Ok, admit it, most of you folks when you saw that picture expected a recipe for pickled beets. And most of the rest simply thought yuck, and may not have even looked further.
A bit of background on this one, “Red flannel Hash.” A 18th and 19th Century dish that is seldom seen before because:
1. Many people think they hate beets from eating canned beets or pickles.
2. Few really bother to grow a large vegetable garden any more.
3. The dang things are expensive to buy at the store or farmers markets.
Hash was a common breakfast meal on military posts; a lot of posts either grew or attempted to grow gardens to provide for the troops it being hard to ship fresh produce to many of them.
Beets as a crop has two uses, not only do we have the beet root many are familiar with as mostly pickles or Harvard Beets, but the young leaves, stems and root make some of the best greens. In fact the beet “seed” is not really a seed, but a fruiting body containing one or more seeds, hence the beets need thinned, these thinning’s then can be used for greens.
The basis for red flannel hash is that part of the potatoes are replaced with beets. Hash is one I don’t like to pin down to a recipe, most often it’s made with leftovers, carrots and other vegetables are often added, often it being made the morning after a pot roast or corded beef with vegetables, most often a New England boiler dinner or corned beef and cabbage.
I tried this for the first time this year at a GAF event, having gotten back to gardening again and having the beets needed. I simply boiled up the potatoes and beets (boil beets with peel, tap root and part of the stems in place to prevent bleeding) the evening before.
In the morning since I had no leftover meat, (doesn’t happen often) I just chopped some bacon and fried it up, adding a couple chopped onions in with it.
When it was done and served it was well received by the troops and has been requested to be on the menu again next year.