Spiced Pickled Beets

Directions

• Fill canner pot with water to have at least 1″ of water above tops of jars.  Place 4 x clean pint jars in canner.  Bring water to simmer.
• Place new snap lids in a glass bowl.  Fill the kettle with approx 1 c of water.
• For round beets, trim beets leaving 1″ of stem and root attached as this helps prevent bleeding. Sort beets into 2 sizes…smaller beets vs large beets.  Smaller beets cook faster than larger beets.  Put beets into separate saucepans, cover with water, and bring to a boil. For tubular beets, remove the tops and roots and cut into 1 1/2″ slices, put into saucepan, cover with water, and bring to boil.
• Reduce heat and cook smaller beets approx 20 min and large beets approx 45 min.  Test beets for doneness with a fork.  For small beets and beet slices, when the fork just barely goes into the beet, they are done.  They will continue to cook as you process them. For large round beets, fork needs to penetrate almost to center.
• When beets are almost cooked, combine sugar, water, and vinegar in a saucepan (brine).  Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.  Reduce heat to simmer.
• When beets are cooked, drain and rinse in cold water.  When able to handle them, trim off the stem and root, peel or cut off the skins, and cut into uniform pieces approx 1″ x 1″.
• Heat the kettle to boiling.  Pour hot water over snap lids to soften the rubber compound.
• Lift and drain the hot jars from the canner.  Keep canner simmering.
• Place 4 whole cloves, 2 allspice berries, 1/2 cinnamon stick, 1/2 tsp of salt in each jar.
• Pack cooked beets into hot jars leaving 1/2″ at the top.
• Pour hot liquid mixture (brine) over beets to within 1/2″ of top of jar.
• Place hot snap lids on jars.  Screw on rims just until finger tight.
• Place sealed jars back into canner. Simmer jars in canner for 30 min.
• Lift out jars without tipping them.  Leave them to cool untouched for 24 hours on the counter.
• Check the snap lids.  They should be concave which indicates they sealed properly.  Stored sealed jars in a cool dark place.  Any unsealed jars should be refrigerated and used with 3 months.