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Leather Britches

Note: This is a weeks long process, but creates a very unique green bean dish with lots of umami. Worth trying at least once!


Traditionally uses greasy green beans, not the kind that are fuzzy on the outside. But I've used fuzzy, haricot vert, and whatever variety 365 trimmed green beans are, and they were all fine to me.


Name comes from the way the beans look after they've dried. They sort of fold in half around the string as they loose their moisture, and turn brown.


Ingredients:


1lb Green Beans

1lb Salt Pork or Bacon

1qt No Sodium Added Chicken Stock


To Taste:

Salt Black Pepper

(Lemon Juice)


Directions:

Wash green beans and trim off ends


Sting the beans with a needle and thread. Keep the string short for it to be more manageable and to keep the stings from getting too heavy.


Leave beans to dry for a few weeks in a place with good airflow. Check every few days to discard any that might be growing mold, which shouldn't be an issue if the beans are fresh.


Once completely dried, beans can be removed from strings and stored in a container till you're ready to use.


When ready to cook: rinse beans in a colander to remove any dust that may have settled on the beans while drying.


Cube the salt pork.


In a heavy bottomed pot, cook the salt pork until it has rendered out some fat.


Add the beans and stock to the pot and cook by boiling for about 3 hours or till the beans just start to breakdown. Add more water as needed to keep from boiling down completely.


Season with salt (highly doubt you'll need if using salt pork) and pepper.



Final Notes:


I wrote "lemon juice" and that's it. I'm guessing it needed some acidity to help brighten up all the savoriness.


Personally, well worth the work of stringing and the few weeks of drying.





leather britches
Dried green beans before being cooked

strung green beans
Newly strung, fresh beans

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