Freezing Green Beans: Blanched vs. Unblanched Comparison & Taste Test
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- Опубліковано 28 тра 2024
- "Do I have to blanch green beans before freezing?" Since I've been growing green beans in my garden, I constantly find conflicting information about the best way to freeze them for later use. Some claim that green beans MUST be blanched first, while others say it's not necessary. I decided to clear it up once and for all and do a true side-by-side comparison. Last summer when I froze my surplus beans, I blanched some and left some un-blanched. Now they've been sitting in the freezer for 6 months, and it's time to find out which is the superior method.
Cooking them in the same steamer for the same amount of time and then taste-testing, the all-around winner became clear.
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Equipment used in this video:
FoodSaver FM2000 Vacuum Sealer Machine
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Vacuum Seal Bags (two 50-ft rolls)
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This is NOT a silly video! Do you know how many hours of tedious labor you’ve saved people? AWESOME VIDEO! Thank you! 🙏🏼
Thanks Amy!
@@GreatLakesPrepping No, thank YOU, kind sir. Blessings of grace and peace to you and all your loved ones in Jesus’ Holy Name. 🙏🏼
Thank you so much for your effort at actually testing the difference between blanching and not. I have always blanched in the past, but you have convinced me to try the non-b.
Thanks Julie. Yea I figured the only way to know for sure was an experiment!
Actually I'm glad you did that video because I was wondering the same thing
My first instinct was NOT TO BLANCH, and I came to the internet to see if I needed to blanch. So glad to come across your video, I will NOT blanch all the green beans I purchased at the farmers market the other day! THANK YOU for this wonderful video!! As far as the colour turning to an olive green, even after cooking FRESH GREEN BEANS they turn this colour.
I am in the camp of unblanched, less work, great taste. Have been for 40 years. Thanks you Sir. Paul J.
One thing I would recommend is that your green beans are totally dry before freezing them unblanched. I have had great success with freezing tomatoes and then when thawing the skins just fall off....lots less work. Thanks for sharing!
Awesome. You actually took the time to test the standard rules.
Not a silly video at all! I watched two UA-cam videos and I won’t be blanching my green beans. Thank you.
This was a good video. I have no knowledge in this area and this will save me time when I go to vacuum seal green beans. Thank you, Dr. Marc
Glad to have helped, thanks Marc.
Its not a silly video at all. Its just what i needed. Thank you.
I’ve just returned from picking tons of green beans so your video is a lifesaver 😀
Thanks! I don't have the time to pick the harvest, blanch and put them in the freezer. For everything I grow that doesn't need de-seeded, I bring in, wash, cut ends off if needed and put in a gallon bag in my freezer. Often I don't get enough to bother doing anything with coming straight from the garden.
I plan to pressure can some beans, use some in pressure canned meals, and freeze dry some for long term storage. Great vid!
Thanks,so much for testing.
I think you should have steamed them separately. and steamed the blanched ones for less time. Seeing how they are already partly cooked. that way you'd get the best result out of both styles. and then make a decision on which method is best.
I see your point. However, I basically steamed them until they were no longer frozen, and hot. That's the minimum time to steam them, regardless of the blanching. If I had thawed them completely first, I think your idea would be good to try. But since my real-life application is steaming them straight from the freezer, this is how I did it.
@@GreatLakesPrepping people hate hearing their ways isn’t best and will argue till the death! 😂
@@jimmylarge1148 they weren't arguing, but merely making an observation. I wondered the same thing about cooking the blanched for less time.
@@n.d.1796 it is rather obvious that if you cook the blanched beans for a longer total time they will be mushy. Just watched another video that made the same mistake. Not comparing apples with apples !!
Thanks dude! Big help, I appreciate the time you took and I'm certain many do.
Great comparison with less work this has helped me. Thank you
Nice experiment. I blanch tomatoes, to remove the skin, as you mentioned, then freeze them for spaghetti sauce - works great. Never tried green beans. Have frozen carrots, after cleaning and cutting, no blanching. They hold up great.
You don’t need to blanch whole tomatoes that you are putting in the freezer. Wash and core them and throw in a freezer bag. When they thaw the skin slips right off.
Thank you for this! I have so many to process and now I am going to save the time and freeze them without blanching!
Thank you for taking your time to save us time. ❤ Not a silly video.
Thanks for all the effort in putting this together. Very helpful. Yes, maybe the blanched ones were merely overcooked, but I am happy to have come across this. Thanks man!
Thank you so much for making the comparison!!
thank you for making this video! super great, i havent blanched my beans ever, and was curious!
Thanks for posting this! 👍🏼
Thank you for this video as I am about to freeze green beans and doing research if I need to blanch. I like more crunch honestly in my green beans.
Exactly the info I was looking for. I enjoyed your no nonsense approach and look forward to seeing what else you can teach me.
Thanks Mark, I appreciate that!
Thank you I am just starting into my adventure of preserving our own food. I found this very informative. There is a lot of confusing information out there. This helped me rule out one of the processes.
I really enjoy your videos... Thank you... Learning new stuff on every episode... Love your easy going and informative style... Keep up the good work young man... Take care...
Thank you Bob, I appreciate it!
Not a silly video. I'm getting ready ro freeze a bunch and had this exact question in mind. TY!!!
Great experiment Great Lakes! Unblanched is how I do them. Thank you for the information. Blessings
My mama is quite passionate about the idea that you must blanch green beans before freezing. I personally don't particularly care either way, but I find this to be true for beans you might want to keep in your freezer for 12+ months. This is the best keep 'em tasting "fresh" longer, take away the woody texture they get when you let them sit on the vine too long, and cuts down the cookin' time for when you are ready to use them.
Thank you for this video! I am in heart failure and any way I can make things easier allows me to do more. God bless you!
Thank you for this video. It was awesome!
Awesome video , thank you so much!
Thank you for this video...I am going to freeze mine ...Quicker saves time
I appreciate this video. I just finished blanching and freezing two meals worth of beans. Oh well, if I get enough to freeze more I will skip that step!
UNBLANCHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Your video is NOT Silly!!!!!!!! LUV YA
Growing up in south Louisiana, my mom was would smother them down with onions, butter and potatoes with smothered pork chops. Watching your video, I decided to blanch mine before freezing because of the desired texture of the beans.
Haha yes! I'm not a big fan of the "squeak"... personal preference
You must have blanched the bejeepers out of those poor beans LOL! Or it was the lengthy steaming! I blanch green beans for 1 to 2 minutes, cool, freeze. When I want some, I thaw them & microwave for 30-60 seconds, depending on how many I've put in the bowl. They are NOT mushy 🙂🙂 Fun video - thanks.
If I recall correctly, it was a pretty normal blanching. Just a couple minutes.
@@GreatLakesPrepping Possibly, but 8 minutes is far too long. Just long enough to heat them up.
One of the things blanching does is makes heating them back up faster. If you don't need them to heat up faster or that beautiful green (because it's going in a stew), it's probably best to not blanch them first.
Not silly at all. Thank you for your sharing your experience! You saved me a lot of work!
Exactly what I was looking for. Now to see if it will be the same for corn!
At the movement I have my organic long beans. Thanks for sharing .nice video.good luck
Great video I'll go with the unblanched I was looking for how to better freeze my string beans
Not a silly experiment . At all!
AAAND, you just saved me from doing a couple xtra dishes😂
Thanks so much.❤
I love this video because it saved me a lot of time on something I been wanting to know
Thank you so much for this.
Great video. Thank you for sparing us a lot of time! Unblanched it is!
Not silly at all. Appreciate all the work. Thanks!!
I think this apply to almost all veggies. Thanks!
It’s not a silly video. I appreciate it. I don’t like the blanched so I was thinking to just give away my green beans instead of freezing any. But I’m going to try this. Thanks.
Thanks for the video. 8 minutes of steaming seems rather long to me. If I bought some frozen beans in a bag from the supermarket, I would probably only steam them for a couple of minutes.
Thanks, great video and great information, thanks for not adding the music.
Ha, you're welcome! Thanks Mica
Awesome! Our farm just called for me to pick up 2 bushels I had them set aside. 60 pounds!!!!! What was I thinking? Anyway, I'm canning most of these but I know I'll run out of jars. I was dreading the whole blanching process for freezing. YOU just saved me from needing to do that!
60 lbs, holy moly! You'll have plenty to last you the winter.
this was a solid side by side but with one minor problem. the blanched beans should have had their blanch time subtracted from the steam time-- this is why they were so over cooked. your 3 minute blanch + 8 minute steam was 11 minutes of cooking vs only 8 minutes with the raw beans
Thanks for this video! I have a big harvest of beans for the first time this year and was going to just freeze them but was told I have to blanch them. I would totally like non-mooshy beans. Thanks to you my decision is made :)
That's great, thanks!
Thank you for sharing this tip on freezing fresh green beans. The only difference I see is the color is more rich for the blanched beans than the unblanched.
Thank you sir. Good video.
much appreciated!
Thank you for doing this
You're welcome!
Wow thanksfor this educational video, i love crunchy beans so i prefer to freeze my garden beans without blanching from now on, thank you so much
You're welcome!
Thank you!!!
Thanks for this. I have yellow beans and I'm going to go with unblanched.
Thanx for doing that
Thank you.
GREAT VIDEO, UNBLANCHED FOR ME, THEY WILL BE GREAT IN A STIR FRY.
Thanks well done
Awesome
So thankful for the experiment! I've been considering what to do to preserve my green beans. I stir-fry greens and frozen tends to have such a mushy texture, so maybe unblanched would be much better for me :)
Yea I think these un-blanched ones would work great in stir-fry. Honestly my only complaint is that they aren't as bright green....but that hardly seems like something I should get hung up on (even though I kind of am!)
Try dehydrating. Save freezer space and don't worry about electricity going out
Thank you. This helps so much. Im growing lots of these this year and I wasn't sure what to do because store bought frozen tend to be soggy and wet tasting and it puts me off.
Thank you!
You're welcome Rebecca!
Thank you
Thank you bro, I need the results for my assignment
Glad to help!
Thank you! I’m going with unblanched to save fresh green beans not used for Thanksgiving. 👍🏼
So I wonder about this method of testing. Since the blanched beans had alaready been partially cooked when you blanched them, they didnt need to steam as long as the unblanced. It looks to me like they were just overcooked.
Kinda thought the same thing
True. I imagine the frozen ones from the store are blanched.
Just started planting my beans yesterday (Florida) so already thinking of how to put them up. I think I’m going to try a hybrid method. I’m going to prep them then “stand” them packed tightly in a metal colander. I’m then going to pour boiling water over them, then immediately rinse with a pitcher of ice water.
Thanks for this experiment. I am going with un blanched. Just going to vacuum seal them then freeze.
Last year, i bought some fresh beans in a bag. I was ill and tired, so i threw the whole bag in the freezer. They were so much better.
Good to know.
As a retired career chef, I can say it all comes down to the final cooking technique. If the ones blanched had been thawed, re-blanched _ quickly -in salted water, and, then sautéed in oil, butter or a combination of oil (olive) and butter, the texture would be much better that putting them through this steaming process, which has, evidently, killed the texture.
Since you already blanched these great beans they are par cooked. You really only need to heat them up. Not cook them. So yes it stands to reason they would be mushy compared to the unbalanced
I don’t think it was a silly video I was wondering the same thing thanks for doing it so I didn’t have to
I'm wondering if this experiment would hold true for other varieties of green beans? And, what about yellow beans? What if the beans were thawed completely before steaming? Perhaps the blanched beans shouldn't be steamed as long as un-blanched beans? So many variables here to consider. However, one never died from eating a raw green bean or an un-blanched green bean, or a blanched green bean, for that matter. In the end, I don't think it really matters whether the beans are blanched or not. I think it is more of an esthetic thing. It's good to know you don't have to blanch the green beans before freezing them. But with all that being said, my Mom always blanches green beans before freezing them, so, I imagine I'll keep doing the same. If something works, don't fix it. Interesting experiment, Great Lakes. One of the things I really like about your channel is that you actually DO THINGS and not simply TALK about things. Hoping you're still doing okay. Do you think you'll find the summer more difficult (with Lena gone, I mean)? As a dog lover myself, and having gone through similar things, I think about you quite often.
Thanks for the comment, Drummer. I'm sure you're right, and ultimately it's a matter of preference. There are definitely a lot of variables I didn't really test for.
I'm doing ok. I think winter will be worse than next summer, both because it's closer to when I lost her, and it's when I'm cooped up in the house the most. Summer brings a lot of outdoor stuff, and she could never really participate in most of that anyway. I appreciate you and your thoughts.
@@GreatLakesPrepping Glad to hear you're doing okay. Remember, just take things one day at a time.
I prefer the unblanched, and the same with yellow beans, dragon, and purple, Blanched beans taste like cardboard to me and are not worth eating
Not silly,I am a busy person so any quick steps i can take is better for me.Thanks!
This was a good video. Question though,... did you vacuum seal them dry or wet? I think wet would be bad.
Thankyou I just froze mine unblanched.
Over blanching causes loss of flavor, color, vitamins and minerals. Underblanching stimulates the activity of enzymes and is worse than no blanching at all. Blanching helps vegetables keep their vibrant colors and retain nutrients, and stops the enzymes that would otherwise lead to spoilage.
For water blanching, use about a gallon of boiling water per pound of prepared vegetables. Place the vegetables in the blanching basket and lower into water that is at a rolling boil. Blanching time starts as soon as the water returns to a full boil.
To steam blanch, use a pot with a tight-fitting lid and a basket that holds the food at least 3 inches above the boiling water. Begin timing as soon as the lid is on.
As soon as the blanching is complete, vegetables should be cooled quickly and thoroughly to stop the cooking process. Immediately plunge the basket of vegetables into a large quantity of cold water, 60 degrees Fahrenheit or below. Change the water frequently. Ice can be added to the water to keep it cold.
“The cooling process should take the same amount of time as the blanching process.
There are a couple of options for freezing, too. The dry-pack method consists of packing the blanched vegetables into containers or freezer bags. Press out the air and seal tightly.
Another method is called tray-pack. Place the blanched vegetables on a shallow pan and put the pan in the freezer. As soon as the vegetables are frozen, put them into a freezer bag or container. Press out the air and seal tightly and return to them to the freezer.
wow! thanks ....this saves time..I.also prefer a crisp texture. wish you would test other vegetables too.
Thanks Melene. I've actually got a celery comparison coming out in a couple weeks. I hope to do more veggies in the near future.
@@GreatLakesPrepping Please do a leafy greens comparison too. Kale, chard, or collards.
I am eating mushy blanched beans right now
I prefer unblanched myself seems fresher and tastier. Thank you
Any video's on how to do more than one batch of blanching at a time ?
I have never found a way to put up green beans that taste fresh. Never. In-laws and friends give them to me all the time they suck. I'm hopeful to try this way
Thank you for your opinion on which way. We grew a bunch of green beans and ended up giving some away. Do you have any videos on cucumbers. We've been growing too many cukes as well.
I have a couple videos on pickling cucumbers. But besides for that, there isn't really any good way to preserve them. They get mushy in the freezer, and nobody really wants cooked cucumbers (aside from pickled). That's the problem with cucumbers... it's so easy to grow a million of 'em, but there's really only the one practical way to preserve them!
Ive always blanched them, then when i ceek em i just throw em in a pan with a bit of butter and heat em up….pretty much perfect ! I blanch them then dry on paper towels..then i put them on a pizza tin and freeze them..then i put em in a bag so they are not frooze in a clump and i just take the amount needed out of the bag and throw the rest backin the freezer. Ill keep with the blanch method i think
I started freezing my beans unblached years ago and perf them like that.
My aunts never blanched beans or squash. I been following their freezing practice for 40 years.
Thanks for the video! I'm new to gardening, and I was wondering, do you wash your green beans before you freeze them? and again, Thank you so much
Thanks Kathy. Yes, I wash them and let them dry before freezing.
@@GreatLakesPrepping thank you 😃
I’m definitely going to freeze directly without blanching. Anything to save work.
How long did you blanche your green beans?
It’s not silly the big sellers only blanch because of preserve purposes as the boiling process kills off the enzymes that make the bean go bad quicker , not blanching is so much better for you if you think about it anything you boil takes the goodness out of food so blanching and then boil to cook can’t see much goodness left once it lands on yr plate .
What is the benefit to blanching? What about steaming the blanched for less time since they were already pre-heated? Then it might be a more even test? If they were firmer, because they were cooked less time after thawing, they might not be mealy, and more of a crunch with better color!
The blanched have been pretty cooked and therefore should require less steaming time as the unblanched... have done both ways in past myself they kept great both ways and tasted great, just different cooking times
Last year I put some in the freezer that were unblanched and I have to say that I don't think the flavor was quite up to par.