di chioggia beetroots- keeping the colour

[Nomada]

Does anyone grow and preserve this one? It's the pretty pink one with the red and white rings. What's the best method I can use to preserve this without draining the colour? I'd usually boil my beets before pickling but I think that'll drain all the colours. I was wondering if lacto fermenting them into a sour pickle would work. I'd like to give a jar of pickled beets to one of my friends so i'd like it to look pretty sad, I know.

[chickenchargrill]

I've heard roasting, rather than boiling, it preserves the rings, not sure if that'd work with pickling. If you steam it you should still have the rings, but the red will look a lot lighter.

[Millymollymandy]

I'm growing some of these but never thought the colour would leach out on cooking. Oh well as long as they stay sort of purple rather than white.....

[gregorach]

I've heard roasting, rather than boiling, it preserves the rings, not sure if that'd work with pickling. If you steam it you should still have the rings, but the red will look a lot lighter.

I roast my beetroot for pickling, and I find it gives very good results. Can't say whether it would keep the colour of Di Chioggias... Works very well with Boltardy and Golden Detroit though.

[grahamhobbs]

Our experience is that any cooking of the chioggia beetroot bleeds the colours, turning it kind of pink, which shame to say rather defeats the object of developing a beetroot with red and white rings.

[Millymollymandy]

Oh well - must say it was the pretty rings which drew my attention to the seed packet, but probably no different from purple French beans which turn green when you cook them!

[chickenchargrill]

The woman in this blog said the di choggia, even when raw, became white when pickled due to the hot pickling juices, it still looks lovely, just not the ring patterns. But, if you have some normal beets too, you could try a thin slice of one then the other so it looks pretty.

http://awhiskandaspoon.com/2009/07/02/r ... led-beets/

[julie_lanteri]

oh non... (tears in my eyes)
I've got some beetroot for the first time this year on my balcony and picked the chioggia for the same reason MMM. they are tiny but I was so pleased to see the little rings inside! (I've discovered I'm not a fan of raw beetroot though :p)
I'm also growing purple and yellow dwarf french beans and climbing borlotti together. At least with those you have a lovely display: cream/purple flowers then the beans!

[Nomada]

Well, I tried preparing a bunch I bought from the market, just did it my normal way, but they are now all orange But you can still see a pretty pattern on them. Will post a pic. I'll try lacto fermenting the ones I'm growing.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/littlenoma ... hotostream

the red ones on the left are normal beets and turnips.