I have never eaten pickled beets that I liked more than the ones my mom made. I do not think I am the only person who felt this way. I remember my mom’s friend getting very upset with her because her granddaughters refused to eat any of the pickled beets she made and would only eat my mom’s. In fact, they had told their grandmother that they liked my mom’s pickled beets more than hers.
While my mom always followed the same basic recipe, she would make adjustments depending on what type of spices she had. In her later years, she would not bother buying cinnamon sticks and used ground cinnamon instead. I remember her also using ground cloves once also because she did not have any whole. They were still good pickled beets.
Unlike her friend, my mom always canned her pickled beets, she never froze them. She thought that freezing them changed the texture and the flavor. My mom’s friend continued to freeze her beets and her granddaughters continued to refuse to eat them.
Mom’s Pickled Beets
Ingredients
- 10 lbs. beets, with 1″ + stems
- 2 c. sugar
- 2 c. water
- 2 c. vinegar
- 9″ cinnamon stick(s)
- 1 Tbsp. pickling spice mix
- 1 Tbsp. whole allspice
- 1 Tbsp. whole cloves
- 1 1/2 tsp. pickling/canning salt
Instructions
- Wash and scrub beets.
- Place beets in a large kettle and cover with water.
- Bring to a boil and cook until beets are tender, yet firm.
- Remove from heat and remove beets from cooking water.
- Cool beets with cold water.
- While beets are cooling, combine sugar, vinegar, water, and salt in a smaller pot. to make the pickling liquid.
- Place pickling spice mix, allspice, and cloves in a spice bag or layers of cheesecloth or muslin wrapped to make a spice bag.
- Add the spice bag and cinnamon stick(s) to the pickling liquid.
- Bring the liquid to a boil on high heat, reduce heat and simmer for at least 15 minutes.
- Remove stems/roots and peel beets when they are cool enough to handle. If beets are small, leave them whole. If beets are larger, cut them into cubes.
- Place beets into hot, sterilized jars filling the jar up to the neck.
- Ladle the hot pickling liquid into the jars over the beets.
- Leave 1/2″ headroom, but covering the beets.
- Clean rims of jars with a clean towel.
- Place a hot, sanitized lid on the top of the jar and secure it with a hand-tightened ring.
- Process in a water bath canner covering the jars with a couple of inches of water.
- Bring to a boil and process for the appropriate length of time as recommended by the USDA for your altitude, currently 5 to 15 minutes.
- After removing jars from the canner, monitor to make sure they seal but allow them to sit where you removed them to cool for at least 12 hours.
- Yield: about 6 pints
