PICKLED BEETS CANNING

 I was asked for this recipe, so decided to upload it to the files.

Beet Pickles

Ingredients:

Fresh beets

Vinegar Syrup:

3 cups water

3 cups vinegar (your choice – white or apple cider)

3 cups sugar

Aromatics:

Pickling spice

Whole allspice

Whole cloves 2

Cinnamon sticks 1

Directions:

1. Cut the tops off the beets, leaving about 2” of stem attached. Cut the long trailers of roots but leave about an inch. Scrub well. Place in a large pot and cover with water.

2. Boil until just fork tender. Drain. Cover with cold water, drain again. Let stand until cooled.

3. Using disposable gloves, slip the skins off the beets and cut into desired size pieces or slices.

4. Fill the jars to 1” headspace with beet pieces.

5. Add ½ tsp (pints) or 1 tsp (quarts) of your aromatic of choice to each jar.

Prepare the vinegar syrup:

6.  Add all ingredients to a large pot and bring to the boil. Boil several minutes and let stand. I strain off the aromatics because they get funky over long time storage. 

7. Fill the jars to 1” headspace with the boiling syrup.

8. Wipe the rims, add lids, and screw the rings down finger tight.

9. Process pints for 10 minutes, quarts for 15 minutes, in a water bath canner.

10. Make more vinegar syrup as needed – this amount does about 7 – 9 pint jars, depending on how tightly packed they are.