German Green Beans
My German grandmother made them … and my mom made them … and I can’t even remember when I first ate these German Inspired French green beans. Yep, you read that right! They’re multi-cultural! Honestly, I’m not entirely sure if a can of “French Green Beans” is really the long thin variety or our American snap beans cut to look like it. Either way, I always use the French cut style in this recipe. It makes for a creamier texture.
This is my all-time favorite way to eat green beans. Love doesn’t even begin to explain my relationship with these beans. I think it’s the combination of sugar and vinegar … and bacon grease! I like serving these with a thickened sauce … it makes the vinegar and sugar combination stick to the beans better.
This is a pretty common side dish, especially at potlucks! It’s super easy and everyone makes it a little different. I’ve had cold versions of this, usually with other veggies mixed in (corn, pimento, peppers, raw onions). As with any ancestral recipe, ingredients change as food availability changes. I suspect this dish is a remnant of the German Bohnensalat (bean salad) that is made in the same manner, but served slightly warmed. If you look through old community and church cookbooks from the mid-1900s, especially from the Midwestern German settlements, you’ll see many varieties of this same dish.
German Green Beans
This is a quick and easy alternative to using fresh beans.
- 6 slices bacon
- 3 15 oz cans French cut green beans (juice reserved)
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 tablespoon corn starch
- Fry bacon in stock pot until crisp. Remove and crumble.
- Pour drained green beans into stock pot on top of bacon grease and heat through.
- Mix vinegar and sugar and pour into beans, stir until incorporated.
- Make a slurry by mixing 1/4 cup reserved juice from green beans with the cornstarch. Pour into beans, stir until incorporated.
- Bring to a boil to allow liquid to thicken.
- Serve in large serving bowl topped with bacon crumbles
You can add a small diced onion to the bacon grease to saute before adding the beans. This will give a little more spice to the dish.
I was looking for my Grandmothers German yellow bean salad, and have not found it. IT HAS FRENCH CUT YELLOW BEANS STEAMED AND HEN DRESSED WITH WITH BACON BITS, GREEN ONION AND VINEGAR AND CREAM. SERVED HOT. It is my favorite salad and I would plant a garden every year just to have the yellow beans and green onions. It keeps really well if you make a lot. I could eat this by the ton. No yellow beans in the winter sadly.
That sounds amazing! I hope you’re able to find a similar recipe.
My family makes a similar dish we call Green Bean Gravy. We use some of the more mature almost too old beans that we grow in our garden. We cut them down the line on the bean and that makes it a French cut. To preserve them for winter we first blanche them in boiling water for 2 or 3 minutes then put them in good quality baggies and cover with the water you use to blanche them then add a little more water to fill baggies and freeze. They keep very well this way and then we cook until tender then add the cooked bacon and onion with some of the bacon fat for flavor. Then thicken with corn startch. We spoon this over mashed potatoes or Baked Potatoes and oh my it is good. You will never forget it. I am sure you could make it with yellow green beans and freeze them.
I was just trying to make sure that the salad my German grandmother made was originally a German recipe. I have shared it with all my family and they love it as well. Thanks for your reply. Jan A.
My family makes a similar dish we call Green Bean Gravy. We use some of the more mature almost too old beans that we grow in our garden. We cut them down the line on the bean and that makes it a French cut. To preserve them for winter we first blanche them in boiling water for 2 or 3 minutes then put them in good quality baggies and cover with the water you use to blanche them then add a little more water to fill baggies and freeze. They keep very well this way and then we cook until tender then add the cooked bacon and onion with some of the bacon fat for flavor. Then thicken with corn startch. We spoon this over mashed potatoes or Baked Potatoes and oh my it is good. You will never forget it. I am sure you could make it with yellow green beans and freeze them.
Hi Bonnie! Thanks for sharing your green bean gravy recipe. I’ll have to try it!