Squash Relish and link to Zucchini Crisp Recipe

My Canning Cellar

Squash Relish

• 10 cups chopped yellow summer squash and zucchini squash
• 2 large onions, chopped
• Mixed color peppers to equal about one large, chopped
• 6 tablespoons canning salt
• 4 cups white sugar
• 3 cups apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon each dill seed
• 1 tablespoon ground mustard
• 1 tablespoon ground turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

Using my food processor, I chopped the summer squash and the zucchini, the two onions, and the peppers into uniform small pieces, and now that I’m looking ahead to entering canned goods in September’s Tunbridge Fair I made sure they were as uniform as possible, then I tossed them together and let them set in the refrigerator overnight. All the recipes I had looked at either said drain for two hours or drain overnight.

The next morning I drained them as recipes called for although there was literally nothing to drain, the squash mixture was all nice and dry. But after following the ‘rinse’ instruction, I had to wait for the water to drain out.

Then I re-read the recipe and saw my error. I was supposed to have added the salt to the squash mixture and let THAT all set. So I added the salt and let it set for two hours. Then I rinsed, drained, rinsed again, adding two hours to my overall time because I neglected to read every word of the recipes I borrowed from.

After realizing my salt omission error, I Googled to see if it was absolutely necessary to add it to the sitting mixture, and couldn’t decide yes or no, so I just decided to do so.

While waiting for the water to drain for the last time, I pulled out my large stainless steel stock pot and combined the sugar, vinegar, the dill seed, ground mustard, the ground turmeric, ground nutmeg and the pepper and brought it all to a boil. I used the wooden spatula to stir it occasionally. The sugar tended to make the mixture stick a bit to the sides of the pot which is where my silicone daisy was used. Then I added the squash mixture and let it come back to a boil, then I reduced the heat, letting it simmer for 15 minutes.

I used my canning funnel and ladle to fill all the hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. I ended up with the store jelly jar, the pint canning jar, and eight 8 ounce canning jars. After filling the jars, I used my debubble tool to not only remove the bubbles but also to adjust the headspace as my tool relocated some of the mixture, I wiped the rims down with a vinegar cloth, put on the lids, and finger tightened the rings.

I water bathed these for 20 minutes, making sure the hot water covered the tops of the jars by at least two inches. My elevation is over 1000 feet above sea level which is why I did it for 20 minutes. I had read that the 20 minutes would be for pints, and whenever mixed size jars are used I always go by the most time.

I removed the jars about ten minutes after they were processed, which meant the 20 minute timing started after it came to a rolling boil, and I left them alone on the canning table until the next day, when I checked to be sure they had each sealed.

I said that I used a jelly jar from store bought jelly. The reason I did this is to experiment with using those types of jars that have the push-down middle button, similar to regular canning lids. I have read many times that these jars are okay to use in water bath canning, and I figured if it did not seal, then that one would go into the fridge. And I put it in the fridge anyway just to err on the side of caution.
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/230708/zucchini-crisp/