This is one of the relishes that Daniel and I made the weekend of the 17th of September; it takes some time, but it is worth it. My cousin Linda says, “Added to chicken salad, egg salad, or deviled eggs it puts the taste over the edge, to say nothing about hotdogs and beans.”
This recipe makes about 5 or 6 pints, so if you’re going to go to this much work, you might as well double it so you have plenty on hand through the Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer until you make it again.
Ingredients
- 3 quarts zucchini, chopped to fit through a grinder or food processor shredding plate). Pretty big zucchini can be used with skins on, but take out the seeds.
- 1 quart yellow onions, chopped to fit into the grinder or food processor.
- 5 Tablespoons pickling salt.
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped fine.
- 1 green bell pepper, chopped fine.
- 2 1/2 cups cider vinegar
- 1 quart sugar
- 1 Tablespoon dry mustard
- ¾ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¾ teaspoon turmeric
- 2¼ teaspoons cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon celery salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
Method
- Grind the zucchini and onions together into a large non reactive container with whatever size plate you desire (a ¼ inch plate works well), add the pickling salt and stir well to dissolve the salt. Let the mixture sit overnight.
- The next day, rinse and drain the mixture by putting a little bit into a jelly bag and massaging it until there is little to no water running out. or use a chinois and pestle. As each batch is rinsed and drained add it to a kettle or dutch oven.
- When all the mixture is in the kettle, chop and add the red and green peppers, vinegar, sugar, cornstarch, and spices.
- Bring to a boil and simmer for 1 hour over medium heat. It should start to thicken a little. Much of the liquid will be gone (there will be a little left) and cook until it gets to the consistency of a relish you would put on beans.
- Put in very hot canning jars using a canning funnel (wide bottom opening so to keep the rim of jar clean) top with hot lids and most of them will seal. To be extra careful, process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.
Linda’s Notes
Mum (Phyllis) squeezed much of the water out by hand. She emphasized how important it was to get much of the water out.
I put a small sauce pan of boiling water on a burner to keep the tops in until I take one out at a time to seal the hot jars.
I get a big kettle of water boiling on the stove and keep my jars in that until I want to fill them and take them out one at a time with tongs.
Immediately fill hot jar, wipe rim with wet paper towel and put hot lids on.
They will probably all seal this way. This saves processing them.
When mum was alive she made up to 100 jars each year. Everyone that came into the house got a jar. The women at the grocery store all got a jar each year. ( She always went to the grocery store at the same time each day . It was the time of day that she could get there and back and the sun wouldn’t be in her eyes) Therefore she would see the same clerks each day and they looked forward to getting the relish each year. Even on her death bed she insisted we bring 2 jars into the doctor that attended her at the MMC. The lawn man , The carpenter, and all the family”relished’ the fact they were the chosen many to get Nana’s Zucchini Relish. The thing she looked forward to the most was finding the overgrown Zucchini on the porch. Gardeners from
every direction would deliver her their surplus. When the microburst came through she was making her relish and kept right on cooking as trees were uprooting everywhere. She was a devoted relish maker. I think she is still looking over my shoulder saying, “make sure you rinse well and get the water out!!”