An average of 21 pounds (without tops) is needed per canner load of 7 quarts; an average of 13-1/2 pounds is needed per canner load of 9 pints.
Trim off beet tops, leaving an inch of stem and roots to reduce bleeding of color. Scrub well.
Next we are going to cook them just enough so that the skins slip off easily. Most recipes have you do this in a pot on the stove, but I actually prefer to use my instant pot. Because it is just pressure cooking and not boiling them, it preserves a lot of the nutrients that would otherwise be lost.
You can fill your instant pot all the way up to the top with the beets. I sort them out by size: small, medium, and large. Cook each size separately. Pour 1 cup of water into your instant pot, put the lid on and set the vent to “sealing”. I just select pressure cook, and then you can set the amount of time. For small beets cook for 8 minutes, for medium cook for 10 minutes, and for large cook for 15 minutes. Once the time is up, you can do a manual release. Or if you are not ready to process them yet just let in naturally release and it’ll keep it warm for ya. Either way is just fine.
If you don’t have an instant pot, boil them in a pot on the stove about 15 to 25 minutes depending on size.
Cool just enough to handle without burning yourself, then remove skins, and trim off stems and roots. The beets should remain warm or hot going into the jars.
Leave baby beets whole. Cut medium or large beets into 1/2-inch cubes or slices. Halve or quarter very large slices
Add1 teaspoon of salt per quart to the jar, if desired.
Fill jars with hot beets and fresh hot water that has been brought to a boil first (not the water you used to boil the beets with), leaving 1-inch headspace.
Pour in the boiling water from the kettle we heated up earlier, leaving 1 inch of headspace. Plus 1/4 inch if you are using Tattler reusable lids. Wipe off your rims, and adjust your lids. When it reaches pressure, set your timer for the correct amount of time. We are at 3,500ft elevation, so I set my canner at 12lbs of pressure for 35 minutes for quarts. See above chart instructions in the blog post for your different pressures and times.
And you're done!
