Today, we are back in the kitchen with another canning tutorial.
This time, we’re making Amish sweet pickle relish!
I have an abundance of cucumbers, and it’s the perfect time to turn them into something delicious.
Why Make Relish?
I don’t know about you, but it’s hard to pick every cucumber at its prime—even when they’re grown on a trellis.
They blend in so well with those beautiful, green cucumber leaves!
When left on the vine too long, cucumbers get too big and start to yellow.
These extra-large cucumbers are past their prime for pickles, but they work well for relish!
We use this type of relish in our potato salad, tuna salad, and chicken salad.
Ingredients You’ll Need for This Amish Relish
Bell Peppers
This recipe calls for six bell peppers, but my peppers are still weeks away from being ripe.
So, I used my dehydrated peppers from last year. You can use dehydrated foods in canning recipes, but they must be rehydrated first.
On average, it takes about one tablespoon of dried peppers to equal one fresh bell pepper.
Since we need six bell peppers, I used six tablespoons of my pepper mixture.
I just set them in a bowl of hot water to rehydrate while I chopped and prepped the rest of the ingredients.
Cucumbers
We need 20 cups of minced cucumbers, which is approximately 15 medium-sized pickling cucumbers.
I use my food processor to get finely minced and save time.
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Onions
Next, we need six onions, minced just like the cucumbers. I’m using my food processor, but you can use a knife if you prefer.
Add the minced onions to the bowl of cucumbers.
Now, we add the rehydrated bell peppers to the cucumber and onion mixture. Give everything a good stir before adding the salt.
Salt
We need one cup of canning salt to draw out moisture from the mixture. Mix it well with all of the chopped veggies above and refrigerate for two hours.
This will help extract as much moisture as possible from the cucumber mixture.
Prepare the Brine
Ingredients for the Brine
- 4 cups of sugar
- 6 cups of distilled white vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)
- 4 tablespoons of mustard seed
- 2 teaspoons of celery seed
Mix everything together and bring it to a boil.
After the veggie mixture is done soaking, rinse it under cold running water to remove most of the salt. The mixture should be thicker and drier.
Transfer the veggie mixture into the boiling brine and boil for 10 minutes.
Canning the Relish
Prepare your canner by filling it halfway with water.
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Fill each jar halfway with water to keep them from floating. Heat the jars to prepare for the boiling hot mixture.
When you’re ready to fill them, empty the water, and ladle hot relish into the jars, leaving half an inch of headspace.
Use a debubble tool to remove air bubbles, wipe the rims clean, and screw the rings on fingertip-tight.
Place the jars in the canner, ensuring they are submerged by at least one inch of water.
Bring the water to a hard rolling boil, then process the jars for 10 minutes.
If you live above 1,000 feet elevation, adjust the time according to this canning chart.
After processing, let the jars sit in the canner for five minutes to avoid thermal shock.
The recipe yielded 10 pints of Amish sweet relish.
READ NEXT: How to Make Bread and Butter Pickles
Is the sugar just for taste? Could I reduce it in half? We rarely use sugar and I fear that will be too sweet…
Yes, you can reduce the sugar by half. You can even try leaving it out, though I can’t vouch for the taste.
There is plenty of vinegar in this brine to make the relish acidic enough to safely water bath can.