Zucchini Relish

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ZUCCHINI RELISH

INGREDIENTS:

12 cups grated raw zucchini squash                          1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg                                               3/4 teaspoon turmeric
2 large red or green bell peppers finely chopped          5 tablespoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoon celery seed                                  2 1/2 cups apple vinegar
5 cups sugar                                                          1/4 cup cornstarch, more or less
4 cups grated onion


Mix grated zucchini squash and bell peppers.  Cover with salt.  Let set all night. Next day drain and rinse a couple times.  Mix sugar, cornstarch and spices.  Pour in vinegar and stir well.  Cook until thickens.  Add other ingredients.  Cook over medium to low heat for about 30 minutes.  Put in hot jars.  This recipe is a labor intensive and pricy but well worth the effort.

YIELD:  About 8 pints.

Above pixs taken on 04-23-13 of the last large batch my bride and myself did on June 20 and 21, 2009 and it is still preserved!  Sample tasted it to be certain and it is still fantastic.

Note:  Leave a little of the peeling on the zucchini squash in several places to give the relish additional color.

This is Mickey Porter's favorite relish. "Tweet" does me right.  If Justin Wilson was alive and had a chance to sample this relish, I guarantee you he would say, "You could put this relish on pine bark and make it taste good."  Some of our friends and relatives will eat it as you would a dessert.  Several years back, my bride Joyce aka Tweet, canned 120 pints of this stuff and we are down to the last one or two.  One word of caution, some zucchini plants are what we call a rogue plant of which the zucchini taste bitter as quinine, therefore, taste each peeled zucchini squash before you grate it.....my bride learned this the hard way and had to throw out a batch of 8 pints.  This relish will take a hot dog and burger to another level and goes very well with a side of slow cooked dried beans, etc. 

Recipe from Aline Mosteller, Adcock Family Traditions Cookbook 1997.  It is to my understanding a lady in Hayesville, NC had the original recipe and would sell canned jars of this relish to help raise money for the local Church. 

Pix below of Roy and Aline Mosteller taken in 2007:

Some humongous Mountain grown beans in their flower garden spot!

Below sequence pixs taken on June 20 and 21st, 2009 while doing a few double batches of the zucchini relish.  Click on thumbnails for a larger view:  We canned a total of 73 pints this season!

Anyone that does canning today certainly has a greater appreciation and respect for their Mothers and Grandmothers who did canning out of necessity, whereas some of us today do it more as a matter of tradition and a labor of love.  Imagine the labor and effort it would take to preserve and can food and meat items the traditional way before refrigerators, food processors, electric grinders and of course air conditioning and central heat.   Even with all the modern appliances and kitchen gadgets of today and of course air conditioning in the summer months,  recipes such as this zucchini relish is definitely a Labor of Love!  

Bill aka Mickey Porter 06-21-09.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Several have asked about the water bath canning method used for the zucchini relish versus pressure canning and I assure you this method is safe with this recipe since cooked in a vinegar mixture prior to the water bath sterilizing the jars and lids.  However, canning vegetables that have low acidic content (high ph) will require pressure canning instead of a water bath and the same goes for any type of meats canned.  The pressure canner we currently use is one made by Mirro and is 12 quart model capable of canning 13 half pints, 10 pints, and 5 quarts and the petcock weight has a 5 , 10 and 15 lbs. pressure setting.  There are plenty of information concerning canning available on cyberspace (internet) and we have an old Ball and/or Mason canning book which is pretty much generic and highly recommend some research if you don't have any experience canning OJT (On the job training) as provided by your Mother and Grand Mother!  I will insert a link to the University of Georgia that is a good starting place for canning information.  Your local county farm extension agency is a good resource for information on canning.  The beauty and safety of pressure canning is the internal temperature is raised to 240 degrees F. which kills the botulism spores and a water bath at 212 degrees F. cannot do that.  

Check this link out for pressure canning information.  

Updated pixs added on 04-23-13 by Bill aka Mickey Porter. 

LEAVING ON A SPIRITUAL NOTE

If you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, please take this moment to accept him by Faith into your Life, whereby Salvation will be attained.   

Ephesians 2:8 - 2:9 8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Romans 10:17 “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

Open this link about faith in the King James Bible.

Romans 10:9 “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

Open this link of Bible Verses About Salvation, King James Version Bible (KJV).

Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”

Micah 6:8 “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”

Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

IN GOD WE TRUST - GOD BLESS AMERICA - "FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD, THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH IN HIM SHOULD NOT PERISH, BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE"   JOHN 3:16 KJV 

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