Sweet Pickle Relish

Photo by me, Doris

The camera's flash makes the relish look lighter than it really is.

The description for this recipe was "Best Sweet Pickle Relish Ever".   You can check out the original source for this recipe at:

http://canningandpreserving.net/pickle-relish-best-sweet-pickle-relish-ever/html

I tried it............ to the tune of making 18 of 1/2 pint jars.  With that amount, I'm hoping it IS good!

Ingredients needed:

15-20 large over-grown cucumbers (well, not so big that they're turning yellow, though)
4 large green peppers
3 large red peppers  (I used green ones in place of these, too, making it 7 green peppers.)
5 large onions

Grind the above four together.  I used the grating blade on my Cuisinart food processor for this, but some of the seeds do slip through with that (they can be picked out later, if desired).  Heat and boil 10 minutes in 3 quarts of water.  To start out with, this requires a large, large kettle-- I used the canning kettle that I use for the hot water baths, stirring often to make sure nothing was sticking on the bottom.  (It cooks 'down' quite a lot, making us wonder why we started with such a big kettle.)

After boiling for 10 minutes, drain well.  What to drain this in?  That's what I wondered, too.  I used a sort of jersey type material that I 'clothespinned' around the edge of my large pressure canning kettle.  With no small children in the working vicinity, I carefully ladled the hot boiling mixture into that, held it up in the air until most of the liquid was out; then I took the 'load' of hot stuff and set in into my dish drain pan over the sink-- that way, it could drip away until it was dripped out.  : )    In the meanwhile,............................

In another large kettle, combine these ingredients:

5 cups white vinegar
2 tablespoons salt (pickling salt, or uniodized salt works best)
4 cups sugar
3/4 teaspoon celery seed
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
4 teaspoons of mustard seed

Bring the above vinegar/sugar/spice mixture to a boil; add the drained mixture and return to boiling;  then turn heat way down, and cook all for 10 more minutes.

Fill sanitized canning jars and place hot lids/rings on them.  Process in a water bath canner or steam canner for 15 minutes (I processed these in my presssure cooker).

For the amount of ingredients I had, I ended up with 18 of 1/2 pint jars of relish (or, 9 pints).