This relish is the "secret ingredient" in my egg salad, chicken salad, tuna salad, and potato salad. It adds just the right amount of sweetness and flavor. The nutmeg in the recipe also adds a subtle flavor.
Making sweet relish is a great way to use an abundance of cucumbers, zucchini, and summer squash. Sometimes, I even mix all three vegetables together. Other times, I experiment with color, making an all-yellow relish using summer squash with flecks of red bell pepper, for example.
Relish Recipe:
10 Cups grated cucumber, zucchini, yellow squash, or a combination
4 cups onions grated
1 Green Bell Pepper
1 Red Bell or Pimento Pepper
5 Tablespoons salt
Brine
2 cups vinegar
5.5 cups sugar
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tsp celery seed
1 tsp cornstarch or 1 Tablespoon Clear Jel (See Notes for additional information)
Mix the first five ingredients and let stand overnight. The next morning, drain and rinse with cold water. Using your hands, squeeze excess water from the grated vegetables.
Add remaining ingredients. Boil for 30 minutes, stirring often. Seal in hot jars. (I process for five minutes in a hot water canner.)
Notes:
The original recipe calls for cornstarch which has always worked well for me. Newer USDA canning guidelines do not advocate using cornstarch.
1 Tablespoon of Clear Jel, approved for canning, can be substituted.
I like a thicker relish and usually make less brine than called for in the original recipe. I typically cut the brine recipe in half and pack my jars tighter.