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Welcome to my blog! I love to cook and bake for my family. I hope you enjoy the recipes, foodie reviews, foodie giveaways and cooking tips posted on my blog.

How to Print Recipes: You can print out each individual recipe featured on this blog by clicking the "share" button at the bottom of each post. It will open up to show you options, click on print and another window will open up with the recipe inside it for printing. You can also use the SHARE button to email a copy of the recipe to yourself for printing later.

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Home Canning - Cucumber Relish Recipe

This past year our backyard garden did better than ever! I don't know if it's because we changed fertilizer or because we had a lot of wet weather this past growing season. Regardless, I think my 6 cucumber plants must of put out over 75+ fresh cucumbers this year!

When I make cucumber relish I use the recipe from the Ball Blue Book - Guide to Preserving. Here's the recipe. This recipe will yield about 6 pint jars...although most of the time I get 7 pint jars out of it.

Home Canning - Cucumber Relish Recipe

8 medium cucumbers, chopped
2 cups green bell peppers, chopped
2 cups red bell peppers, chopped
1 cup onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp. turmeric
1/2 cup Ball Salt for Pickling and Preserving
4 quarts water, divided
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 quart vinegar, 5% acidity
2 cinnamon sticks
1 tbsp. mustard seed
2 tsp. whole allspice
2 tsp. whole cloves

Note: instead of using mustard seed...I use 1 tbsp. dry mustard.

Prep: Wash cucumbers and green & red bell peppers under cold running water, drain. Cut ends off of each cucumber and coarsely chop into pieces (with skin's on and removing seeds as you go along). Cut off stems from peppers and remove seeds and membranes. Chop peppers into small pieces. Cut onion into finely chopped pieces.  Combine all of the chopped cucumbers, bell peppers and onions in a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle the turmeric over the veggies. Combine 2 cups of cold water and salt together, stirring until the salt dissolves. Pour salted water into the bowl and stir. Cover the bowl and place into the refrigerator for 4 hours. Remove from refrigerator and drain away the liquid. Pour 2 quarts of water over vegetables, re-cover the bowl and let stand 1 hour in the refrigerator; drain. Tie whole spices in a spice bag.

Cook: Combine spice bag, sugar and vinegar in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Ladle hot pickling liquid over the vegetables. Cover and let stand in the refrigerator for 12 to 18 hours (I usually just do overnight). Remove from refrigerator and place in a large saucepan or stockpot. Bring mixture to a full boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer and simmer until the mixture is hot throughout.

Fill: Pack hot relish into a hot jar, leaving a 1/2" headspace. Remove air bubbles and wipe the jar rim clean. Place hot seal onto a hot jar. Add the band and adjust until it's finger-tip tight. Place jar on the rack above simmering water in your water bath canner. Repeat until all jars are filled.

Process:  Lower the rack into simmering water. Water must cover jars by 1 inch. Adjust heat to medium-high. Cover your canner and bring the water to a full boil. Process pint jars for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and remove the cover. Let the jars sit in the hot water for an additional 5 minutes. Remove jars and let them cool on the counter for 12 hours. Double check seals after they have cooled to make sure they sealed properly.

Print Recipe: You can print out this recipe by clicking on the SHARE button located at the bottom of this post. A new window will open. Click on PRINT and the recipe will load into the window for fast printing. Enjoy!

1 comment:

jopb said...

I have enjoyed reading all your home canning recipes. They have inspired me to think hard about starting canning. When I start I shall refer to the Ball book and these recipes.