Recipe: pickled beet(root)

Mirrored from The OEconomist. You can comment there or here.

Here’s my recipe for pickled beetroot/beets. In Australia we call it beetroot, and in the US they say beets, but it’s the same thing.

• 1 bunch beets (about 3 medium sized ones)
• about 750mL apple cider vinegar
• about 1/2 cup sugar
• a couple of teaspoons of salt
• 1 bay leaf, broken in half
• a few allspice berries

Peel and slice the beets. I like doing them in some shape other than round slices, perhaps wedges or matchsticks, just to make them different from the bought ones.

Throw everything in a pan of appropriate size. You want enough vinegar to just cover the beets. Apply heat. You can adjust the flavour of your pickle juice by tasting. I basically tend to taste it and go “yeah, that tastes like pickle juice” and maybe adjust if I feel the urge. It’s not an exact science.

Simmer the beets until they’re “al dente”. You want a fork to go into them but they shouldn’t be soggy.

Pour the results into clean jars. Seal and keep for a few weeks before opening. After opening, refrigerate.

A note for Americans in particular: YOU DO NOT NEED TO DO ALL THAT CANNING RIGMAROLE WITH THE HOT WATER. Americans have been brainwashed into thinking that they have to do this hot water thing with all kinds of preserves. This is untrue. You only need to do it for preserves which are not intensely a) sugary, b) vinegary, or c) salty. Any of those preserving agents will prevent bacteria from setting up shop in your preserves. You only need to use the heat-canning technique for things like Italian-style tomato sauce or plain canned veggies. For sugary/vinegary/salty stuff, all you need are clean jars (a run through the dishwasher or even just really hot tap water will suffice, or you can put them in an oven at around 100C for 10 mins or so while the preserves are on the stovetop) and a bit of common sense. A small number of your preserves will go manky, but you can usually spot it. If you have a jar that’s cloudy, furry, or unexpectedly green, then don’t eat it. My forebears and I, going back at least 500 years, have been doing likewise and we’ve made it this far. Australian and English cookery books also talk about preserves using the no-hot-water-bath technique, so it’s not just me.