My MIL made beet jelly, which I loathed. I like beets but don't see any reason whatsoever to make jelly out of them.

Funnily, MIL hated it too but her DH and one DS liked it, so she made the stuff.

With so many other foods in the world just "made" for marmalade, why use beets?

But then I'm not a fan of zucchini marmalade either.

Carol

You're right, Carol, I'm not a big fan of zucchini marmalade and I'm going to try the carrot cake jam but I'm not optimistic, somehow vegetables just seem sick and wrong in jam.

I love beets and nearly anything with beets, but Grandma made beet jelly and although I didn't loathe it, I didn't like it very much either.

It seems like it would be a horrible waste of perfectly good beets. (grin) But, I guess you never know until you try...

Annie

And here I thought the ginger would have made all the difference! WINK!

A

I rather imagine that such recipes were originally conceived in order to avoid waste. Anyone who has had a vegetable garden knows that different crops boom or bust on different years. Someone likely had more beets than could possibly be eaten by the family fresh, pickled, or otherwise preserved, and in desperation came up with the marmalade recipe. Ditto on the zucchini marmalade...I mean, who has grown zucchini without ending up with way too much?

Then, such foods being eaten of necessity during childhood, they become desirable foods later on in life.

Think about it...there are a lot of foods that people relish that must have been veritable starvation rations at one point.

I can remember from my father's stories that oranges (an orange for each child) were a rare treat in the Christmas stocking.

So yes, if you lived somewhere like South Dakota, you wouldn't generally find conventional marmalade ingredients available or affordable.

Thankfully, I'm not that desperate. (Now pickled beets are a whole other story. Those are wonderful, especially in red wine and ginger.)

Carol

Then there's always the compost pile. At least it gets used again...When life gives you too much zucchini, make compost I say!!

seagrass

No....you should always filter the zucchini through someone else...if you are given zuchini then you may compost it....if you grow it you have to use it or give it away.
My grandmother used to make tomato marmalade,,,,never liked that either.
And I don't want apple pie made with zucchini.
Linda C

Cough up that beet recipe, Carol (new thread?). Our garden has beets coming out of our ears. No zucchini this year, LOL. Please and thanks!

I love beets so might live beet marmalade too. Don't know about the zucchini marmalade though.

When I lived in South America I discovered squash jam. It's made from large pale orange hard squash, but not pumpkins. It's delicious on buttered toast with milky tea.

I am NOT responsible for this jelly. I am NOT responsible for this jelly.

Beet Jelly

Categories : Jams & Jellies & Butters

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
4 cups beet liquid
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 box M.C.P. Pectin
6 cups sugar

Cook beets and measure out liquid. (8-10 large beets or 12-13 medium beets would be sufficient.)

Bring beet liquid, lemon juice and pectin to boil. Add sugar. Boil 5 minutes. Put in hot jars and seal at once.

(You can put in sterilized jars and Boiling Water Bath 5 minutes or hot, clean jars and BWB 10 minutes.)

NOTES : Versions of this recipe have appeared in a number of books, including the 1986 Kerr Canning Book. Some call for a box of raspberry Kool-aid (sort of the poor man's raspberry jelly).

If you are going to make this jelly you must be sure the beets are scrupulously clean. Today it is not recommended to use the liquid from unpeeled beets for canning.

(In other words, just the juice from peeled, cooked beets.)

Seriously, aside from beet relishes and pickled beets, there are a number of sweet beet recipes around. Apparently they were imported with Russian and Russian-German immigrants.

Beet Preserves (Conserve)

2 pounds raw beets, peeled and cut into thin strips
3 pounds sugar
1/2 cup water
3 lemons, thinly sliced
2 cups chopped pecans
Crystallized ginger to taste

Mix all the ingredients but the nuts and ginger. Cook very slowly, stirring frequently. When the syrup begins to thicken, add the nuts and chopped ginger to taste. Cook until the mixture is thick. Seal in small glasses or jars.

My note: Lightly toast the pecans. Toasted nuts hold up better in conserves.

Pickles and Preserves, Marion Brown, 1955, Re-print University of North Carolina Press, 2002

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: Can't Be Beet Jelly

LOL, Carol, you'd think that you don't want to be responsible for that beet jelly recipe or something. (grin)

I'd like the addition of ginger to beets, though, at least I think I would, so I'm going to have to try that in spite of the marmalade.

So, thanks, Alexa, for the idea!

Annie

Annie - which one are you trying? The Conserve or the Marmalade? Both have ginger in them......

Alexa

Beets are one of my favorite vegetables but I'm not inclined to make marmalade out of them. Kate Aitken also has a gelled beet relish with horseradish in her Canadian Cook Book that didn't excite me either.

A local woman makes something called Sunrise Marmalade that is the only vegtable marmalade I've liked. Main ingredients are carrots, pineapple, orange juice, lemons and maraschino cherries.

Our favorite "dressed up" beet recipe has ginger in it.

APRICOT-GLAZED BEETS 4 servings

2 Tbs. butter
1 tsp. lemon juice
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup apricot juice-*
1/8 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 tsp. grated ginger root
12 to 16 baby beets, about 1 inch in diameter, cooked and peeled

In saucepan, combine all ingredients except beets. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce to low and simmer for 4 to 8 minutes. Add beets and toss gently to coat. Heat through for one minute. You can use larger beets, cut into quarters or eighths.

* - To make your own apricot juice: Combine 1/4 cup dried apricots and 1 cup water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer over very low heat for about 40 minutes, or until apricots are soft. Remove apricots (these can be diced and sprinkled over the beets or used in scones, nut bread, etc.)

Now that does sound good.

Annie or any other poster, do you have the F.J. Freezing and Canning Cookbook?

It has a beet relish with cider vinegar, sugar, horseradish, cinnamon, cloves and allspice and it's jellied with liquid pectin. So basically it's a pickled beet jelly, which perhaps has potential as a condiment.

It must be an old old recipe. Anything with 6 1/2 cups of sugar to 3 cups of chopped or ground beets is powerfully sweet.

Thinking about it.

Maybe we need a beets thread on the Cookalong?

Carol

Carol, I think we need a beets thread anyway, just because it's taht time of year and Jessica has a lot of beets.

Alexa, I didn't mean I'd try the marmalade recipe, I meant I'd try adding ginger to beets just as a general flavor addition. I wonder what you'd eat beet jelly ON, anyway? A bagel with cream cheese? Maybe a chicken sandwich?

It does give me pause, thinking about it.

Annie

(Carol, I want the recipe with red wine.... LOL Annie!)

Posted by readinglady z8 OR (My Page) on Mon, Jul 19, 10 at 12:03

For years I was a pickled beet stick-in-the-mud. Everyone in my family used the Kerr recipe, updating as the Kerr books modified it, until the Kerr book was no longer published. Nobody even considered other options.
But when The Joy of Pickling came out I tried her pickled beets, which have brown sugar in the pickling solution. We loved them. I've since modified the spice mixture somewhat, but it's become our go-to.

I also tried her pickled beets with red wine and ginger. That was a real leap of faith because pickled beets are iconic in our house. I was astonished at how good they are.

Annie, you've got it. It's in Ziedrich's Joy of Pickling.

Pickled Beets with Red Wine

Categories : Canning & Preserving Pickles and Relishes

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
6 pounds beets with rootlets and 2 inches of tops
1 teaspoon whole cloves
2 4-inch cinnamon sticks, broken
1 inch fresh ginger -- sliced thin
3 cups sugar
2 cups red wine
3 cups red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon pickling salt

Scrub the beets. Put them in a large pot and cover them with boiling water. Return water to a boil and boil the beets 15 to 35 minutes, depending on their size, just until tender.

Drain the beets and cover with cold water. When they are cool, trim them and slip off their skins. If they are large, halve or quarter themor if you prefer, slice into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. (Beets can be prepared to this point and then refrigerated until ready to complete.)

Tie the cloves, cinnamon, and ginger in a spice bag or a scrap of cheesecloth. Put the spice bag, sugar, wine, vinegar and salt into a nonreactive pot. Bring the contents to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar and salt. Simmer the syrup, uncovered, for 10 minutes.

While the syrup simmers, pack the beets into pint mason jars. If beets are sliced, pack loosely. Pour hot syrup over the beets. Leave 1/2-inch headspace.

Process pints for 30 minutes in BWB. Store at least three weeks before eating.

Description: from "The Joy of Pickling" p. 108
Yield: 7 pints

Be sure to let this pickle age. It benefits tremendously.

Carol

Ah thanks Carol! I take it this is your tinkered recipe. May I pester you for one more question - do you find any specific red wine to be preferable?

Carol, that wasn't me. I love the spicy ones in the Ball Blue Book but I'm sure not opposed to trying another recipe in years like this, when beets are practically springing out of the ground and jumping into canning jars!

I like that Joy of Pickling, I'm working on dill pickles from that book right now, so thanks again for sending that to me. So far my pickles haven't been all that great, we'll see if some fermented ones do better.

Annie

Boy, talk about spacey yesterday. I had a doctor's appointment and that always throws me into a tizzy.

So Jessy, not Annie, I didn't tinker with that recipe. I tinkered with Ziedrich's other recipe, the more conventional pickled beet, with very happy results.

I tend to use wines with a little softer finish, like a Merlot. I know, Merlots don't get any respect, but I've had much better luck using Merlot in these than say, a Cab, and the same is true of Ellie Topp's Chunky Basil Pasta Sauce. There's already enough acid tang with the red wine vinegar.

Carol

I learned to cook from the "Alice's Restaurant Cookbook" by Alice Brock. Good basic cookbook really, and it included a recipe for her grandma's beet jam, and a record with a song about the jam stapled to the back cover (it was a plastic 45). I never played the record or made the jam. I can see it as a condiment for meat, and people ate a lot of marginal meat back in the day!

I love beets but I'm funny about them, I only like them with certain other flavors. I can do them sweet and sour, but not just sweet, or with orange like in harvard beets.

Too many beets? I would like to emphatically vouch for the deliciousness of this cocktail using homemade beet-infused vodka. It has all the freshness (and none of the "dirt" note) of beets. The color is beautiful... your lime twists will be bright pink and green. Enjoy in moderation, as they ARE potent, but this was a delicious surprise.

OK, thanks! (FWIW I prefer a good Merlot to a Cab any day. Even a Pinot Noir)

Jessica, I've also made a chocolate beet cake, although mine didn't have the spiced creme anglaise that this one has, which sounds like a really nice addition. Other than that, our recipes are identical. Oh, the cake is very good, really it is, but I'm not sure it's all that healthy, LOL.

Chocolate Beet Cake
From Straight From the Farm

1 cup butter, softened, divided
1 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar
3 eggs at room temperature
2-3 oz. dark chocolate
5 medium beets (2 cups pureed)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
confectioners sugar for dusting

Make the beet puree by trimming the beets and simmering them until tender. Drain the liquid and cool the beets (you can run water over them to cool them off.) Slide the skins off, then place them in a food processor or blender and puree until smooth. Let the puree cool slightly before using it in the cake.

Cream 3/4 cup of the butter with the dark brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer, then add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Melt the remaining butter together with the chocolate, either in the microwave or in a double boiler over simmering water. Cool slightly, then add the chocolate mixture, beet puree, and vanilla into the butter/sugar mixture (it may look separated at this point.)

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add the dry ingredients to the bowl with the wet ingredients and mix well. Pour the batter into a greased and floured 10-inch springform pan; bake at 375 degrees F for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean (I started checking around 50 minutes.) Cool the cake in the pan 15 minutes before unmolding and removing to a cooling rack; cool completely before dusting with confectioners sugar.

Spiced Creme Anglaise

1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
4 large egg yolks
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

Set a bowl over ice water and have a strainer nearby youll want this ready so you can stop the sauce from cooking when its ready.

Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar and set aside.

Combine milk, cream, and spices in a sauce pan and cook over medium heat just until the mixture starts to simmer. Whisk some of it slowly into the egg yolk mixture, then slowly add the rest of it while whisking. Pour the whole thing back into the sauce pan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a heatproof rubber spatula or wooden spoon, until its thick enough to coat the spatula or spoon this usually takes about a minute or two longer. Dont boil it or the egg will harden.

Strain into the bowl set over ice water to stop the mixture from cooking further. Chill in the refrigerator until youre ready to use it.

Oh, and I used leftover beets that I had cooked for supper and didn't eat all of, I didn't cook beets especially for this recipe!

Annie