Thursday, August 21, 2008

Canning Sweet Pickle Relish


All the rainy weather has given us a bumper crop of cucumbers, so I consulted my trusty Ball Blue Book and decided to try a sweet cucumber relish for the first time. It only used up 6 cucumbers, but every day I'm trying to keep up with the garden, so it helps.

Sweet Pickle Relish

6 cucumbers, peeled and chopped
2 medium onions, peeled and chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1/4 cup salt
3 cups sugar
2 cups cider vinegar
1 Tbsp. celery seed
1 Tbsp. mustard seed

I put the cucumbers, onions and peppers in chunks into my food processor and whirred them around until they were in small pieces, but you can also hand chop your vegetables.

Place vegetables in a large bowl. Sprinkle with salt and mix around. Cover with cold water and let stand 2 hours, or overnight.

Drain and press out excess liquid in a colander.

Combine sugar, vinegar, celery seed and mustard seed in a non-reactive large pot. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar.

Add drained vegetables and bring to boil again. Lower heat and simmer 10 minutes.

Pack into hot sterilized pint jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space. Place caps on and tighten. Place in hot water bath and process for 10 minutes.

Makes 4 pint jars.

1 comment:

Gluten free Kay said...

Yum! I made some sweet pickles with my first ripe cukes, but I haven't made any relish yet. I made the zucchini relish from the Blue Book last year. It was very pretty and tasty.

Oprah's best friend, Gayle, introduced a chef who made grilled cheese with bbq short ribs and pickled red onion. I'm thinking of pickling some red onions in a mild brine. They'd probably be good on LOTS of different sandwiches!