one of four useful forms of the versatile plant Beta vulgaris. The two which provide vegetables for human consumption are the red, globular roots of beetroot itself, and its leaves; and the stalks and leaves of chard. Mangelwurzel, treated with beetroot in this entry, is also cultivated for its edible root, but used for animal fodder. The fourth form is sugar beet, whose roots are an important source of sugar.
All these cultivated forms are descended from the sea beet, B. vulgaris ssp Maritima, a wild seashore plant growing around the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts of Europe and N. Africa. This has only a small root, but its leaves and stems are sometimes eaten. Early Greek writers such as Theophrastus referred to the cultivation of this plant. By about 300 bc there were varieties with edible roots.
Red beet, known as Roman beet, and yellow-rooted varieties spread through Europe and Asia in succeeding centuries.
In Europe a yellow kind developed into fodder beet. In Germany it was known as Mangoldwurzel (beet root), which was corrupted to Mangelwurzel (root for time of need) because it would only be eaten when nothing else was available.
However, until well after medieval times, beet roots remained long and relatively thin. The first mention of a swollen root seems to have been in a botanical work of the 1550s and what is recognized as the prototype of the modern beetroot, the ‘Beta Roman’ of Daleschamp, dates back only to 1587.
In Britain the common beets were originally all light in colour. The red beet, when introduced in the 17th century, was described by Gerard (1633) with some enthusiasm (‘a most excellent and delicate sallad’). It soon found its way into the recipe books. Evelyn (1699) declared that cold slices of boiled red beetroot (such as are still familiar to everyone in Britain) made ‘a grateful winter Sallet’, while adding that it was ‘by the French and Italians contriv'd into curious figures to adorn their Sallets’. The anonymous authors of Adam's Luxury and Eve's Cookery (1744) gave two recipes, one for frying red beets as a garnish for carp and other fish, and the other ‘To make the Crimson Biscuit of red Beet-roots’.
The scarlet colour of beetroot is due to the combination of a purple pigment, betacyanin, and a yellow one, betaxanthin. Yellow roots have little of the former. The pigments are much more stable than most red plant colours, and are sometimes extracted and used as edible food colourings.
A cultivated beetroot may be as small as an orange or as large as a grapefruit. Although red, globular varieties are dominant, there are some with flattened tops, some with golden or even white flesh, and some which are shaped like thick carrots. Prolonged cooking makes the colour fade. When whole beetroot is boiled, the skin is left on to avoid damage to the cells and letting the colour leak out.
See borshch, for what is probably the best-known beetroot dish.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
Evelyn, John (1699), Acetaria: A Discourse of Sallets, facsimile edn, London: Prospect Books (1982).
Gerard, John (1633), The Herbal, New York: Dover.
