Nothing fancy, just a humble homemade sweet pickle relish. But it’s downright good. In fact, it’s the best I’ve ever had. It adds a wonderful dimension to your sandwiches, hot dogs, pasta and potato salads. So easy to make with instructions for canning so you can enjoy it all the year long.
This Summer I canned up a storm!
I have a variety of goodies I want to share with you, and we’ll start with this one. This relish is simple to make. You can use a food processor to chop the vegetables, but that can often result in a more mushy texture. I prefer to chop them by hand, or by knife rather. ;)
Let’s get started!
Peel the cucumbers and thinly slice them lengthwise. Slice them into strips, discarding the inner strip of seeds. Very finely dice the cucumbers.
Very finely dice the onions. You can use a food processor, just don’t let the onions get mushy.
Very finely dice the red bell peppers.
Place the diced vegetables in a large bowl along with the salt. Cover with water and let it sit for at least 6 hours or overnight.
Put the sugar, vinegar and spices in a large stock pot and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat to a low boil and simmer for 5 minutes.
Drain the cucumber mixture in a colander, thoroughly rinse, and drain again. Add the mixture to the stock pot. Ignore the metal tea gadget in the picture. I was originally going to let it simmer with the allspices berries inside so they could be easily removed afterwards, but that’s pretty pointless. The 4 allspices berries are plenty easy to fish out later on, or just leave them in, like I ended up doing. They look cool in the bottles!
Return to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Discard the bay leaf.
Ladle the hot relish into the jars, leaving 1/4 inch of headspace. Wipe the rims of the jars clean and seal tightly with the lids. Process the jars in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.
Sealed jars will keep in a cool, dark place for at one year. If the seal has broken, the relish will keep in the fridge for one month.
- 2½ lbs cucumbers, peeled, center row of seeds removed, and finely diced
- 1 large sweet onion (such as Vidalia or Walla Walla)
- 1 large red bell pepper, finely diced
- ¼ cup kosher or pickling salt (neither of these have additives which is important for canning)
- 3 cups white granulated sugar
- 2 cups cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon brown mustard seeds
- 2 teaspoons celery seeds
- 4 whole allspice berries
- 1 bay leaf
- Place the diced cucumbers, onion, and red bell pepper in a large mixing bowl. Combine with the salt and pour water over the mixture until covered. Let sit for at least 6 hours or overnight.
- Drain the cucumber mixture in a colander, rinse thoroughly with water, and drain again.
- In a large stock pot, add the sugar, vinegar, and spices and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the drained cucumber mixture and return to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes.
- Ladle the hot relish into sterile jars, leaving ¼ inch of headspace. Wipe the rims of the jars clean and seal tightly with the lids.
- Process the jars in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.
- Sealed jars will store in a cool, dark place for a year. If the seal is broken, the relish will keep in the fridge for a month.
Susan says
Is it OK to use yellow mustard seed instead of brown? Or will it change the taste too much?
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Hi Susan, that’s perfectly fine.
Kelly Estes says
Do you know if you can sub in honey or coconut sugar for the white sugar? Thanks for any info you have.
Sabrina says
Hi how many cups is 2.5 pounds of cucumbers? I’m currently making this recipe but mine only made 3 pints, and lots of liquid…I used our garden cucumbers, five of them, about 6-8 inches long.
Jeanetta ANDREWS says
Can I leave the bay leaf out? I don’t have any, and I would like to try it out right away.
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Hi Jeanetta, yes, that’s no problem!
Berlinda says
hello,
can green peppers be added to this relish?
Anonymous says
I liked this recipe doing it again pushed for time
can I chop some of it tonight and the rest of it tomorrow
Lynn says
I had a fail with this recipe. It made 6 1/2 pints instead of 4 and the relish is too full of liquid. Can someone tell me what I did wrong?
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Hi Lynn, did you salt the diced cucumbers and let them sit for at least 6 hours before draining and did you remove the center seeded part of the cucumbers? Also, it’s normal for the relish to be runny at first, it will thicken up more over time.
Mominthekitchen says
I like the idea of adding allspice berry and bay leaf. I enjoyed your photo of canning endeavors but would like to point out to others reading your blog that home canned veggies should NEVER EVER we stacked one on top of the other for long term storage. If a particular jar looses its seal over time that is your cue to toss it rather than risking illness. If the item is stacked the evidence of a bad seal is lost and you risk eating something bad. Also the canning rings should be removed after jars cool and go into long term storage for the same reason.
Anonymous says
im trying this, this weekend :) now im on to find your sweet and savory dill relish you spoke of earlier :D
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Wonderful, let us know what you think!
Jodie says
Hi. Curious if I can sub ground allspice for the berries. If so… How much?
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Hi Jodie, yes you can. It’s easier to overdo it with powdered versus berries so I’d use very little, like 1/8 teaspoon.
Dorethea says
Mutti always made Printen cookies at Christmas . She was a bker so everything was in huge quantities. I have been experimenting but they always ( after a few days get hard as a rock. Do you by ant chance have a recipe.
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Hi Dorothea, I was hoping to get around to those this year but just didn’t have the time. I am getting ready to post my recipe for Lebkuchen tomorrow though which has some similar qualities. They are soft and utterly delicious!
Katie says
I’m just getting into canning and this looks like a grate starter recipe for me. But do you think adding carrots will make a big difference to the canning process?
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Hi Katie! Yes, you can absolutely add carrots and don’t need to adjust anything else for the canning process!
pascal says
and one question: if i take little “garden cucumbers”, the one with the rough and “hairy” surface (peel?), is it better to peel them ?
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Hi Pascal, if the peels are thin, they’ll work fine. I like to leave the peels on in those instances because it just looks prettier (and the peel will soften up even further as the jars sit). Some cucumbers have fairly thick, tough skins though which will result in a tougher/crunchy relish if you leave them on. In those cases I would remove the peel.
pascal says
this is very interesting, especially for me as european. i hate relishes or chutneys or vegetables in oil (sott’olio in italy) who have more acidity then the sharpest vinegar … and as i make an apple-onion-chutney every year for christmas without any reflection about a balance for the ph level. the only thing i am interested in is my taste-balance, not too sweet but more important not to sour. i have in my simple twist-off-glasses (just “sterilized” in boiling water, filled with hot mixture and NO canning method afterwards for example in the oven) exemplars that are 2 or 3 years old, without any mold or bad smell, it tastes like years ago.
thanks by the way for your recipes, even for the german ones, nice to find spätzle, i always loved them from my grandma, i still have her spätzleschwob from 1950 …
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Hi Pascal! Methods of canning are very different in the U.S. compared to Europe. Botulism is extremely rare but U.S. canning methods take extra precautions. Your Spätzleschwob is a treasure and it will last for many generations to come! I have a very old one as well and it’s one of my prized possessions.
jesusan says
This sounds nice, but I’m curious if it would work with less sugar? I tend to not like my relishes quite so sweet.
The Daring Gourmet says
I’ll actually be posting a Sweet & Savory Dill Pickle Relish shortly which has less sugar. The correct balance of sugar and vinegar is necessary to create a pH level that makes it canning-friendly. The other relish I’ll be posting has different ingredients as well as more vinegar than sugar to compensate the pH level.
jesusan says
The other recipe sounds intriguing. Given the fact that I used to do a lot of canning, including making pickles, I’m kind of surprised that I did not know about the sugar/vinegar balance. I think I just followed recipes I found. I’m glad you know about that kind of stuff. :-)
The Daring Gourmet says
There either has to be a ton of sugar or a ton of vinegar, or a combination of the two. I’ve just been learning about this myself. Having the right acidity levels prevents bacteria from forming. This all raises an interesting question though. The funny thing is, in Europe they bottle just about anything without worrying about the inclusion of sugar or vinegar. Europe is way more lax on the botulism scare than the U.S. is. But it’s also a more recent thing in the U.S. as well. Americans of previous generations also canned everything using the water-bath method without worrying about having the right pH balance. And they survived. I will say that while it’s good to be cautious, our culture is a bit fanatically so. (In my opinion). I actually just had a conversation with a pathologist about this very thing. He agreed that we’re overly cautious over here. He said that bacteria produces oxygen and as long as the lid hasn’t popped up there is no bacteria in it and it’s safe to eat.
jesusan says
The pathologist’s info is quite interesting. When I was canning I knew that acid foods like tomatoes could be done in a water bath, but non-acid foods like green beans needed to be pressure canned. Most jam (because of the sugar, apparently) is fine with the hot water bath, but something like pumpkin butter needs the pressure canner (that stuff went bad even with pressure canning). I agree with you that our culture is overly cautious about a lot of things, sometimes so much so (as with antibacterial soap) that we set ourselves up for the opposite of what we’re thinking we’re going to get…