Sweet Pickle Relish

I've got to tell you, I'm SO excited! I canned something for the very first time yesterday, and I'm as giddy as a school girl. On a temporary basis, my family and I are living at home with my parents, and this spring mom and I put in a pretty decent sized garden. We've got spaghetti squash, zucchini, cucumbers, beets, okra, green beans, tomatoes, egg plant, onions, fennel, and a few other things growing out there. Well, this year we've had a bumper crop of cucumbers. I've always wanted to learn how to can, so this weekend instead of giving the cucumbers away to friends and co-workers, I decided I was going to teach myself how to water-bath can. Talk about easy! I'm surprised I didn't do this sooner.

My first attempt at canning was making Sweet Pickle Relish. I got the recipe out of the Ball Blue Ribbon Cookbook (apparently it's the 'go to' cookbook for canning, from what I've read anyway). The recipe is really simple, and all of the produce we got from our garden, with the exception of a red pepper that we had to get from the store. We taste tested it last night and the whole family loved it! Yay me!

Sweet Pickle Relish
From: Ball Blue Ribbon Cookbook

1 Qt Chopped Cucumbers (about 4 medium sized)
2 C chopped onion (about 2 medium sized)
1 C chopped green pepper (about 1 medium sized)
1 C chopped red pepper (about 1 medium sized)
1/4 C canning salt
3 1/2 C sugar
1 Tbsp celery seed
1 Tbsp mustard seed
2 C apple cider vinegar

Combine cucumbers, onions, green and red peppers in a large bowl; sprinkle with salt and cover with cold water. Let stand 2 hours. Drain; rinse and drain thoroughly. Combine sugar, spices and vinegar in large saucepot. Bring to boil. Add drained vegetables; simmer 10 minutes. Pack hot relish into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Adjust 2 piece caps. Process 10 minutes in boiling water canner.

Yields about 8 half-pints.


I just tossed all of my veggies in the Quisinart and chopped them up that way. I also ended up letting my veggies soak in the salt water for about 5 hours (we went out for dinner), it didn't appear to affect the end product any.