Relish Questions

[April Manier]

I have never used slicing cukes and some folks say no.

I have never used flour in my recipe. I think it is a recipe for disaster! It seems like the flour would cause rot?

You can always drain a little liquid off when you crack the jar, as it will settle.

I love relish! Having it around to use for various things is a must. there is no replacing it!

 

[RidgebackRanch]

Well that settles it, no more flour or cornstarch and fill those jars up a little more.

Last nights batch was a chipotle pepper pickle relish. The next one will be smoked onion and habanero, and that will be about all from this years garden. I can hardly wait until next year try try some batches with the extra zukes etc. !

Thanks everybody for all the advice!

 

[April Manier]

OK..
You can't tease us with recipe names like that and not dish!

 

[RidgebackRanch]

The chipotle pickle relish consisted of : 4 quarts diced cukes, 1 1/2 quatrs diced sweet onion, 1 diced red bell pepper, 1 can chipotles in adobo sauce, 1tsp each celery seed, dill seed, tumeric, ground ginger, 2 1/2 cups sugar, 4 cups vinegar and 1 cup water. The cukes and onions were given 1/4 cup canning salt and left to sit overnight. The next day as much moisture as possible is squeezed out of the cuke and onion mixture, and mixed with the rest of the ingredients and simmer for about 45 minutes. Process in jars as usual. It has a nice kick to it lacks the smokey flavor I was going for. Maybe leaving out the normal relish seasonings would help that.

The smoked onion habanero relish has yet to happen, but this is the plan.

About 8 pounds of onions and 30 or so habaneros smoked on a charcoal grill. All of that chopped up and mixed with some sugar and salt to taste with vinegar and a little water. I will post later as to the outcome of this one.

We are probably going to get frost tomorow morning or the next day so it might not happen until Sunday.

I was told recently that the Scoville Scale numbers indicate how manys drops of sugar water needed to dilute one drop a capsasian (sp?) oil from a particular pepper. We have added chopped jalapenos and habaneros to bread and butter pickles and it adds good heat to them without being over powering. Meaning using hot peppers in recipes that have reasonable amounts of sugar cuts much of the killer heat.

This sure is fun!

 

[cityfarmer]

I always wait a month or more before eating my canned goods. I use whatever cucumbers are ripe when I am ready to can which would include slicing cucumbers. To be honest, I didn't realize there was a difference the first few years and it seems to work out fine. Jars all sealed and it tasted great!