No backyard barbecue, picnic or celebration is complete without a good pickle relish. Pickles tend to be too long to really sit nicely inside a hot dog or brat bun, but relish fills in all those empty spaces just perfectly- but it’s so hard to find dill pickle relish (good or otherwise).
There aren’t a lot of pickle relish options available on the market- and the ones that are are usually sweet pickle. As an ardent dill pickle lover, I am, perhaps unjustly so, a ferverent sweet pickle hater. That means that I can’t relish at the relish at most backyard grill-outs. My solution? Bring home-made dill pickle relish as a housewarming/party gift to every one I attend! Boom. Problem solved, plus I just brought a present!
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Dill Pickle Relish
Of course that meant I had to make a dill pickle relish I liked… Luckily I have perfected my Dill Pickle recipe over the years, so I figured I could use some tricks from that, as well some I learned from when I pickled pears to come up with a truly satisfying relish.
Recipe for Dill Pickle Relish
Start with several medium size cucumbers (6 or 7). Wash completely and thoroughly, and cut off any bad spots, but leave as much skin as you can- that’s where the green color will come from in your relish.
Shred the cucumber using a grater or a food processor (I use and love my Cuisinart 14-Cup Food Processor)
Mince the jalapeños in a food processor– 3 or 4 jalapeños are easier to break up in this fashion, plus then you don’t have to worry about getting pepper juice on your fingers.
Note: If you want to remove some of the heat, cut open the jalapeños before mincing in the food processor and remove seeds. The spicy heat is in the seeds.
Combine the cucumbers and jalapeños. Then, in a large, non-reactive pot, boil apple cider vinegar, pickling salt, dill seed, mustard seed and celery seed together. Once it has boiled mix everything together to boil for another 10 minutes.
Water Bath Canning:
As you’re cooking the relish liquid, fill a separate water bath pot with water. Put on stove at high heat and cover so that it will be boiling by the time you are ready to use for the Water Bath Canning.
Sanitize and clean pint glass jars with steaming hot water, or by running them through the dishwasher.
Put canning jar lid tops in hot water to soften wax around rims for an easier seal.
Using your clean and sterilized canning jars, pour the mixture into each jar. Wipe rims of filled jars with a clean cloth (this assures that there is nothing on the rims that will keep the softened wax from sealing). Place lids from hot water on jar top, hold securely in place and screw on bands.
Place jars in boiling hot water bath using a jar lifter. Process (by leaving jars fully submerged under water) in water bath for 15 min. Remove and allow to cool and seal for up to 24 hours.
Store the pickle-relish-filled jars in a cool, dark place.
The canned Dill Pickle Relish will last at least a year in a cool, dark place on your shelf, unless you eat it faster.
Instructions
Making the Relish
Shred all of the cucumbers into small pieces by using a cheese grater. Mince the jalapeño peppers.
In a large stainless steel pot boil vinegar, salt, seeds and halved garlic cloves. Once the liquid mix has come to a boil, add veggies; cucumbers and jalapeños.
Bring liquid mixture back to a boil. Simmer on medium heat for 10 minutes.
Pour hot liquid mixture into cleaned and sanitized pint jars.
Hot Water Bath Canning
Sanitize and clean pint glass jars with steaming hot water, or by running them through the dishwasher.
As you’re cooking the relish liquid, fill a separate water bath pot with water. Put on stove at high heat and cover so that it will be boiling by the time you are ready to use for the Water Bath Canning.
Put canning jar lid tops in hot water to soften wax around rims for an easier seal.
Wipe rims of filled jars with a clean cloth. Place lids from hot water on jar top, hold securely in place and screw on bands.
Place jars in boiling hot water bath using a jar lifter. Process (leaving jars fully submerged under water) in water bath for 15 min. Remove from boiling water and let cool.
Enjoy your homemade dill relish on burgers, brats, hot dogs, in potato salads or anything else which could be accentuated with scrumptious pickle flavoring!
