pickled beetroot

[Meow]

i'm just about to have my first go at pickling beetroot, when i've cooked the beets and boiled the vinegar do i add it all to the jar hot or should i wait untill they're cold? thanks

[Shirl]

beets need to be cool enough to handle....rubbing off skins. Put into jars . Then add your spiced vinegar hot. Seal jar. As it cools it will form a vacuum

Hope that helps

[Meow]

thats super, thanks.

[WhiteWolf]

Newbie question

We have just done some pickled beet, using Sarsons pickling vinegar but we didn't heat the vinegar first. Have we messed up?

We did cook, peel and slice the beets though.

WW

[battybird]

You mean you dont rub the skins off when hot? Whenever I cook beetroot, I am too impatient and, wearing gloves try and rub the skins off almost immediately; I then do the prancing round the kitchen bit, (shaking hands...red over walls) exhaling and puffing when my fingers are burned My OH thinks its hysterical, and I ALWAYS intend being more patient, but I love hot beetroot! Daft I know and I will learn...really!!
ps, I make my own pickling vinegar so its always hot, & add the HOT peeled beetroot to it.

[Millymollymandy]

I guess this means you can do what you like. I've done chillies in hot pickling vinegar in sterilised jars and chillies in just cold vinegar straight out the bottle into unsterilised jars and both are fine several years on. Think neat vinegar tends to ward off the nasties!

[Mrs Moustoir]

This year I've roasted my beets instead of boiling them. I just trimmed and washed them, popped them in a casserole dish with a little water, lid on then cooked for about an hour at 180degreesC.

Leave to cool in the casserole dish, slip off the skins, slice, into a jar then fill jar with cold cider vinegar and add a heaped tsp of sugar and a couple of dried chillis.

Did some a month ago and they are lovely. The roasting seems to make the beets even sweeter.

[WhiteWolf]

I stand corrected, SWMBO did just rub off the skins - I got it wrong.

But so glad we didn't mess up by using cold vinegar.

Thanks everybody for the feedback

Regards

WW

[Millymollymandy]

Am I the only person who PEELS off the skin or is rubbing off just another word for peeling? I don't mean with a potato peeler, obviously, just peel the skin off, getting lovely red fingers/nails whilst doing so.

[prison break fan]

Millymollymandy, can you please tell us about pickling the chillis? I have masses this year, I usually dry them but would like to try something different. Thankyou in advance! pbf.

[Millymollymandy]

I don't really know what to say as I wasn't that impressed by the results! First I followed some recipe off the internet for a pickling vinegar which was too cinnamon-ey, then I thought I'd just bung a load in with some cider vinegar in an old coffee jar, which tasted a bit better in my opinion.

Unfortunately what I really wanted was that 'bought' Jalapeno pepper type of flavour to go with chilli con carne (I'm sure it's the vinegar not the chillies!) but I've no idea how to get that - also my chillies although they were quite juicy when picked they seemed to go all thin once pickled - by that I mean the opposite of those fat slices of chilli you get in the jars of bought Jalapeno peppers.

So they've just been sitting there in the cupboard whilst we use the dried chillies which I think were more succesful in my aim to preserve the glut from a couple of years ago. And the good thing is that our local French supermarket has finally started stocking Jalapeno peppers so we don't have to buy massive amounts in England any more to bring back with us. So problem solved!

[prison break fan]

Thanks anyway, I guess all these things are trial and error! pbf.

[Millymollymandy]

pbf - why don't you start a new thread and ask about chillies? I think that both Susie Gee and Green Aura did something interesting with their dried chillies last year (or were at least asking about them) - some kind of chilli sauce I think.

[prison break fan]

Will do!! pbf.

[Millymollymandy]

Back to pickling beetroot, as I've decided to do some - from looking through recipe books and on the internet it seems that if you use hot pickled vinegar it will keep for much longer than pouring cold vinegar over the beets.

The problem is this - what kind of vinegar to use? I have seen pretty similar recipes only with red wine, white wine or malt vinegars!

I do have a 2 litre container of malt vinegar which I bought in England about 18 months ago which probably needs using up, so might have to go with that.