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The exponential perishability of green beans brought about the electric pressure cooker for canning beans so as to prolong their shelf life. Canned green beans are the best home-made food for families on the go.
Pressure cooker for canning beans is a great technique for modern cooks looking to be more health-conscious in their cooking. Pressure cookers use steam under pressure to cook foods quickly. The steam cannot escape – because it’s trapped under pressure – so all of its energy goes towards heating up the ingredients and cooking them in less time than other methods like boiling or baking. This canning beans method is ideal for people who want their beans to retain all the nutrients that are important to health.
Why are green beans canned?
- They are canned in order to preserve the freshness of the beans.
- In canned beans, their vitamins and minerals can be preserved.
- Beans have many health benefits like being a great source of protein and dietary fiber – critical for healthy digestion, heart health, and weight management. Beans also contain some essential fatty acids that are vital for your body to maintain normal hormone balance.
- Canned beans are stored in their own liquid. This helps preserve the flavor and color of the bean.
How to can green beans using a pressure cooker
The cooking time of the Beans in a pressure cooker is roughly cut in half. When you take away the cans and labels, there’s much less processing involved than with ordinary cooking. After opening the jar, it’s recommended that you refrigerate the beans and use them within a few days. There are two ways to can beans: you can either cook them first and then put them in the jars or you can put the raw beans in the jars and then process the jars.
The electric pressure cooker for canning works easiest when there’s a lot of liquid. Don’t cut down on the liquid – just use a larger pot! Also, be sure that your beans are not frozen before going into the pot – start with fresh, raw green beans. Because the beans are cooking under pressure, you can reduce the amount of liquid needed and keep your desired amount of beans.
- Wash your green beans first before putting them in the pot to cook them under pressure. The cooked beans should not be handled with bare hands as it might lead to contamination since there is a possibility of bug bites and other harmful organisms floating in the steam coming out of the pot when you open it up again.
- Remove 1 cup of the beans into a bowl and cut off both ends.
- Cut each bean into thirds and then put them on a plate, making sure that no bean is touching another one.
- Put the canning rack in your pressure cooker and pour in enough water to cover it (about 1 cup).
- Add the cut beans to the rack and cover.
- Set the pressure cooker onto high heat, bring it to full pressure, and keep it there for 10 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and allow it to continue releasing pressure on its own for another 10 minutes or so.
- Turn off the heat, open your pot, and put on a lid or plate in case some steam escapes out of your pot – you don’t want all that steam going up in your face.
- Give it a good stir, move the beans to a bowl and let them cool completely before storing.
- After you have washed the green beans and trimmed them, you can cook them in the pressure cooker by adding 2 cups of water, 1 teaspoon of oil, 1/2 tablespoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper.
- Add the green beans to your pressure cooker.
- Cook it on high for 5 minutes.
- Put a lid or latch on top of the pot and bring it to full pressure, cooking for 15 minutes.
- When it’s done, turn off the heat quickly and let the pressure release itself slowly 20-30 minutes or until you hear a hissing sound or see that steam coming out of your pot.
- Open your pot and let it sit until the pressure is gone.
- Stir the green beans before putting it in a bowl or dish and refrigerating them.
How to ensure your canned green beans remain fresh
- If you use the right amount of liquid, your beans will not be too salty. Add 1 cup less water if you think it would be too salty.
- Use glass jars with rubber ring lids to seal securely so your green beans tend to stay fresh for a long time, especially when you keep it in a cool, dark place. This ensures no air escapes or penetrates inside the jar.
- Can fresh green beans straight from the market or farm. Homegrown green beans are the best to be canned. However, beans from the store work just as good.
- If you have leftover canned green beans, be sure to store them in the refrigerator and consume it within a week or so as other foods such as dried foods lose their nutritional value after a period of time at room temperature.
Advantage of using an electric pressure cooker for canning green beans.
- An electric pressure cooker is easy to use. You just use the preset modes and you’re home and dry.
- It’s fast and simple – with the press of a button, you can start or stop the cooking process at any time, with no guesswork. You also don’t need to have too much knowledge. Just knowing how to use a pressure cooker works enough.
- No matter what, you will be guaranteed that your beans are safe to eat and free from chemicals. no industrial processes are involved and you are guaranteed pf quality homemade healthier canned beans.
- Cooking time is reduced by 50% using pressure cooker compared to ordinary cooking methods and it also retains all nutrients from the beans all while cutting down the cook time.
- Plus, you will save a fortune on the grocery bill. canning green beans at home is way cheaper than buying them canned from then store.
- Your beans will retain their flavor and nutrients, which are very important for your body and health. You can preserve the taste of your green beans, as cooking in a pressure cooker makes it cook faster and preserves its taste.
Disadvantage of using an electric pressure cooker for canning green beans.
- An electric pressure cooker doesn’t allow for precise level of cooking you get from using a stove-top pressure cooker. you depend on the cooker’s mechanism to tell when time is ready which is not as accurate as compared to when you’re doing it yourself.
The best electric pressure for canning green beans are;
This pressure cooker has a lot more functions that the standard pressure cookers. Aside from using it to cook green beans, you can really use this in any kitchen: steaming vegetables and making rice are easy with this cooker.
2. GoWISE USA 8-Quarts 12-in-1 Electric Pressure Cooker
If you’re looking for a simpler pressure cooker with just the basic functions, then this is the best one to begin with. Aside from green beans, you can also use this in canning fruits, vegetables and meat.
It has the same functions as the above two pressure cookers but additional features include the temperature probe which helps ensure that food is cooked to perfection and not overcooked leading to a mushy end product.
This is one of the cheapest pressure cookers that are available. It’s a very good product for the price you pay for it. It can be used to can green beans and other vegetables and meat as well, but does not have pressure indicator which means that you need a special tool to check if the pressure is gone or not.
Another cheaper pressure cooker you can use for canning green beans. It’s also a multi-cooker which has the same functions as the other brands. You can use this to cook beef, chicken, pork and vegetables. Again, no pressure indicator or timer so you need to buy a special tool for this if you want to be sure it is safe to open your machine after cooking.
This pressure cooker is a little fancier than the other ones. If you have the money to spend on it but still want to can green beans in a pressure cooker, this is one of the best products you can choose. There is a timer, timer rice and rice cooker, yogurt maker, warming and steamer all in one and other functions you can use it for.
This is another pressure cooker that has different functions but similar to the others. It comes with the same timer as well as the temperature indicator, steamer tray and a pressure indicator. This is similar to others except that it has an additional feature of recipes.
This is another multi cooker with additional functions and timer, rice/ricer, steamer, and warming as well as many other. Aside from that, it also has a convection microwave oven which can cook your green beans faster and more evenly. You can buy this one if you want the best when it comes to electric pressure cookers for canning green beans.
Conclusion
If you want to can green beans with the control of a stove-top pressure cooker or if you are just starting out and don’t want to spend too much on something that will most likely not be used much, then you should buy an electric pressure cooker. The proof is both in the taste and health benefits. Canned foods are full of preservatives and other nasty things that may harm your health so fresh and healthy food is always a must.