No. 824

Marinated String Beans

Haricots Verts Marines

Blanch lightly a sufficient quantity of large string beans, drain, refresh, and set them in a stone crock, and pour over some boiling water and vinegar, mixed by halves, some salt, cloves, and tarragon leaves added; the next day drain off the vinegar, boil it once more, and pour it again over the beans, with some English mustard diluted in Chili vinegar: serve on side dishes with a little of the vinegar in which they have marinated.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A quick vinegar pickle in the French hors d'oeuvre style, meant to be eaten within a few days rather than stored. The hinge is the blanching: "lightly" means the beans must stay squeaky, since the hot vinegar poured over them twice will finish the cooking.

Blanch lightlyTwo to three minutes in heavily salted boiling water for large beans, then straight into ice water — that is what "refresh" means here. Anything longer and the twice-poured hot vinegar leaves you with olive-drab, floppy beans.
Stone crockA glazed stoneware crock or a glass jar or bowl. Avoid aluminium, cast iron or unlined copper, which react with the vinegar and give a metallic taste and grey beans.
The vinegar"Mixed by halves" is equal parts boiling water and vinegar. The recipe does not say which vinegar, so plain cider or white wine vinegar works; do not substitute a concentrated pickling vinegar without cutting it further.
Quantities, since none are givenFor about 1 lb of beans, figure 1 cup vinegar and 1 cup water, 2 teaspoons salt, 4 or 5 whole cloves and a small handful of tarragon leaves. Cloves are assertive — err low.
Chili vinegarA nineteenth-century staple made by steeping hot chilies in vinegar. A commercial pepper vinegar, or vinegar in which you have soaked a couple of dried chilies overnight, gives the same thing. English mustard is the hot yellow powder (Colman's), not prepared table mustard; a teaspoon slaked in a tablespoon of the chili vinegar is enough.
The second boilingThe recipe has you drain the vinegar, boil it again and pour it back hot, a step found in other period pickling instructions. Do it, but then chill the crock — the original assumed a cold larder, and these should live in the refrigerator, where they keep about a week.
ServingA pound of beans fills four to six small side dishes. Lift them out with a fork and spoon a little of the marinade over; they are best served cold but not straight from the refrigerator, which mutes the tarragon.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of some three decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its long run of cold side dishes reflects the French service of the period, in which small acid, salty plates were offered at the opening of a meal. Haricots verts — the slender green bean picked young and eaten pod and all — had become a French kitchen-garden fixture by the nineteenth century, and vinegar pickles of this kind were made domestically as well as in restaurant kitchens. What marks this as Delmonico's rather than a farmhouse crock is the finish: English mustard powder slaked in chili vinegar.