The Infamous Pickled Beet

Since this blog's origin as "The Pickled Beet", I have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the beet crop, followed by the pickling of that crop. Luckily, its been a great year for beets in my garden. In my haste, I rushed out and pulled them all up in one day, and called my mom. Help!!!

My love for pickled beets can be attributed to my grandma. Oh yes, I do like beets in all sorts of different preparations, even just freshly cooked with a tab of butter, salt and pepper. However, my heart belongs to the pickled variety. When Easter rolls around, pickled beets and eggs are a requirement in my book. Grandma and I used to make them together, with her telling me what to add in between lots of story telling and laughing, tasting and adjusting our handiwork, and then sitting down to enjoy them at the table. Not everyone in the family agreed with our refined tastes, but mom, grandma and I loved them.

Her method involved canned beets. She used their juice to form the base of our pickling liquid, which was a pretty straight up concoction of sugar, vinegar and the canned beet juice. She always said to add the eggs just a few hours before serving. "Otherwise, they get like rubber", she would explain.

I love them her way, really I do. But, one day at the now defunct Ye Olde Silver Fox restaurant, I was served their homemade pickled beets on my salad. They were good. Really good. Sweet and tart, yes, but also hints of spice. So, I have set out to improve on grandma's recipe. This year, I started with fresh garden beets, roasted in their skins. Then a brine, bringing together not just sugar and vinegar, but herbs and spices, and a touch of lemon. Yes, I'm changing her recipe. But I really don't think she'd mind. She was always up for new things, and her spirit of adventure lives on in all of us.

I wish grandma were here to share in the bounty this year. My mom and I spent 2 fun days on the this batch. The first day picking, washing, trimming, and roasting the beets, then mixing up the brine. Day two was devoted to canning. All told, we ended up with 12 pint jars of pickled beets, to open up slowly through the winter. We will save a precious few jars for around Easter time, when memories of times with grandma will be shared as we sit down together and dig in.

Grandma's Slightly Modified Pickled Beets

10-12 medium sized beets

2 cups water

2 cups sugar

2 cups vinegar

1 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp cinnamon

Bay Leaf

Lemon Peel strips from 1/2 of Lemon

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1. Place clean beets in baking pan, covered with foil. Bake at 375, for at least an hour, until beets are fork tender.

2. Mix together remaining ingredients in saucepan. Bring to boil. Allow to boil for 15 minutes.

3. Once beets have cooled enough to handle, peel. Cut into slices or cubes and pack into clean and sterile canning jars.

4. Ladle in hot pickling juice. Leave 1/4" of head space. Seal.

5. Place in boiling water bath for 30 minutes.