I’ve never made relish before. I was daunted by all the chopping and chopping and chopping. We do have a food processor, but it’s a bit of an ordeal for me to operate it. It’s fussy and prefers Dave. True story. But my mom gave me a 3-cup food chopper for my birthday last fall, and it gave me the courage to search out some relish recipes and give ‘er a go. Turned out great!
You’ll need:
10 cups pickling or English cucumbers, peels on, finely chopped (approximately 3 1/2 to 4 pounds)
4 cups red bell pepper, finely chopped (about 4 large peppers)
3 cups green bell pepper, finely chopped (about 2 to 3 large peppers)
1 cup celery, finely chopped (about 4 large ribs)
1 cup peeled onion, finely chopped (about 2 medium onions or 1 honking big one)
1/2 cup pickling salt
3 1/2 cups white vinegar
2 1/3 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup mustard seeds (seriously! not a typo)
2 tablespoons celery seeds
12 or 13 1/2 pint (250 ml) jars
Equivalent number of snap lids and rings
Instructions for cooking and canning:
Wash your Mason jars in hot soapy water. Rinse well. Since your relish jars will be boiling in the water bath for 10 minutes, you don't need to pre-sterilize but they’ve got to start out clean.
Put the chopped vegetables in a large bowl or stainless steel pot. Add the pickling salt (I only had table salt, so used that instead), stir to blend, cover, and let stand at room temperature for at least 4 hours.
After 4 hours, move the vegetables to a large colander to drain, and rinse thoroughly with cold water. Using your hands, squeeze out excess liquids. (I had to do this step in stages of small batches with a metal strainer because my large colander has holes that are too big and some of my precious, finely chopped vegetables would have shot straight down the drain.)
Start heating your water bath. If you are working in a cold kitchen with AC blasting, put your jars into the water bath to heat up as well. You don’t want boiling relish going into chilled jars.
In a large stainless steel pot (well rinsed if it’s the one that held the salted veg), combine the vinegar, sugar, mustard seeds, and celery seeds. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
Add the well-drained vegetables and stir to blend. Bring back to a full boil.
Then, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Put the lids in a saucepan of water and bring to a simmer. Keep them in the hot water until you are ready to use them. (Some lid manufacturers say this is no longer necessary, but I still do it.)
Quickly ladle relish into warm jars, using a wide mouth funnel. Leave about 1/2 inch (1.5 cm) headspace.
"Bubble" each jar with a skewer or chopstick to release any trapped air. Wipe each rim with a clean paper towel dipped in vinegar. Place the snap lid down and screw the ring on fingertip tight.
Put the jars into your water bath canner. Make sure there is at least an inch of water above the top of your jars. Put the canner lid on and return to the boil for 10 minutes. Don't start your timer until the water is boiling.
Remove jars from the canner or let them sit in the canner until everything calms down.
Make sure all the jars are sealed before you put them away. Any that still haven’t sealed within 24 hours go in the fridge.
