Canning Sweet Pickle Relish

So the pickling cucumbers in my garden are keeping me on my toes.  So far this year I have canned 2 batches of dill spears, 1 batch of bread and butter, and now a batch of dill pickle relish.  This was a first for me, so there will be some things I do differently next time, but overall I think it turned out good.

The ingredients were pretty simply:
1/2 c canning salt
2 c. vinegar
1 T cornstarch
about 10-12 cucumbers
2 red peppers
2-3 onions
5 c sugar
1 t tumeric
1 t celery seed
1 t of mustard seed

First, don't peel the pickles.  I used my mandolin and my 3.5 mm julienne blade to slice them into strips.  Then I diced the strips up into fairly small pieces.  I did the same with the onions and red peppers.  I mixed all of that into a large bowl and tossed in the canning salt and then added 8 c of boiling water and let it set for 1 hour.  As it sat and cured I mixed the vinegar, sugar, tumeric, cornstarch, celery seed, and mustard seed in a large pot.  After the hour was up, it was time to drain the water from the relish mix.  I used my strainer for this process.

After that I mixed the relish into the liquid mixture that was waiting in the pot.  I brought it all to a boil then continued boiling for another 35-49 minutes.  If the mixture is a little liquidy keep going to get it to firm up.  As this was boiling, I got my roasting pan going with the jars and lids so they would be sterilized.  If you time it right, your jars are ready about the same time as your relish is.  I put 6 pints in the roasting pan, but I was skeptical I would get 6 and I was right.

I got 5 pints out of this.  I think if I do it again I will change a few things.  First, I will use more cucumbers.  I got too few pints and I think it was a bit watery for me.  Second, I will tame down the turmeric.  It is a little overpowering.  Third, I might try cider vinegar and see if that improves the tartness.

I should get a few more rounds of pickling cucumbers from the garden.  I think I would like to try another bread and butter batch and then I will try my hand at a pickle and hot pepper dill relish.  That one will be for my dad :-)