My Grandma’s Recipe For Canning Red Beets
September 3, 2008 by Linette Gerlach
Filed under Canning and Freezing, Preserving the Harvest
My grandparents had a huge garden when I was growing up. My grandpa took me for a walk through the garden to show off his prize winning produce. When I got older he still took me for a walk through the garden to give me all the produce I could carry in my arms (or everything he could talk me into taking). They grew a garden large enough to feed the whole neighborhood.
My grandma used to can everything. One of my favorite things was the pickled red beets. I still love to grow beets every summer, just so I can can a few for red beets and pickled eggs during the fall and winter.
Here’s my grandma’s recipe:
Wash your red beats, and trim the tops leaving about 2″ of top and root on the beet. Cook the red beets in a large pot for about 25 minutes, dunk them in cold water to cool them off after cooking. Remove the skin, it should peel off easily, if not cook them a little longer. Cut up the red beets and put them into the canning jars, leaving about an inch at the top of the jar empty.
The recipe below is for 1 quart jar of beets. Multiply it by however many jars of beets you have.
1 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup of water
a dash of salt
1 1/2 cup of sugar
For the whole batch (up to 6 quarts):
2-3 cinnamon sticks
1 teaspoon of allspice
6 cloves
Mix all the ingredients above together and bring to a boil. Pour the mixture over the sliced beets in the jars. and process at a boil for 30 minutes in a hot water bath. Check the cans after they have cooled to be sure they’re all sealed. Put any unsealed containers in the fridge and use within a couple days.
Image via Stock.xchng
I looove pickled beets but have never tried to make them myself. Thanks for the recipe and all the tips!
Thanks for the memories, Linette. My grandparents had a vegetable garden behind their home, but many, many flowers in gardens in their front yard. My mom canned pickled beets and plain beets. I loved them until I got sick eating raw beets from the garden. (Thought I could chomp on them like carrots.) I got very sick and have never wanted a beet since!