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Brussels Sprouts To Pickle Beets
1 dozen good sized beets, ¼ ounce of mace, 2 quarts of vinegar, ¼ ounce of ginger, 2 tablespoonfuls of grated horse-radish.
Boil the beets; when done remove the skins and cut them into any shape you please. They are prettier cut and gimped in the shape of wheels. Put them into a jar. Put the vinegar into a porcelain-lined kettle, add the mace, ginger and a salt-spoon of pepper. Bring to boiling point, take from the fire, add the horse-radish and pour, while hot, over the beets. Stand in a cold place and they will be ready to use in twelve hours.
SWISS CHARD OR SILVER BEET AS GREENS.
These are leaflets or mid-ribs of the white beet. Take them while young and tender, wash, tie into bundles, boil and dress precisely the same as asparagus on toast. Serve with them, sauce Hollandaise or English drawn butter. This makes one of the most delicate and delicious of dishes.
A quick refrigerator pickle rather than a canned preserve: the beets are cooked, covered with hot spiced vinegar, and eaten within a day or two, so no processing is involved.
- The spice quantitiesThe mace and ginger are printed as "14 ounce" where a quarter ounce is meant, i.e. about 7 grams of each. Do not read them as 14 ounces; that would be inedible.
- A salt-spoonAn old salt-spoon holds about a quarter teaspoon. That is the whole seasoning of pepper for two quarts of vinegar, so grind it coarse and expect it to be a background note.
- Vinegar strengthHousehold vinegar of the period was generally in the range of today's cider or distilled vinegar, though home-made vinegars varied. Use one of those rather than a mild rice or wine vinegar if you want the beets to keep their bite.
- Porcelain-lined kettleThe point is a non-reactive pan. Enamelled cast iron or stainless steel works; bare aluminium or unlined copper will pick up a metallic taste from the hot vinegar and dull the beet colour.
- Cooking the beetsBoil them whole and unpeeled with the root tail intact, 30 to 50 minutes depending on size, until a skewer slides in easily. The skins slip off under cold running water and the colour stays in the beet instead of the water.
- "Gimped in the shape of wheels"Gimping means cutting a fluted or notched edge. A crinkle cutter or a channel knife gives the effect; plain thick slices taste identical.
- Storage and yieldA dozen medium beets fill about two quart jars. Keep them refrigerated and covered by the liquid; they are good for two to three weeks. This is not a shelf-stable preserve — do not seal and store at room temperature.
- The chard noteFor the Swiss chard, strip the leaves from the stalks and cook them separately: stalks tied in bundles for 8 to 12 minutes, leaves for 2 to 3. Boiling both together, as the original implies, leaves the stems raw or the leaves collapsed.
Beetroot reached the English and American kitchen mainly as a boiled vegetable and a pickle, and spiced vinegar poured hot over cooked beets appears frequently in period household books — the acid and the cold larder did the keeping. The second entry reflects a genuine overlap of the period: Swiss chard, then often sold as "silver beet" or "white beet," is the same species as the root beet, bred for leaf and stalk rather than swollen root, and writers often filed the two together. Serving the mid-ribs like asparagus, on toast under hollandaise or drawn butter, was one genteel way to present them.