tadpole]

Cormorant, that is really interesting. Maybe the salt soaking stops the enzyme action without heat.

Thanks for resurrecting that bit of forgotten knowledge for us.