Homemade Sweet Pickle Relish

Chop cucumbers. In a large crock or stock pot, place the chopped cucumbers (just the cucumbers). Cover the cucumbers with ice and the pickling salt. Allow to rest overnight or about 8 hours. This will pull excess moisture from the cucumbers.

The next day, drain the cucumbers, and chop up the peppers and onion (see note below). Combine them all together. In a separate pot, combine vinegar, sugar, turmeric, mustard seed and celery seed. Bring mixture to a boil and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Pour mixture over top of the cucumber, pepper and onion mixture. (You may want to re-drain the vegetables so that your relish is not too diluted.)

Place into sterile jars. You can use a slotted spoon to fill the jars and fill the jars the rest of the way with liquid. Leave 1/4″ air space, clean the rims, place on the rings and lids and process in a water bath or pressure canner according to manufacturer’s directions for your altitude and jar size.

Note: To chop all of the vegetables, you will want to use a food processor if available. Pulse about 8 times; do not over chop or you will puree the vegetables into a mess. I don’t mind larger chunks here and there but ideally the pieces should be somewhat uniform in size so that they will spread smoothly onto whatever your serving it with.