Easy Canned Pickled Beets

Have you ever canned before?

If not, have no fear! This easy canned pickled beets recipe is a simple and easy way to get started. You can also apply this method to other canning recipes.

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This is my third, and most successful season of growing beets. Beets are a cool weather root vegetable that seems to do really well for me early fall and all the way through spring. I do cover my garden beds in the coldest part of the winter. This year my beets made it all the way through the winter. I originally planted my seeds in a container and was only going to grow them there. I threw a pretty generous amount of seeds down, most of which took, and I hate to waste a good start by pulling and trashing it. So as I was thinning the container I decided to transplant all the others into my other garden boxes. And for the most part they all survived! Thus giving me a pretty hardy beet harvest.

What you’ll need to get started

About 8-10 cups of prepared beets.

2 c White vinegar, 1 c sugar, 4 garlic cloves, 1/4 tsp ground cloves, and 1 tsp salt.

4 or more Sterilized Pint sizes mason jars with new lids.

A large stock pot that will hold your 4 jars and still have the water cover the tops of the lids by about an inch.

A canning baskets

Extra wide funnel

Canning tongs

And some good background music

Preparing Beets

This step is the longest part of the process. You will want to wash your beets pretty good. Weather you grew them yourself or bought them at the store, they always need a good scrub. Once you’ve removed the leaves and stems and cleaned them up, simply throw them all in a large pot and bring them to a boil. Reduce your heat to med-med-high and let them cook until they are soft. This can take anywhere from 30-60 minutes, depending on how large they are. Mine took about 45 minutes. Reserve about a cup of your water from boiling your beets.

Once your beets are soft, drain them and allow them to cool. Once they’ve cooled down the fun part begins, or at least it was fun for me. Take the beet in your hand and give them good squeeze, the skin will just peel right off and you are left with a perfect looking naked beet. At this point you can decide how you want to slice them. I like to just slice them into thin rounds. It doesn’t really matter, just so long as you can pack ’em good into your jars.

The Recipe

Now that you’ve crammed all your sliced beets into your jars, start making that good ol’ pickle juice. **NOTE – DO NOT HOVER YOUR FACE OVER THE VINEGAR** Haha, you won’t like it I promise.

Combine your 2 cups of white vinegar with your sugar, ground gloves, and salt. Bring to a boil and make sure sugar is completely dissolved. Add in the one cup of water reserved from preparing your beets. Using the extra wide funnel, carefully pour solution over your beets leaving about an inch of headspace at the top of your jars. Add a garlic clove to each jar before you begin sealing. Place your lids and rings on your jars.

Canning

Place your canning basket in your large stock pot and put your jars on top of that. Then fill your pot with water and cover your jars with no less that one inch of water. Bring your water to a boil and let it continue to boil for 15 minutes. This method is called water bathing. You will want to keep a close eye on your water level, you may have to add water to prevent the lids from exposing. If you don’t you may not get a proper seal. Once your boiling time is up, leave your jars in the water for about 5-10 minutes, then remove them with your canning tongs and place them on a towel to cool.

To make sure your jars sealed, press on the lid. If the lid is pops up and down then it did not seal. If it is firmly down it sealed and you can store it in your pantry like a true American hero! Then pat yourself on the back and be welcomed into the world of preppers.

Within the next few days I took two of my jars and combined them into a half gallon sized jar and added 8 hard boiled eggs. So good. If you try that out just put it straight in the fridge, it will stay good for up to six months.

 

One thought on “Easy Canned Pickled Beets

  1. This sounds so good! Adding the hard boiled eggs makes my mouth water! I will definitely try this recipe! Great pics btw!

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