DeborahL wrote:Gumbo, do fresh beets taste like the canned ones smell? Know what I mean?
Nothing at all like 'em. Nope. The canned ones (my mother used to make us eat them when we were kids

) smell like vinegar, mostly. And the lining of the can, too. Bleah.
No...the yummy thing to do with beets is to ROAST them. No vinegar anywhere!

Allow 1 small or medium beet per person the first couple of times. Trim the leaves off, with maybe 1/4 to 1/2 inch of "leaf roots" remaining. (The leaves can be cooked like chard; maybe because both beets and chard are
Beta vulgaris. It's just that one variety has been bred for large leaves and the other for large roots.) Then trim the "rat-tail" root off.
Now slice the beet into wedges. If it's a small beet, quarters will do; if it's a large one, wedge it into eighths. Place the wedges into a Pyrex or Corningware baking dish (I get the best results from my glass instead of metal baking dishes). Preheat the oven to approx. 400 deg. F.
Use a pastry brush to brush the raw surfaces of the beet wedges with olive oil or another oil you like to use in cooking. Dust the wedges lightly with salt and either rosemary or another herb you like. Go
very light on the herb and the salt both.
Place the baking dish into the oven and let the wedges roast until you can easily insert a toothpick into them. Remove the baking dish at that point and let the wedges cool until you can just barely tolerate working with them. Peel them NOW! And rinse your fingers under cold, running water.
Eat your nice, SWEET ROASTED beets. Oh, yes; the way we should have been eating the things all along!
Even better if you've gotten your hands on Golden Beets, but pretty...ah..."darned"

good with any red beets I've tried it with.
Note: This recipe has now become a requested favorite even from one of my sisters, who also grew up with the horrible canned beets!
Hope you like it, too!
Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9