Green Tomato Sweet Pickle Relish

This recipe is found at GeniusKitchen.com. I really love this relish. It’s not that hard to make and we use it to make tuna salad and potato salad. It’s good on hot dogs, too.

In the picture above, note that I used the nearest third to make the relish. I ended up with four half-pints, so I’ll probably make more tomorrow. I don’t think four half-pints will be enough for the coming year.

The ingredients:

4 cups chopped green tomatoes

1 large sweet onion, chopped

1 large bell pepper, chopped (red is prettiest)

2 Tbsp. canning salt

1 cup sugar

1 Tbsp. mustard seed

1 tsp. celery seed

4 whole cloves

1 cup vinegar (I used cider vinegar)

 I start by rough chopping 4 cups of green tomatoes, a large sweet onion, and a large bell pepper.

Then I put the tomatoes, onion, and pepper into a food processor. I carefully pulse the processor until the vegetables are chopped small, but not pureed. It’s tricky and you have to be careful. I put the vegetables into a large bowl and stir in the salt. Let it sit for an hour and then drain through a fine strainer.

Put four cloves into a spice bag. I used a disposable tea bag. In a large pot, stir together the drained vegetables, sugar, mustard seed, celery seed, and the spice bag. Stir in the vinegar. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 20 minutes. Remove the bag of cloves. Ladle into 1/2 pint canning jars. Leave 1/2-inch of head space. Screw the lids on tightly. Process in a hot water bath for ten minutes.

So, here’s how I did the hot water bath processing . . . I’ve got a massive 7-quart pressure cooker, but that thing is too much of a beast to can only 4 half-pint jars. Instead, I put my metal steamer basket in the bottom of my largest stock pot and filled the pot with water, nearly to the top. I brought the water to a boil while the relish was simmering. I also had my tea kettle over a flame for more hot water as needed. Once the water in the pot was at a full boil, and the relish had been put into the jars and sealed, I placed each jar carefully into the boiling water and and made sure they were covered with boiling water from the kettle. Once the water came back to a boil, I set the timer for ten minutes. The trick is the metal steamer basket. I’ve tried water bath canning without a rack in the bottom of the pot and ended up with broken jars and a big mess. My metal steamer basket allows the boiling water to bubble without rocking the jars. Different shape jars and sizes pots and steamer baskets would suggest that you make sure it will all fit as necessary before beginning the process. Please consult a canning expert if you have never done any home canning before. I am certainly not an expert.

Note to self: ran out of cider vinegar and made a second batch using white-wine vinegar. It is marked #2 on the lids. See what you think.