PICKLED BEETS

Wash the beets carefully, taking care not to break the fibres, or they will bleed and lose their color. Boil them in plenty of boiling salted water for one and a half hours. Take them up, peel and cut them in slices an eighth of an inch thick, and put them into a stoneware jar. Boil one pint of the vinegar with the whole peppers, bay leaf, mace, cloves, ginger, and, when boiled for five minutes, add to it the other pint of cold vinegar. Strain over the beets in the jars; cover when cold.