Harvard Beets

I think you have cottoned on now to my love LOVE of beetroot.  If you haven’t, then you haven’t been reading my blog for long enough.  I quite simply adore beets.   A week ago I was gifted with some lovely beetroot by a friend! We thoroughly enjoyed them!  I have been trying to spread my beetroot posts out so that you don’t get them all in one week, so here is the last of my beetroot posts!

Harvard Beets has to be one of my absolute ways of enjoying beetroot. Back where I come from in Canada, you can buy tins of Harvard Beets in the vegetable aisles and I always used to have several tins of them in the cupboard during the winter months for whenever a craving hit me!

Homemade are infinitely better however!  They are somewhat of a New England tradition, New England being the North Eastern States of America . . .  consisting of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut and Massachussets.  I guess it is only natural that they would also be popular in Nova Scotia seeing as they are very close to each other. 

So what is the actual history of Harvard Beets? How did they begin? We can’t really say for sure. Some say they earned the name for the way their deep red color mimicked the Harvard Crimson football jersey hue. Others say they originated in a tavern in England named “Harwood” and somewhere along the way the name was mispronounced in America until it became “Harvard.”  So you see, there is a somewhat, if ambiguous, English connection . . .  which totally justifies me sharing the recipe here!

Originally the beets were cooked only in a sauce made from vinegar and sugar.  The addition of cornflour (cornstarch) to thicken the sauce is definitely a 20th century addition.  I think I would love them either way.  My recipe comes from the Fanny Farmer Cooking School Cookery Book, 1975 Edition.

Whisk the sugar and cornflour together in a small saucepan.  Whisk in the vinegar and water.  Bring to the boil, whisking continuously, and then boil for 5 minutes.  Remove from the heat and stir in the cooked beetroot.  Let stand for half an hour.  Add the butter and reheat to the boiling point.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Serve immediately.

Debunking the myths of English Cookery, one recipe at a time.
The English Kitchen
http://theenglishkitchen.blogspot.com/