Tasty Cucumber Relish

Last year I looked for a cucumber relish recipe online. I found the best relish I've ever eaten.

If you’ve never canned or pickled, PaulNoll.com gives excellent step-by-step instructions, complete with photos, of how to make the relish.

Hubby and I have made some changes to the recipe.

Here is our version.

Tasty Cucumber Relish

Vegetables
6 lbs. grated or chopped cucumbers
1 grated white onion
1 grated carrot
10 chopped or grated medium bell peppers (if possible, include some red, yellow and/or orange peppers for better color)

Mix together. Grating will make a coarser relish than chopping will.

Brine
1 T. turmeric
1/2 C. salt
8 C. water

Mix together.

Pour brine over vegetables. Stir well and let sit for 3 hours. Drain. Cover with water and let stand for 1 hour. Drain, refill with water and drain again.

Syrup
1 T. mustard seed
1 T. cinnamon
1 t. ground cloves
2 t. allspice
2 C. brown sugar
4 C. cider vinegar

Mix and bring to boil, then pour over vegetables. Let stand 10-12 hours.

Boil before filling prepared jars, leaving 1/2 inch head space. Make sure liquid covers vegetable mix. Process in water bath for 10 minutes.

Makes about 7 pint jars.

Our cucumbers are bearing prolifically right now, so we tripled the recipe this time. I thought I had enough for four batches, but the 23 lbs. I started with became 19 lbs. by the time I removed the ends and blemishes from the cucumbers and deseeded large the ones.

Unfortunately, our peppers aren’t keeping up with the cukes, so I had to buy 34 peppers at the grocery store. The cashier’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head when she saw how many peppers I had in the cart. (We’ll freeze the unused peppers.)

We mixed the recipe in storage containers because we had no other containers large enough.

The Frugal Gardener always feels so virtuous when she preserves her own food!

Cinnamon Sweet Pickles

No pickles taste better than this recipe Mother got from her neighbor. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time or really the space to do this recipe. I sure hope someone who reads this does.

When we went through our mother’s possessions after she passed away, my sister-in-love said, "We'd better enjoy these pickles while we can because I doubt that either of us has the time to make them again."

Start recipe on Thursday for scheduling.

Day 1 – 2 gal. cucumbers, peeled, seeded, cut into strips. Dissolve 2 C. dehydrated lime in enough water to cover pickles. Put in roasting pan. Let stand 24 hours with tight cover.

Day 2 – Drain and wash with cool water. Soak in cool water 3 hours. Drain. Mix 1 C. vinegar, 1 T. alum, 1 1 oz. bottle red food coloring, enough water to cover pickles. Pour over pickles. Heat and simmer 2 hours. Drain. Mix 3 C. vinegar, 3 C. water, 10 C. sugar, 8 sticks cinnamon, 1 lb. cinnamon red hots. Boil. Pour over pickles and reheat. Let stand overnight.

Day 3 – Drain, saving juice. For three mornings, reheat juice and pour back over pickles.

Day 6 – The fourth morning, reheat pickles in juice. Pack and seal in hot wide mouth jars. Water bath 5 minutes. Do not use aluminum or stainless steel pans. Makes 11-12 pts.

Mother’s notes: For Day 1 lime and Day 2 cold water, I found the big square Tupperware [cake taker] worked well. Day 2 on, I used the rectangle roaster when it was time to cook. I prepared the red hots solution in the Dutch oven and poured over cucumbers. For Days 3-5, I drained the juice from roaster into Dutch oven, reheated it and poured it back over cukes. Day 6 I just heated in the roaster, put in juice, water bathed after treating lids in aluminum pan.

Now I feel nostalgic. I can just see those red slices in one of her relish trays. I can taste them, too, a kind of sweet, hot, crunchy sensation in my mouth. Sigh.