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[richenza]

Every year I make dilly beans. I generally only open the jar whne there are people around to share them, and when people are around I am almost always busy "hostessting". This means I ofter only get one or two out of each jar

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[richenza]

To be perfectly honest, I use whatever salt comes to hand. This last batch was done with Iodized salt, as I was out of kosher salt. I just used a bit less as 1/4 cup of iodized salt is heavier than 1/4 cup of kosher salt (finer granulation lets it pack down more). The brine just needs to be salty enough to discourage bacteria. I think lots of "fussiness" in recipes is just there to make canning look hard.

The important canning tips are:
- put clean canning jars into jellypot full of water. Bring to a boil. Boil 1 minute to sterilize.
- to fill: remove 1 jar at a time from sterilizing bath. Fill with beans and hot brine... quickly. Don't let sterilized jars get cool before filling. If you want to do a large batch get a servant volunteer to help you.
- wipe jar tops and gripping ridges with a damp paper towel or a very clean damp cloth to remove any spills.
- don't force the rings too tight, or when the air inside expands during processing, it can mess up your seal. some of that air needs to escape to get a good tight seal when the contents of the jar cool. finger-tight is good enough.
- process for the amount of time given in recipe.

[richenza]

half-sour pickled green tomatoes are one of Jack's favorite foods...