The Damsel doesn’t understand why, but the people at her cottage are pickled-beet crazy. Big, little, young, old, they all love them. What can this mean?
The only thing the Damsel likes about beets is that they are sort of purple. Even so, she pickles the little devils for the rest of the weirdos in the family.
It’s pretty easy. Starting from scratch, by which she means beets that have been freshly pulled out of the garden, you wash them, hack off the tops leaving a couple of inches, and leave the root intact. If the beets are young, save the greens for eating…just steam them like spinach. The Damsel likes to use little beets–golf ball size or so–but you can cut large ones into quarters if you need to. (If you use canned beets, skip to the part about making a vinegar-spice mixture)
Put the beets in a pot with a bunch of water. Pour in a glug of vinegar (it’s said it preserves their color) and cook for about 30 minutes, until fork tender.
Now trim off both the stem end and root end, and sort of rub the thing between your fingers under running water. The skin should slip off. Purple beet liquid will abound. Don’t get it on your new shirt from American Eagle. People actually use beet as a natural dye, so it’s tricky to get out. (Bleach works.)
For about 3 quarts of beets, measure 3 1/2 cups of vinegar into a pot. (Same pot as before if you want–just rinse it out) You can half or double the recipe if you need. And no, it’s not necessary to have tortilla strips right there handy but sometimes it helps.
Throw in two cinnamon sticks, feeling fancy and gourmet as you do so.
And a tablespoon of whole allspice. The Damsel has used powdered allspice, but the fancy-gourmet feeling was significantly less. Now 2 cups sugar, 2 teaspoons salt, 1 1/2 cups water and oh, yeah, the beets. Let simmer for 5 minutes or so.
Scoop the beets into a container such as a canning jar. If you have large pieces, put them in first, then fill in with smaller ones, so more will fit.
Pour in the vinegar-spice cooking liquid until the beets are submerged. You can throw away the cinnamon sticks, but the whole allspice can go right in with the beets. Fancy! Cover and wait a day or so before eating. Keep them in the fridge unless you want to process them in a canner by waterbathing for 30 minutes.
This is a very cool two-quart canning jar, like you don’t see around much anymore. The Damsel loves this jar, even if it has pickled beets in it.
For some reason, the Knight in Shining Armor must have a bite of pickled beet along with every bite of pork. He thinks he got hooked on this habit in Denmark when he was a missionary there. But how does that explain the sprogs liking them too? The Damsel feels so alone.
