The message
from Gordon H contains these words:

Now that I am picking more beans than I can eat, I have to resort to
freezing some for later use.

Take care! Done properly, they're like fresh. The usual way, they end-up
like strips of leather.

I have Googled and found as many contradictions about precise methods as
there are pairs of contributors. ;-)

You will.

From a consensus, I propose to wash and slice diagonally into 1/2 " wide
pieces, drop into boiling water for 2 minutes, drop in iced water for
several minutes, then dry and freeze.

Get a hand slicer. Spong make a good one. It's a disc with three
stamped-out blades which you turn with a handle, as per mincer.

You feed the beans in at a steep angle from the back (on your side, by
the handle), and the blades cut the beans on the slant.

The last time I did this many years ago I bagged them after drying and
put them in the freezer. When we used them, they were stuck together
to some extent and iced up in the plastic bags. We learned to make
up smaller portions... ;-)

No! No! No!

Today's reading suggests that I should leave them to dry more
thoroughly, and place them in the quick-freeze compartment on a baking
tray, rather than toss them in a bag.

No! No! No!

Any comments on the methodology?

It is a given that they will not taste as they do when fresh, but in a
stir-fry with corn fed chicken, some Chinese veg and my favourite
sauces...

Right. Slice beans (on the slant).

Put in saucepan and cover with water.

Bring to the boil and keep boiling lightly for two or three minutes.

Take saucepan off heat and sit it in a basin of cold water, changing the
water if it gets very warm.

DO NOT TIP OFF WATER

Take portion-sized (or family portion-sized) quantities and put into
freezerbags.

Use the water from the saucepan to add to the bagged beans.

Hold each bag upright, with the top of it held together and gently
squeeze its bottom (Oo-er!) to get rid of all the air. Air is the
nemesis of frozen food...

Tie (Not with those wire ties, tie a knot in) the tops of the bags. (You
don't want to let any air in, or any water out, as undoubtably you will,
otherwise.)

Place on a tray or similar, and freeze.

If you just freeze the beans with airspace between them, water will be
removed from the beans during storage, turning them leathery. This
process isn't completely reversible.

(I learnt this on a fish-handling course at Torry Research Station - you
get 'freezer-burn' on the surface of the fish. This is as bad for beans
as it is for benito.)

Naturally, you don't waste the water when you defrost - use it to finish
cooking the beans (except in stir-fry!) and then ase it to make the
gravy.

ALL my vegetables are frozen in this manner.

TAAAW, when doing herbs, I chop them and freeze them with water in an
ice-cube tray, or better, if I can get the gunge in, in ice-lump bags.

--
Rusty
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