Pickled beets

This year we dicided to try a new variety of beets. They are supposed to be striped like a peppermint candy. They turned out to be really pretty.

Unfortunately they don’t look quite as good pickled as the good old dark red ones. But, they taste just as good. Maybe even better. It’s hard for me to compare because the last time we grew beets I was expecting our second baby and I was a bit nauseous when I was doing the pickled beets. I had to fight to overcome my association with morning sickness and beets. I have been dragging my feet a bit actually. This time around Tyler picked and washed them outside. Then he also cooked them outside which was amazing! First off, my house didn’t end up smelling like beets, and second off, it didn’t heat up the house.

Pickling beets isn’t too difficult. It is similar to my sweet and spicy pickles that I posted about a few weeks ago. Check out the post here. The brine is just a little different, not so sweet. And the only spice we put in was cloves.

Here is the break down:

Prepare beets

• Pick or buy beets. For 7 pint sized jars we picked around 10 beets, about the size of a tennis ball, some a bit smaller.
• Cut greens off, leaving about two inches of the stem (this will reduce the amount of color bleeding out into the water)
• Scrub to clean off all the dirt
• Boil beets in water 20-30 minutes, until they are soft and can be easily pierced with a fork.
• Cool or rinse in ice bath until they are cool enough to handle.

Prepare jars

• Wash and sterilize Jars. Wash lids and rings
• Prepare brine (see recipe below)

Cut beets

• Once beets are cool enough to handle remove both ends and the skins.
  • You can usually just rub the skins off at this point. Just a warning though, if you have the regular red variety, you may want to wear gloves to avoid staining your hands.
• Slice or dice.
  • The last time I made pickled beets I cut them in really big chunks and it made it really difficult to eat on salads. So this time I diced them pretty small. Just cut them the way you will want to eat them.
• Pack diced beets into jars.

• add cloves to jars
• Pour hot brine over top of diced beets
• Clean rims, put on lids and rings
• Process according to manufactures directions

Brine Recipe:

I used the recipe from Allrecipes.com. You can click the link for their full directions.

• 2 cups water (you can use some of the water from boiling the beets)
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 Tbl. pickling salt
• 1 quart (4 cups) white vinegar
• cloves (6 or 7 per jar or more if you like more)
  • The original recipe said to put the cloves in the brine but I prefer to just put them into each jar because it is easier to distribute them evenly that way.

Combine water, sugar, salt and vinegar in a large pot and bring to a boil. Dissolve sugar and salt completely before pouring into packed jars. Then you whip the rims, put lids and rings on and process according to the manufactures directions of your water bath or steam caner. I use a steam caner. You can also store them in your fridge for a few weeks if you don’t want to process them.

That’s it! Pretty simple right? Now give them a few days before you open them up and enjoy them.

We ended up opening a jar about two weeks after we canned them because we were having people over and wanted to dress up our salad bar. They were a major hit. They were tangy and vinegary with the nice deep flavor of the beets themselves coming through. I liked the hint of cloves in it but I was glad that I hadn’t added more. Let me know how yours turn out.