Best Pickled Beets to Make Yourself

Making your own homemade pickled beets is easier than you think, and really rewarding. Not only that, but your homemade pickled beets will outshine anything you can get off the store shelves. Once you try your own, you may never want store bought again! There are just a few kitchen tools you will need, so let's cover that first.

Most implements you will find in your kitchen already. Pots and pans, ladles and mixing cups are things most modestly equipped kitchens already have on hand, but there are a few specialty tools you will want to have at the ready. A large canning pot is needed. You will want one with a minimum 21-quart liquid capacity, and a canning rack to fit inside. There are many quality canner sets online and they are also available in most "box stores". As a matter of fact, there are some great deals out there for an entire canning kit, which would include all of the tools you need for home canning.

You will also need a jar lifter which is basically a pincher used to lift jars from the hot water bath you will be giving to your pickled beets. You will also need a canning jar funnel. The funnel is used to keep the mouth of the Mason jar clean and dry, critical to hermetically sealing the jar during the canning process.

Buy a dozen or two Mason jars and you're ready to start looking for your ingredients! By the way, the jars can also be purchased at large grocers, kitchen equipment stores and the box stores. The rings and jars are reusable, of course, but the lids are only good for one canning.

Before you begin cooking your pickled beets, sanitize the jars and rings, either in a dishwasher with a sanitize cycle or by boiling them for at least 5 minutes. You also need to warm the lids in an almost boiling bath for 5 minutes.

Now for the ingredients.

Remember, the better the ingredients you use, the better final result you will have! As much as possible, try to get beets that are of a uniform size, approximately 2-2.5 inches around. It will standardize their cooking time. Roughly, 1 pound of beets will yield one pint of pickled beets.

A note here: Since you are going to devote the time to "put up" some pickled beets anyway, the time commitment needed for making 8 pints of pickled beets is not very different to the time spent making 24 pints, so while you're doing it, you may want to go ahead and make a couple dozen jars. Just remember to adjust the ingredients accordingly. For the purpose of this recipe, we'll use the 8-pint yield, so 8 pounds of beets.

Beets! You want to get the freshest, nicest beets you can find. Do not use beets that are getting soft. They are old and will not yield good results. Your beets should be clean, firm, and fresh. If you have your own garden, all the better. If you don't, why not try your local farmer's market or co-op? If you're going to get them from a grocery store, why not try to buy locally grown beets or even organic? Thoroughly wash and pat dry. Trim the stems down to about half an inch. This keeps out the bitterness of the stem, but doesn't allow the beet to bleed as it cooking.

Cook the beets in boiling water. At the boil, add your beets and cook them until they are tender, about half an hour. Drain and cool. When the beets have cooled, trim the stem and root and skin the beets. The skin should slip off easily. Cut the cooked beets in quarter inch slices.

Pickling Broth

4 cups of vinegar (5%)
1 tsp pickling salt
2 cups sugar
2 cups water
Spice sachet (optional)

Combine the above in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and bring to the boil. If you choose to include spices, try whole cloves, cinnamon sticks, and whole cardamom and/or allspice. Wrap the spices in cheesecloth, as you will be discarding them. No cheesecloth? Try a coffee filter!

Once the broth is boiling add the sliced beets. If desired, you can also add thinly sliced onions, but this is optional. Simmer the beets for five minutes, then drain, reserving the vinegar broth. Discard the spice sachet.

Pack the pickled beets into the pint jars, using your jar funnel and the back of a wooden ladle to firmly pack the beets. Carefully cover the beets with the vinegar broth, filling the jars to half an inch from the top. That headspace is needed for expansion during the actual canning procedure.

Now you will place the dried lids on the jars and secure them with the jar rings. You want to firmly screw them tight, but you're not trying to win a strength contest here. Be careful because the jars are going to be hot from the beets! Now you're ready to put the sealed jars in your hot water canning bath!

This is the actual "canning" part of the process and you're almost done. Congratulate yourself and remember, your grandmother would be proud!

Using your jar grabber, carefully lower each jar into the boiling water bath into which you have placed the canning rack. You want to situate the jars so that each one has space between the next, with at least one inch of water covering the jars. As you can see, this allows the boiling water to circulate all around each jar. Allow the jars to remain in the boiling water for 30 minutes. Now, if you reside at an altitude higher than 1000 feet, you will have to allow more time in the boil. Anything over 1000 feet, add 5 minutes to the boiling time, anything over 3000 add 10 minutes, and anything over 6000 feet, add 15 minutes.

When you have boiled the jars for the correct time, again use your grabber to remove each jar to a cooling area. A cutting board or even a towel spread on the kitchen table will work, but be sure to keep jars out of drafts and direct sunlight. Once they've cooled, test each jar by lightly pushing down on the center of the lid. There shouldn't be any give. If the lid makes a noise or pushes in and pops back up, don't store them, put them in the refrigerator and eat them. Store your pickled beets in a dry cool location. They will keep easily for about a year, but I suspect they won't last that long! Again, congratulate yourself. You have just canned your first pickled beets!

http://www.healthdiaries.com/eatthis/25-facts-about-beets.html

http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can_06/pickled_beets.html

http://www.pickyourown.org/pickledbeets.htm