Beats!

[mrmike]

Pickling some beats today! Also making some chickpea snacks for the kiddos.

[cajunlady87]

I just love beets, especially a beet salad. Slice beets, then slice those into strips, add red onions, strips of carrots and sprinkle red wine vinegar and a dash of salt and pepper. Yummy! Great job on the pickling.

[solargeek1]

I have now roasted over 20 lbs of beets and frozen them and pickled some. My family could eat them everyday! Can't wait to grow some next year.
Would love to hear your recipe for pickling.

[mrmike]

I got this recipe from my step mom, who in turn got it from her mom, who most likely got it from her mom. My dad and step mom are living on the 50 acre homestead that has been in the family for nearly 200 years. This recipe is similar to the one in the Ball Blue Book with some changes which I will explain at the end.

Pickled Beats - Mama's

Cook 4 quarts beats until tender
3 C cider vinegar
2 C water
2 1/2 C sugar
2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1 tsp salt

Combine all ingredients. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes longer. Pack into hot jars

The recipe kind of assumes that you have been part of this process in mom's kitchen once before so it leaves out some subtleties. So welcome to the kitchen. Grab a cup of coffee if its morning, or a whiskey if its afternoon. Make sure your laughing at something (there is always laughter in the kitchen). Wear a shirt you don't mind getting beat juice on and wipe up spills pretty quick, beat juice stains.

What the recipe doesn't explain:
We scrub the beats, then trim the root and top. Then boil the beats till tender and skin them (just rub the skin off with your fingers once cool enough to handle. Cut the beats into bite size pieces. Bring all but the beats to a boil then add the beats, bring to a boil again and simmer as the recipe states (5 minutes).
We don't water bath these. They get packed into very hot sterile jars and sealed. Lids always pop, never had an issue. The recipe in the "Ball Blue Book" says to water bath for 30 minutes for pints and quarts. You need to make a health/safety call here. When we can our kitchen is very clean. I have been eating these beats for 30 years and my step moms family for much longer than that and have had no issues. The safest way to do it is to water bath them, though we don't.

[cajunlady87]

It might be a pain but adding this to the recipes section would make it much easier to find later when someone is looking for it.

[mrmike]

Sept 15, 2013 8:05:44 GMT -7 cajunlady87 said:

It might be a pain but adding this to the recipes section would make it much easier to find later when someone is looking for it.

Done!