Amber Relish Recipe

Here goes relish recipe number three.

My Mom has made this recipe since she was my age. She received this recipe from a lady she worked with at a textile factory. Now I am not going to say how long ago that was but most will know there has not been textile factories in North America from some time. The ladies name was Rose and she sewed elastics into underwear until she retired at 73, now that's dedication.

This relish is very similar to a bread & butter pickle recipe and has a lovely yellow colour thanks to the turmeric. This recipe has a much milder taste.

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Amber Relish
yeilds 8 500ml jars (8 pint jars)

7 liter (7 quart) basket of cucumbers
9-12 onions, the size of cooking onions
2 large red bell peppers
1/4 cup pickling salt
4 cups white vinegar
4 cups white sugar
1/2 cup flour
1 tablespoon mustard seed
1 teaspoon celery seed
1 teaspoon turmeric

This recipe is best done with very large pickling cucumbers(8"-9", called relish cucumbers) or field/slicing cucumbers.

Start by removing the skin of the cucumbers followed by removing the seeds and membrane. If you can only find dill pickle size cucumbers just remove the skin as there is next to no seeds in the smaller cucumber.



Now use a food grinder to grind up the cucumbers, onions & peppers. After all is ground you should have approx. 15 cups of ground vegetables.



Discard the juice and then place the ground vegetables in two large bowls. Now add 1/8 cup pickling salt to each bowl and pour boiling water over the vegetables until just covered, stir and let sit for 3 hours.

Then transfer into a colander to drain, then rinse and press most of the moisture out. Now add 3 1/2 cups vinegar & 4 cups sugar to a deep pot and bring to a boil. Well that is heating add the 1/2 cup of flour to a small bowl and slowly whisk in the remaining 1/2 cup of vinegar to form a paste. Once the vinegar solution is boiling whisk the flour paste in vigorously until thickened. Then stain the solution if lumps have formed and return to the pot. Now add all the spices, bring to the boil and add the ground vegetables. Boil mixture for 2 minutes once the boil is reached.

Now ladle the relish into hot sterilized jars, place the sealer lid on and tighten lids until it is just tight. Then place the jars in a canner and boil for 10 minutes once the boil is reached.

After 10 minutes transfer the jars to a t-towel and let cool.