cookingPickle Relish Sweetened with Honey

Which would you choose?  Technicolor store pickle relish (top) or homemade pickle relish (bottom)?

I’ve been doing more and more label reading, especially on things I used to simply take for granted.  Case in point:  pickle relish.  We normally only use a few jars a year, so I never paid any attention to the ingredients of the commercial product.  I finally took a look, and here’s what we’ve got:

• Cucumbers
• High Fructose Corn Syrup
• Corn Syrup
• Cauliflower
• Vinegar
• Salt
• Dehydrated Red Peppers
• Spices
• Xanthan Gum
• Calcium Chloride
• Alum
• Natural Flavors
• Polysorbate 80
• Yellow 5
• Blue 1

Sheesh!  HFCS and corn syrup?  Two kinds of artificial color?  Aluminum?  You know it’s time for a real food substitution.

I went looking in Putting It Up With Honey, and was amazed at the number of relish options.  I chose the basic Cucumber Relish.

Homemade Pickle Relish Sweetened with Honey Recipe

Yield:  6 pints

4 cups cucumbers
1 cup green pepper
1/2 cup red pepper
3 cups onion
3 cups celery
1/4 cup salt
1 3/4 cup honey
2 cups vinegar
1 tablespoon celery seed
1 tablespoon mustard seed
1 tablespoon coriander

Gather ingredients:

My peppers are not doing well this year, so I dug a few packages of mixed bell peppers out of the freezer.  I bought bulk organic spices in the natural foods section at Festival.  The onions – believe it or not – are from last season, and have kept in the root cellar all this time.  We’ve almost used them all up.  The leafy stuff is homegrown celery, which I teamed up with some organic celery from the store.  I bought the honey in bulk from a local apiary.

Finely chop all the vegetables.

This actually took more time than anything else, as I chopped some things by hand.  I’m still getting used to my new food processor and was not sure how to get piece size that I wanted.

Combine in a large bowl.  Sprinkle with salt, cover with cold water, and let stand five hours.  (I missed this the first time I read the directions.  I ended up letting mine stand overnight and canning the next morning.)

Drain thoroughly in a colander, pressing out excess liquid.

Combine honey, vinegar, and spices.  Bring to a boil.  Stir in drained vegetables and simmer for 10 minutes.

Pack into hot sterilized jars to within 1/2 inch from the top.

Complete Seals.  Process for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath.

I ended up with 9 cups of relish rather than 6 pints, I think because my produce was very high in moisture due to record rains so a lot of liquid drained out.

I think mama would be proud, and I know my family will be eating just a little less chemical laden food in the coming year.

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