This autumn my godfathers spent a month in the country with me, and as we love to spend time cooking one of our projects was to pickle beetroots for winter. It is actually very simple and here I will take you through it step by step. This is what you need:
1 liter water
4 dl vinegar
1 - 1,5 dl sugar
2 bay leafs
15 allspice grains
8 - 10 cloves
2 cm horseradish cut into slices
1/4 teaspoon pickling salt
I chose small beetroots of different colours from my garden because when they are still young they are more tender, but if you prefer bigger beets to cut into slices when put into the pickling jars it works just as well. Wash them properly and be careful not to cut the tops too close so it damages the skin, and boil them with the peel on. If the skin is nicked the beets bleed and loose their intense colour.
Once the beets are tender just drain and let cool. When they have become cold enough, pick them up and peel. The skin comes of more or less by itself once they are boiled, but you might want to wear plastic gloves as the beets still give of a lot of colour that sticks to your hands!
Meanwhile combine the vinegar, sugar and pickling salt with the water and bring to boil so that the sugar dissolves completely. While the vinegar mixture is cooking I like to sterilise my jars in boiling water (as pictured below) .
Then, once the sterilising water has cooled just a bit, empty the jars and turn them upside down for a few minutes to cool down and dry out.
Now all that is left to do is to fill the jars with beetroots, while layering the rest of the spices (allspice, cloves and horse radish) amongst the beets before filling up with brine while it is still hot. I use one bayleaf per jar and simply lay it on top before closing the lid.
Simple as that! We usually leave the jars to pickle at least two weeks before eating, but once they are done they will keep all winter. Just remember to store any opened jars in the fridge and do consume opened jars within the month.
