Pickled Beets

I have loved pickled beets since I was a kid.  I remember eating them at my grandma's house, and I have a memory of her preparing fresh beets and canning her own beet pickles.  I specifically recall the vivid red beet juice on her hands and the way the skin slipped so easily from the cooked vegetable, leaving a shiny, smooth globe.  When I reminded her of this in her later years she said she didn't remember ever making her own pickled beets!  One thing I know for sure (and my mother will confirm this) we always ate pickled beets as an accompaniment to macaroni and cheese.  To this day, a serving of mac 'n' cheese is just not complete without sliced pickled beets on the side.

Too bad my grandma's recipe was lost in time.  This one came from Ball's Blue Book of Preserving, today's bible of food preservation.

Beet Pickles
3 quarts beets (about 24 small)
2 cups sugar
2 sticks cinnamon
1 tablespoon whole allspice
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 1/2 cups vinegar
1 1/2 cups water

Wash beets; trim, leaving 2-inch stem and tap root; drain.  Cook beets until tender; peel.  Combine all incredients except beets in a large saucepan.  Bring mixture to a boil; reduce heat.  Simmer 15 minutes.  Remove cinnamon sticks.  Pack beets into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace.  Ladle hot liquid over beets, leaving 1/4-inch headspace.  Remove air bubbles.  Adjust two-piece caps.  Process 30 minutes in a boiling-water canner. 

I cooked my beets on a baking sheet in the oven, loosely covered with foil, at 400 degrees.  When fork tender, I peeled them, cut them into thick slices, and packed them into pint-sized jars.  This recipe says it yields 6 pints.  I dug 24 beet roots - didn't measure them in any other way - and got only two pint jars full! I guess my 24 beets had a lot less volume than the prescribed 24 "small" beets.  I'll save the left-over prepared pickle juice for the next batch!