Sweet Pickle Relish

Despite the fact that the temperature is slowly cooling off here in Zone 6 I'm still slowly collecting cucumbers off the vine and continue to try different recipes with them to see what I like and what I will try again next summer. This batch went to a sweet pickle relish whose recipe I found in the Ball Blue Book of preserving.

The recipe I followed was:

Sweet Pickle Relish
1 quart chopped cucumbers
2 cups chopped onions
1 cup chopped sweet green pepper
1 cup chopped sweet red pepper
1/4 cup salt
3 1/2 cups sugar
1 TBL celery seed
1 TBL mustard seed
2 cups 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 a large saucepot. Bring to a boil. 

Add drained vegetables; simmer 10 minutes.

Pack hot relish into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space. Remove air bubbles. Adjust two-piece caps. Process 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner.

Yield: about 8 half-pints

One of the only things I changed with this recipe is the type of jars used. You shouldn't go UP in size because of the changes in density that will mess up your processing times (not enough heat the to center.) But, because I didn't have enough half-pint jars I used small 4oz jelly jars. This might work anyhow since we don't use a TON of relish at a time.

We even had enough to get almost a full half-pint for ourselves to keep in the fridge to try immediately.  Although I'm guessing the stuff that sits a while might get better flavor over time. Since it's Labor Day weekend I definitely think I'll have to grill some hotdogs and hamburgers and give this a try this weekend!