How to Cook Southern Country Style Green Beans

Southern Country Style Green Beans

2 - 50 ounce cans green beans
bacon grease
2 cups chopped onion
salt and pepper

In a large pan bring green beans, the liquid in the cans, and two large spoons of bacon grease to a rolling boil. Salt and pepper the beans. Reduce heat to medium-low so that the green beans are just at a simmer. Allow the beans to cook for one hour.

Add the chopped onion and gently fold the onion into the green beans. Add a few more shakes of salt and pepper. Allow the beans to cook for another one to two hours, checking them approximately every 30 minutes.  Once the liquid has almost completely evaporated, and the beans are starting to look shriveled, remove from the heat and either serve immediately or allow to cool and refrigerate for use later. 

[suzanneleonard]

I cook mine the same way, but near the end of cooking time, I cut up a couple of red potatoes and lay on top of the beans to steam. A meal in itself.

[randafuller]

I watched your video @ 1 a.m. I got so hungry for green beans, I had to fight myself to not go into the kitchen and start cooking green beans in the middle of the night!! BUT, guess what I had for dinner tonight, meatloaf and GREEN BEANS Tom"s style!! Yummy. Now my tummy is happy! They were good!! Thanks Tom!!

[Bev-Anne]

I am from South Africa and the Afrikaans population of our country makes beans the same way but they also add potatoes, cubed. They break down and add a lovely flavor. Thank you this was great!

[lindagiorgio]

I am a true southern girl and married a man from Phoenix. He had never had southern green beans before but once he did he never wanted them the way his family had always made them. The southern way is better.

[mddell]

I love eating green beans with a big cast iron skillet full of yellow cornbread! 😋

[chrism]

"Cook once - Eat twice" - Amen!!

[alicesmith]

I love me some fresh picked green beans, freshly dug new potatoes, sliced onion and added to some simmering fall off the bone Ham hock. YUM.

[marthapullen]

I am 76 years old and was raised up on bacon grease and ham in my green beans learned from my childhood and my grandparents lived to be in their upper 90's

[camrobn]

I so enjoy your calm demeanor whilst cooking. I rush around like a basket case.

[c.l.j.jardell]

That. And. Cornbread. With. Tea ! All I need.

[lizsmith]

I cook my beans pretty much the same way, low and slow with onions and bacon grease, except I use Allen’s Kentucky Wonder beans. Daddy grew them for a while but I think he switched to Missouri Wonder. He also grew Blue Lake, which he preferred. He always joked that I liked the flat beans better because they didn’t have strings that I had to pull. 😂 I think I just like the green part better than the bean part.
Something I learned from several southern cooking vlogs (Farming Pastor’s Wife, Collard Valley Cooks, Mandy in the Making) is to add a pinch of sugar for each can of beans. Not so much that you taste it, but it just adds a little something extra. I can’t figure out why, but they are better with than without it.

[thomastommy]

Another great video. I am an older man in my 60s. I am from the South near KY. But my parents moved our family North back in the 60s. I was 8 years old. My parents use to make this recipe with home cook fresh from the garden green beans with new potatoes always and fat back bacon. My parents both passed away when I was in my teens and early 20s and I never got these Southern recipes. I have cooked many times this recipe with new potatoes & fatback. But I tried this recipe a week ago with frozen green beans in the slow cooker. It turned out fairly good but it did not taste like it should. I can't wait to try this. ( My wife is a Northern woman so I have to pick & chose my Southern dishes, lol.) Tom, Have you ever heard of Tomato Dumplings? My dad use to cook them when I was a kid. I loved them but I have never met anyone that knows how to cook them. My niece could but sadly she passed away several years ago before I got the recipe. Please do a video on Tomato Dumplings. Thumbs up on your videos. I will look for more of your videos. Stay well & safe.

[mskay]

Great video!
These beans look delicious, but I have never cooked beans for 3 1/2 hours. My mother-in-law was the best cook in our county. She always told me the less water on your beans the better. She would cook fresh green beans from the garden she would snap them, wash them, and put them in a pan with no water at all. ( I always put a little water in mine) She always put two or three pieces of bacon in her pan and an onion and cook that together, and rendered out the bacon grease. Throw the beans in the pan, salt and pepper and Put a lid on them and cook them on medium until simmering, and then turn them down to low for about an hour and half or so. Believe it or not as the beans cooked they made their own liquid from the steam. (Stirring carefully) Best green beans you ever eat in your life. She is long gone now, but I still remember her wonderful food and I have to say I can cook a lot of her recipes, probably not quite as good as hers but close. As for canned green beans I always drain one can and leave the liquid on the other, three pieces of bacon in a pan and onion fry the bacon with the onion until the bacon grease is rendered, put green beans in a pan along with a little salt and pepper, there again cook them on medium until they start to simmer and then turn them on low and cook them for an hour or so. Just my version of how to cook green beans.

[wilkiewilkie]

I cook mine in chicken broth with bacon grease & onions ! Delicious ❤

[terifarmer]

green beans


Fresh Green beans, onions, salt and pepper, bacon, bacon grease & potatoes. this is how we do in Eastern Kentucky, yum.! Thank y'all!

[julierobertson]

My sister-in-law used to make these beans and I loved them. I thought i had learned to make them by watching her, but mine always ended up the consistency of baby food. Because i was STIRRING them. Thanks for revealing that crucial element of the recipe.

[danalevine]

I’m from Illinois and we love our green beans. We chop up bacon and fry it and then put the cooked bacon and grease in the beans along with a stick of butter too. And yes, we spend hours cooking them also. I guess I’m making green beans tomorrow!

[annmurphy]

My husband and I need to cook our green beans with only a little fat. To give my beans the smoky flavor of my childhood, I discovered I could add a few slices of Canadian bacon and let that cook down with the beans. That gives me smoky flavor without lots of fat.

[mscherylee]

I just came across your channel. My Grandmother was from northern Kentucky and she always used a couple of slices of salt pork and if not available then she used the bacon and grease. Of course my mom did the same. But the cooking method was the same.
Often they added potatoes and made non-sweet cornbread (ina big iron skillet) with butter and with a slice of tomato on the side. Those were delicious meals and filling too.
Thanks for your channel.

[lydianewman]

These beans have me salivating. I want to thank you both for inviting me into your kitchen and making me feel at home! Can't wait to make this recipe ❤