Pickled Beets

Are you looking for a pickled beet recipe? Try this one! I've made this recipe for quite a few years and have never been disappointed. With the addition of the onions and spices they give the beets a really good flavour.

All canning season long I've been looking for my lost slicer. No luck. I'm sure I lent it to someone and no one is fessing up! So yesterday I had to slice up beets: 17 pints of plain canned, and 10 pints of pickled but I couldn't think of anything other than slicing by hand, not fun. I can't use my food processor because it slices too thin so I sat down at the computer to order a slicer, one that has to be able to slice thick... the first one 154.00!! Gulp, nope, it wasn't even mechanical! After surfing around and finding nothing I finally typed in "how do I slice beets?" One of the first sites said something like "use an electric slicer... blah, blah, blah..." and then it hit me, duh, my meat slicer!! I use it for everything from slicing meat to bread to cheese, and now beets, and I even used it to slice the onions! And why oh why didn't I think to use it for slicing all those cucumbers when I made Bread & Butter pickles? Oh well I've still got a 5 gallon bucket full of beets to slice :)

Back to the recipe. I should let you know that I double this recipe and end up with about 10 pints.

Pickled Beets & Onions

8 cups sliced, chunks, or whole baby beets (Whichever you like)
3 cups sliced onions
2 1/2 cups cider vinegar
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups water
1 tablespoon mustard seed
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 teaspoon whole allspice
1 teaspoon whole cloves
1- 6 inch cinnamon stick

Cut tops leaving 2 inches of stem and all the root. Wash all traces of dirt. Boil the beets whole until tender (about 15-20 minutes), drop into cold water and skins should slip off. Cut your beets into what you like.
Combine onions, vinegar, sugar, water, mustard seed, salt, allspice, cloves, and cinnamon stick into a large pot. Bring to a boil, then boil gently for five minutes. Add beets and return to a full boil. Remove from heat. Discard cinnamon stick. Fill sterilized jars with beets and liquid leaving about a 1 inch headspace. Wipe the rims, place lids and rings. Boiling water bath for 30 minutes. Makes about 5 pints.