Cutting brine recipes in half is just fine as long as you keep ingredients in proportion.

Processing time remains the same.

Carol

Jen, welcome! What do you use pickled beans for? I've seen other people talk about making them (Dilly Beans, right?) but I've never eaten them. Do you serve them as a side dish or an appetizer or use them as an ingredient?

I serve them on a veggie tray. Just like dill pickles or olives, things like that. You could add them to a marinated salad, too. You could use on a green salad, too.
Things like that where vinegar is not a problem.

Hi! Thanks for the info Carol. It's what I kinda thought but just in case..

and Valeree, I have no idea... I just thought they'd be an easy fun place to start... I've never had them!

Linda Lou, that sounds so interesting. I haven't been interested in canning beans because I don't like commercially canned beans, but bean pickles sounds like something I'd like to try. I may have to pick up some beans at the fm tomorrow.

I just eat them. Sometimes I get where I just feel like eating and eating, and salty tangy things are what finally make me feel satisfied.

My dilly beans are way crisper than any cucumber pickles I've ever made. They're good in bloody marys (search for Shirley's vegetable juice cocktail which is a perfect bloody mary mix). I like to set up a bowl of all my different pickles when I make Indian food. And here's my favorite use for them:

Vinegar potato salad:
Boil red potatoes till fork-tender. Slice while still warm and sprinkle with brine from jar of dilly beans. When cool, toss with olive oil, dilly beans, pickled garlic (Ball recipe containing white wine), more brine if necessary, and salt and pepper. I used to add flat leaf parsley but I don't bother anymore. Once I tossed the potatoes with red wine vinegar instead of brine and it wasn't as good. This is the perfect recipe for bite-size dilly beans...if your beans are too long for the jars, you will have trimmings and you can cut up some other beans so you have some jars with cut beans and some with long ones.

Melissa

Dilly Beans are a great snack food - right from the jar finger food. You can dice them into macaroni salads or tossed salads, great in new potato salad too. They are one of out favorite recipes.

Dave