Making Beets Better

A ruby root becomes a lip-puckering treat with the addition of vinegar, sugar, salt, and some time in the water-bath canner.

Active time: two-and-a-half hours, but with an hour free while beets cook.

 "What is that?" my husband asked years ago, looking at the quart jar of magenta eggs I took out of the fridge like a prize.

"Pickled eggs and beets," was my matter-of-fact answer, as if to say, doesn't everyone eat these?

I should have known - four years of college away from my predominantly German part of Pennsylvania had taught me that no, everyone does not eat these. Or many of the other quirky, Pennsylvania Dutch foods I grew up with.

Count my New York City-raised husband among them. Already not a fan of beets, he thinks anything pickled is not worth eating. (I've never figured out how someone raised in a city of delis does not like dill pickles, but I've resigned to it.) 

Just as he's resigned to the recurring jar of hard-boiled eggs and beets hanging out in a purplely brine in the fridge during the summer, because pickled beets are truly a thing worth eating, despite what my husband says.

And so, in the summer, when the beets are bursting out of their row in my garden, I put up about a dozen pint jars to keep me going through the winter as well. You may be able to take the Dutchie out of Pennsylvania, but she'll always come back for the food. Her husband will just come along for the ride.

The process

Yet unable to bring myself to pressure canning, in which you can process low-acid foods like beets and many other veggies, but during which process you can (I irrationally believe) also risk blowing up your kitchen, I stick to the water-bath canning method outlined in the jam post. To do that with most veggies, you also need to pickle them, adding enough vinegar to stave off bacteria growth during the long winter months on the shelves. Happily, adding vinegar to beets turns them into what I'm after in the long run anyway.

Beets will be plentiful at the markets from now until well past the first frosts, so no rush to pick some up. But when you do, buy a couple of bunches - a six-quart pot of whole beets will yield about seven pints of quartered beets in brine. Any type will do - most people grow the traditional red type, which makes for a darker brine, but I think these golden beets have a better flavor. 

Cook the beets for about an hour, then cut the tops off and rub off the skins. Save the water from the cooking pot. Quarter or slice them into sterilized jars, filling them to within a quarter-inch of the top.

Bring two cups of the beet water, two cups of sugar, a quart of cider vinegar and two teaspoons of salt to a boil. Cover the beets with the brine, leaving a quarter-inch headspace in the jars.

Here's where the process slightly deviates from jam: any time you have veggies or fruit floating in a brine or syrup, you should tap out any trapped air bubbles in the jars before cleaning the rims and capping them. I use the plastic "bubble remover" that comes with the Ball utensil kit on the company's Web site, but any rubber kitchen spatula will do. Just run it down the side of the jar, tapping out any trapped air as you go. 

Process the cleaned and capped jars in a hot-water bath for 30 minutes.

Enjoy them all winter cold on salads, warm next to roast meats, or room temperature straight out of the jar. But let them bathe in the vinegar for at least two weeks before opening them. Until then, I'll be waiting with my fork.