[Sca-cooks] More on Beets and Beet Roots

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

My experience with beet leaves - which i think are delicious - is 
that they are tangy, not sweet. Cooked beet roots tend to be sweet to 
some extent. So where the text talks about the sweetness of a 
particular beet plant part, i would interpret the text to mean the 
root.

Also that part about being cooked under hot embers, well, you could 
put beet leaves in a pan and put embers on top of the lid, but i know 
one can roast beet roots in the coals, so again i interpret that part 
to refer to beet roots.

I've only cooked the roots and the leaves of red beets (although i 
have eaten golden beet roots), but while the beet leaves are green, 
the stalks and veins of the leaves are quite colorfully red. I don't 
know if the stalks and veins are different colors for plants with 
black or white beet roots. Chard comes in different varieties, some 
with white stalks and some with red stalks, so i don't see why this 
couldn't be possible for beets. However, i plead ignorance, as i have 
not seen black beets.

Anahita

Stefan wrote:
>Master Cariadoc comments about some of the period quotes on beets:
>  >>There are white, black, and red varieties. The red ones are much
>  >>appreciated when thinly sliced in salad, being first boiled in water or
>  >>cooked under hot embers, thinly sliced, and dressed with oil, vinegar,
>  >>and salt. The sweet white ones are the best.
>  >
>  >I think this could be a reference to either the leaves or the root,
>  >although specifying the red ones, which other sources suggest have a
>  >more edible root, at least suggests the latter.
>
>Why do you say this could suggest the leaves?
>I thought all the leaves would be green, but here they talk about 
>the red ones being much appreciated when slice in a salad. And 
>earlier about white, black and red varieties. I admit they may be 
>using the color of the roots to indicate which type of beet, while 
>still using only the leaves, but how do you cook leaves under hot 
>embers? On the other hand, that is a pretty straight forward thing 
>to do with roots.
>
>Would/do the leaves of the various leaves vary in sweetness? Or 
>taste at all? Why specify sweet white ones, if you aren't eating the 
>root? How would anyone know they were sweet if they weren't eating 
>the root?