Ingredients
6 cup sliced beets, cooked or
3 can sliced beets, (12-16 oz can)
1 cup sugar
1 cup vinegar
2 tbsp cornstarch
24 whole cloves
3 tbsp ketchup
3 tbsp cooking oil (optional)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 dash salt
1 1/2 cup beet liquid
Directions
Drain beets, saving 1 1/2 cups of the beet liquid. Place the beets in
a medium saucepan along with the reserved liquid and the rest of the
ingredients. Mix well, then cook over medium heat for 3 minutes or
until the mixture thickens. Let it cool, then store in the
refrigerator. They don't last long, so be ready to fix another batch.
(These are regular red beets pickled with an Oriental flair. My
mother, the original Heloise, brought this recipe back from China
when she and my father lived there after World War II. You can use
either fresh or canned beets. Bon appetit!--Heloise)
Typed by R. Thompson 9/96 From: Heloise: Syndicated Columnist; The
News-Enterprise, Elizabethtown KY
Servings: 4 servings
Chinese Beets Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Asian; Chinese; Vegetable
The History of Recipes
We can follow the history of `recipes` way back into distant history, in truth as far back into recorded history as the ancient Egyptians, and maybe even further. Having said that, mostly, these early cookbooks were just very simple hieroglyphic recipes for preparing meals.
In fact, the oldest recipe discovered, according to historians is a collection of ancient tablets in Sumerian which describe the making of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as having made people feel blissful. Progressing into Roman times around 25BC a roman called Apicius compiled a collection of scripts detailing recipes enjoyed by wealthy roman citizens. He tells us how the roman meals were divided into hors d`oeuvres, main course and desserts, known in latin as `Gustatio, Primae Mensae and Secundae Mensae`. Aspicius informs us how the Roman cooks made use of a wide range of aromatic flavours, including a few you will know for example bay, mint and dill. Later on in the 1400s, knights returning from the crusades brought back a variety of foods, spices and herbs from the holy land, including spices such as coriander, parsley, basil and rosemary. These new culinary innovations created an increase in books on cookery, the majority of which are now in academic collections. For the next few years, the rich and powerful families of Europe competed to serve the best banquets, and consequentially chefs and their collection of recipes were greatly in demand. Notwithstanding that, it wasn`t until the nineteenth century that fine cooking and cookery books rose to prominence. The Famous Mrs Beeton in the UK, and the equally well-known Fannie Farmer in the US, dedicated the best years of their lives to assembling, trying out, and writing down recipes common in their social group. By the advent of the twentieth century, cookery publications are highly popular due to better eduction, more spare time and having more money. The introduction of the TV brings us TV cooks and the spin-off recipe books. And that brings us to the present day and the invention of the internet, permitting us all to search through massive numbers of recipes just like those on our site. |
We hope you enjoy this Chinese Beets recipe.
