pickled beets

[KierBri]

does anyone have a recipe for pickled beets?
thanks

 

[patandchickens]

My mother is Pennsylvania Dutch and I was raised with a big ol' jar of pickled beets always in the fridge. Mmmmm I love pickled beets I have never made them myself, can you believe it? I don't know why. Mine would never turn out as good as mom's of course. But her recipe is basically:


cook your beets. slice them. also slice up some onion if you want.

mix up pickling solution: roughly equal parts cider vinegar and water (you can use more or less vinegar according to taste, or some white vinegar), plus almost as much sugar as you used vinegar, plus a couple of bay leaves and some whole cloves.

put beet (and onion) slices into pickling solution; do it while beets are hot if you've cooked 'em up specifically for pickled beets, but if they are left over from a meal you had, rinse off any butter etc and just put them in cold, they'll be fine.

put in large clean jar at back of fridge for AT LEAST one week. More is better. Then you can start eating them.

when you eat all the beets and onions out of the jar, you can put new beets into the old pickling juice if you want. Mom swears it tastes better after going thru a few cycles this way. But then, she makes hers pretty heavy on the vinegar which improves the food-safety aspect Eventually you do need to start a new batch, or at least pour out some of the old juice and put in some fresh vinegar and spices.

Not a very specific recipe, but it's all I've ever been able to extract from mom

Have fun,


Pat, mouth watering, seriously thinking I should see if there are still any beets in the stores (or get a can) and actually make some myself after all these years...

 

[KierBri]

thanks, that sounds a lot simpler then i was thinking now if my beets would only sprout.......

 

[patandchickens]

Yes, I definitely would wait at least til the beet seeds sprout to pickle them LOL



Pat, where temperatures have returned to a more seasonal level after the last couple weeks of Summer, and totally understanding wistful impatience for produce

 

[Grow 4 Food]

look in the blue ball canning book it has the recipe that I use and is by far the best one IMO.

If you have a hard time getting them to sprout it might be because the ground it to hard for them to come out. If so water the row like you usually would and then place a board (I use strips of plywood that I got from the trash pile at a construction site) on top of the row. You will need to check everyday to make sure you see them come up. When you see the sprouts come through the soil you can then remove the boards and let them grow. This also works for leafy veggies like lettuce and spinach that don't have a good "push through" strength on the dirt.

Good Luck!

 

[Rosalind]

Pat, you forgot the important part:

After you've gone a couple rounds of pickled beets in the jar, and you're down to about 1/3 full of the second batch, hard-boil as many eggs as will fit in the jar with the remaining beets, peel the eggs and throw 'em in, then top up with the vinegar-sugar-water mix. Let soak for, oh, a week or two, so the red goes all the way to the yolk.

 

[KierBri]

look in the blue ball canning book it has the recipe that I use and is by far the best one IMO.

ooh, i bought that last fall............now where did i put it..................

 

[KierBri]

If you have a hard time getting them to sprout it might be because the ground it to hard for them to come out. If so water the row like you usually would and then place a board (I use strips of plywood that I got from the trash pile at a construction site) on top of the row. You will need to check everyday to make sure you see them come up. When you see the sprouts come through the soil you can then remove the boards and let them grow. This also works for leafy veggies like lettuce and spinach that don't have a good "push through" strength on the dirt.

Good Luck!

i've got a lot of leaf mold and compost, the soil's pretty good, but i'll try that with a new pack today. it's been three weeks and not one sprouted, though my radishes came up.
i have a really hard time with anything underground (makes me rethink the taters i just planted lol) garlic and carrots are two more on my "gonna make em grow this year list".
even when i can get them to sprout they never seem to get to eating size.

 

[Tutter]

Pat, hi there!

I can't believe that you just posted my grandmother, and mother's, and my, exact pickled beet recipe! Goodness I love those things!

One thing I just did for the first time around Christmas, was to add about 6 pieces of dried ginger to my batch, and it was wonderful. It didn't taste "gingery", the flavor was subtle, but very good.

This is not candied ginger. I got it from my natural food co-op, in a bulk section, and they are pea sized or smaller, and quite hard.

I think it's time to make a batch of pickled beets now!

 

[SJ1]

I use cooked, sliced beets. Put them in a sterile jar. Fill to brim with white vinegar and distilled water. I use two-thirds vinegar and one-third water. You can make the proportions however you like. I add a pinch of sea salt and a pinch of stevia. Just wait for the jars to cool, and put them in the fridge. By the next day, they'll be edible. But, a few days will improve the flavor.

Alter the ingredients with spices or more sweetener to taste.

My mother uses the "boil on the stove" method and lots of sugar. She likes the ones with cloves, too.

I've pickled lots of veggies using the "cold" method. I like it and it's a lot less work.