Classic Sweet Pickle Relish Recipes

CLASSIC SWEET PICKLE RELISH

Steps:

• The chopped vegetables will need to sit at least 2 hours, or overnight, so begin in advance of when you want to make the relish.
• Slice the cucumbers lengthwise into quarters. With your knife flat, cut out the seeds and discard them. Or you can scoop out the seeds with a spoon.
• Chop the cucumbers into "relish-sized" pieces. I love to use my Nutri Ninja food processor for this with 3-4 pulses, but you could also chop with a knife.
• Dice the red pepper. You can put this in a food processor, but it seems to make it more "juicy" than simply chopping with a knife. It doesn't matter for this recipe though.
• Dice the onion.
• Put all the chopped vegetables in a bowl. Add the salt, and mix well. Let stand a minimum of 2 hours, or overnight. It seems like a lot of salt, but we'll drain and rinse it so the final relish won't taste overly salty.
• Start preparing your canning jars, by placing in a large pot of boiling water to sterilize. The water must cover the top of the jars. I like to use my spaghetti pot, so the jars aren't resting on the bottom of the pot.
• Put the sugar, vinegar, celery seed and mustard seed in a large pot. Bring to a boil.
• Drain and rinse the cucumber mix.
• Add the cucumber mix to the boiling vinegar mix. Bring back to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes.
• Remove the jars from the boiling water - carefully! Place them on a heat-proof surface. I use a wooden cutting board.
• Ladle the relish mix into the sterilized jars, with some of the brine, but not all or it'll be very soupy relish. Just enough liquid to make it look like store-bought relish.
• Put the canning lids on the jars. Screw on the rings until just a bit tight. The rings are just to hold the lids in place.
• Carefully put the jars back into the boiling water. Boil for 10 minutes.
• Carefully remove the jars and place back onto your heat-proof surface. All the lid centres should "pop" down over the next few minutes. If you have any that did not go down, simply wait for them to cool and put them in the fridge to use first. As long as the lids are down, the jar is sealed and no bacteria can get in. It is safe to store these jars on the shelf until you need them.

GRANDMA'S OLD-FASHIONED SWEET RELISH

Steps:

• Combine cukes, onions, ice and salt.
• Let stand for 2 hours,.
• then drain.
• Mix the next 6 ingredients in a large pot.
• Bring to a boil, add ground cuke mixture, and cook for 20 minutes, or until it begins to thicken.
• While still hot, seal in sterilized jars.
• As far as preparation time, I use Grandma's old hand grinder, so I'm sure it would be much faster with a motorized food grinder.