Preserving food in a traditional way - pickling beetroot

I've had a number of emails from readers who want to start preserving food in jars but don't know where to start or what equipment to buy.  Leading on from yesterday's post, let's just say up front - don't buy any equipment. Once you know what you're doing and that you enjoy preserving, then you can decide whether or not to buy extra equipment.

Food is preserved effectively without refrigeration by a variety of different methods. A few of the traditional methods are drying, fermentation, smoking, salting or by adding vinegar and sugar to the food - pickling. This last method is what we're talking about today. Vinegar and sugar are natural preservatives and adding one or both to food sets up an environment that bacteria and yeasts can't grow in. If you make the vinegar and sugar mix palatable, you can put up jars of vegetables or fruit that enhance the flavour of the food and can be stored in a cupboard or fridge for months.

Other traditional ways of preserving food in jars are to make jam, chutney, relish and sauce. It works because you add sugar, in the case of jam, or sugar and vinegar for chutney, relish and sauce, then boil the food to remove the moisture and to kill off the bugs. These foods are then placed in sterile containers and can be stored for months without further processing because you've created an environment in which bacteria and yeasts can't grow.

HOW TO PICKLE BEETROOT

You will need a large stockpot or saucepan, some wide-mouthed jars with metal lids of the size to fit what you're going to preserve. If you have tongs or jar lifters, that's great, if not, we'll get around it.

This type of pickling has three stages:

1. sterilising the jars and utensils you'll use to transfer the ingredients to the jars
2. preparing the food
3. preparing the pickling liquid

I pickled some beetroot last week so we'll use that as our teacher. This beetroot should have been picked at least a month before but it stayed in the ground until I was ready. It was badly sunburnt on the top, but beetroot is very forgiving and as long as you cook it well and make a tasty pickling liquid, you'll come out of it with excellent pickled beetroot. Of all the pickles I make, pickled beetroot and tomato relish are the two that most of the visitors who eat here compliment me on. And they're the most simple things to make.

Sterilising the jars

The jars must be cleaned thoroughly before sterilising. It's no good sterilising a jar that has a smear of jam or relish in it. Get yourself a good bottle brush (and that will be another post soon - cleaning brushes) and with warm soapy water, clean the jars and lids. Many people use their dishwashers to sterilise jars and if that is what you wish to do, go for it. I use the sink and elbow grease. Both ways work.

When the jars and lids are completely clean, put them in a large saucepan full of COLD water, with the lids and utensils, and boil for 10 minutes. OR, place the clean jars, lids and utensils in a low oven (preheated), about 150C, and keep them in there for about 15 minutes. Remember to keep your jars warm and to always add hot/warm food to hot/warm jars. Adding anything to a cold jar is likely to crack it.

Prepare the beetroot

To prepare the beetroot, just cut off the leaves and clean up any blemishes. Even if they're sunburnt like mine, don't worry, when they're skinned, they'll look fine.  Don't peel them at this stage and don't cut into the beets because the juice will bleed out into the water.

Place the cleaned up beetroot into a saucepan full of lightly salted water, just covering the beets, bring to the boil and boil slowly for 20 to 30 minutes. The time will depend on how big the beets are and how old they are. 

While the beetroot is cooking, prepare the pickling liquid

You'll need to make enough liquid to completely cover the beetroot so if you have a large amount of beetroot, you might have to double the quantity.

Into a small saucepan place: 

• 1 cup water
• 2 cups vinegar - use good vinegar, not cleaning vinegar
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt 
• ½ teaspoon cracked pepper
• 2 teaspoons of mixed spices - I mixed up a combo of celery seeds and mustard seeds and used two teaspoons of the mix. If you don't have these, leave them out.

Bring this mixture to the boil and simmer it for two minutes. Taste the pickling liquid and make sure it's to your taste, you can still modify it at this point.

When the beetroot is cooked, and you can test that by inserting a sharp knife into a couple of them, pour off the water and let the beets cool down a little - just enough for your to handle them. Then, with clean hands, slip the skins off. It's easy to do. You'll end up with shiny, smooth beetroot, ready to slice or cut. You can see in the photo above that the lighter coloured beetroot has been skinned.

You want everything to be warm to hot - the jars, the beetroot and the pickling liquid. Get your sterilised jar/s and cut the beetroot into the jar. When it's full, pour over the hot pickling liquid. Seal the jars immediately and let them sit on the kitchen bench until the next day. Then store either in the cupboard or fridge. When you open the jars for the first time, store them in the fridge after that. They'll be at their best after a couple of weeks maturing in the jar and before about three months.