How to Make Homemade Canned Pickled Beets

You think making and canning your own pickled beets is difficult or expensive?  Not at all!  You can do it with basic equipment already in your kitchen - you just need a canning pot.  And thanks to the vinegar in pickled beets, you can use either a plain open water bath pot or a pressure canner (which will also let you can low acid vegetables!)

So, here's how to can pickled beets!  The directions are  complete with instructions in easy steps and completely illustrated. In the winter when you open a jar, the pickled beets will taste MUCH better than any store-bought canned pickled beets!

Prepared this way, the jars have a shelf life of about 12 months, and aside from storing in a cool, dark place, require no special attention.

Directions for Making Canned Pickled Beets

Ingredients and Equipment

Recipe and Directions

Step 1 - Selecting the beets

The most important step!  You need beets that are FRESH and crisp.  Limp, old beets will make nasty tasting canned beets.  Guests will probably throw them at you.. Select firm, crisp beets. Remove and discard any soft, diseased, spotted and chewed up beets.

How many beets and where to get them

You can grow your own, pick your own, or buy them at the grocery store. About 7 pounds of 2- to 2½-inch diameter beets makes about 8 pints of pickled beets. I wouldn't use canned beets; what's the point:  Most of the flavor is gone from them, and you can always get fresh beets. 

Step 2 - Prepare the jars and canner

Wash the jars and lids

This is a good time to get the jars ready! The dishwasher is fine for the jars - put the lids into a pan of boiling water for at least several minutes. I just put the lids in a small pot of almost boiling water for 5 minutes, and use the magnetic "lid lifter wand" (available from WalMart, Target, and sometimes at grocery stores) to pull them out.

Get the canner heating up

Rinse out your canner, put the rack in the bottom, and fill it  with hot tap water. (Of course, follow the instruction that came with the canner, if they are different). Put it on the stove over low heat just to get it heating up for later on.

Step 3 - Trim the ends and cut into smaller pieces

Just take a sharp knife and trim off beet tops, leaving an inch of stem and roots to prevent bleeding of color.

Step 4 -Wash the beets!

I'm sure you can figure out how to scrub the beets in plain cold or lukewarm water using your hands or a vegetable brush.

Step 5 - Cook the beets

Put similar sized beets (hopefully, they're ALL of a similar size so they take the same time to cook) together with enough boiling water to cover them and cook until tender (usually about 30 to 45 minutes in an open pot, or 10 - 15 minutes in a pressure cooker). Drain and discard the liquid (it would weaken the pickling solution).

Step 6 - Cool the beets

You can pour ice over them, or just let them cool on their own.  It's just to coll them enough so you can handle them to remove the skins, stems, roots and then slice or quarter them.

Step 7 - Trim, peel and slice

Trim off the roots and stems. The skins should easily slide off. Slice the beets into ¼-inch slices.  You can leave the beets whole (if they are small, say 1 inch or less), or quarter them or slice them into 1/4 inch slices.  This is to help more fit in the jars and to help the seasoning to penetrate them better.

Step 8 - (Optional) Slice the onions.

If you like onions in the mix (most people do), peel and thinly slice the onions.

Step 9 - Make the Pickling Solution

Combine the vinegar, salt, sugar (or Splenda if you need a no-sugar version) and fresh water in a large pot. Put the spices in cheesecloth bag  and add to vinegar mixture.  Bring to a boil.

Here's a great trick for the spices: get a baby food holder like this one, available at Target and any baby supplies store.  It is made of plastic, and can hold the spices for easy removal later.  It's reusable and has no metal, so it won't react with the vinegar!

Step 10 - Heat the mixture with the beets and onions

Add beets and onions to the pot and simmer for 5 minutes. Then remove the spice bag.

Step 11 - Packing the beets in the canning jars

This is called "hot packing"! Fill the jars with beets and onions, leaving ½-inch headspace. Pack the jars fairly tightly, but be sure to leave ½-inch of space at the TOP of the jar.  That is called "headspace" and is needed for expansion during heating in the water bath.

Step 12 - Pour boiling cooking liquid into each packed jar

Use a ladle or pyrex measuring cup to carefully fill each packed jar with the hot vinegar solution, again allowing  ½-inch headspace. The beets should be covered and there should still be 1/2 inch of airspace left in the top of each jar. Be careful not to burn yourself, (or anyone else - children should be kept back during this step!)

Step 13 - Put the lids and rings on

Put the lids on each jar and seal them by putting a ring on and screwing it down snugly (but not with all you might, just "snug").

Step 14 - Put the jars in the canner and the lid on the canner

Using the jar tongs, put the jars on the rack in the canner.  Make sure the tops of the jars are covered by at least 1 inch of water.

Step 15 - Process for 30 minutes*

The chart below will help you determine the right processing time and pressure, if you have a different type of canner, or are above sea level. For most people, using a plain open water bath canner, the time will be 30 to 35 minutes. You can use either a plain water bath canner OR a pressure canner, since the vinegar adds so much acidity (if you can vegetables other than tomatoes without adding vinegar, you must use a pressure canner). 

Step 16 - Remove the jars

Lift the jars out of the water and let them cool on a wooden cutting board or a towel,  without touching or bumping them in a draft-free place (usually takes overnight), here they won't be bumped. You can then remove the rings if you like. You're done!

Other Equipment:

From left to right:

1. Jar lifting tongs 
           helpful to pick up hot jars
2. Lid lifter 
           - to remove lids from the pot 
           of hot water 
3. Lid 
          - disposable - you may only 
          use them once
4. Ring 
         - holds the lids on the jar until after
         the jars cool - then you don't need them
5. Canning jar funnel
         - to fill the jars

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"Pressure canning is the only safe method for home canning vegetables. Clostridium botulinum is the bacterium that causes botulism food poisoning in low-acid foods, such as vegetables. The bacterial spores are destroyed only when the vegetables are processed in a pressure canner at 240 degrees Fahrenheit (F) for the correct amount of time.

Clostridium botulinum is the bacterium commonly found in vegetables and meats. It is harmless until it finds itself in a moist, low-acid, oxygen-free environment or a partial vacuum. Under these conditions, the bacterium can grow and produce toxins dangerous to people and animals.

Do not process (low acid) vegetables using the boiling water bath because the botulinum bacteria can survive that method.

Can fruits and vegetables be canned without heating if aspirin is used? No. Aspirin should not be used in canning. It cannot be relied on to prevent spoilage or to give satisfactory products. Adequate heat treatment is the only safe procedure.

Is it safe to can beets in a boiling water bath if vinegar is used? No. Recommended processing methods must be used to assure safety. Recommended processing times cannot be shortened if vinegar is used in canning fresh vegetables. (This does not refer to pickled vegetables.)

Salt and sugar are not preservatives for vegetables: they are added to stabilize and improve flavor, but will not prevent spoilage.

Salicylic acid is also NOT a preservative. The University of Illinois reports:

Using Aspirin for Canning

Several years ago, a recipe circulated using aspirin to acidify tomatoes and beets for canning. Aspirin is not recommended for canning. While it contains salicylic acid, it does not sufficiently acidify tomatoes or beets for safe hot water bath canning. beets are low acid foods and may only be processed safely in a pressure canner. Lemon juice or vinegar is recommended to acidify tomato products for safe water bath processing.

Think of it like smoking.  We all know someone who smoke their entire life and lived to be 90.  But the cemeteries are filled with the vast majority who didn't.  You'll hear people say "my grandmother did it that way for 20 years".  But of course, the people who died from food poisoning aren't around and often didn't have descendents to tell their tale...

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This page was updated on 10-May-2008

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