Million Dollar Pickle Cucumber Relish

Have you ever grown cucumbers only to wonder what you will do with seven cukes laying on your kitchen counter? Even then I knew I had many more almost ready to pick in the kitchen garden. I grew Cucumber ‘Garden Oasis’ and ‘Persian Baby’ and grow they did. I devoted a whole raised bed to cucumbers and cucamelons. I made cucumber salads, cucumber water and ice cream bucket pickles but still had lots of cucumbers. I suddenly remembered a recipe I got years ago from a customer. You see I worked in a grocery store years ago and an elderly lady shared her recipe for relish with me. I wondered if I still had it. I found the carefully typewritten note among my other hand written recipes. Yes, it was time to try out million dollar pickle cucumber relish. I love relish and hoped it would be easy to make.

The recipe below says use a mincer on the vegetables. I have no idea what a mincer is. I used my food processor to chop the 6 pounds of cucumbers. That’s about 6-8 good-sized cucumbers. I have a kitchen scale so I used it to make sure I got the six pounds needed.

For the onions I used Walla Walla onions as they are sweeter. I chopped them a bit too fine.  They were added to the large bowl of chopped cucumber.

Next I chopped up red peppers pulsing carefully as I wanted it a bit chunky.

Next was the green pepper and the vegetables were done. Hmmm…. look how full my largest bowl is. How would I be able to add the brine which included two quarts of water? I mix the vegetables together well and split them up between two large bowls. Remember they will need to go in the fridge so use a size that works for you. I loved being able to do all the vegetable prep work the night before and I placed the veggies in the fridge overnight.  This filled two large bowls right to the brim once the salt water brine was poured on. The next morning I drained the vegetables using a colander. Take your time to really let them drain well. This gives you time to get your boiling water bath going and to mix up your dry ingredients.

I mixed up all the dry ingredients such as spices, cornstarch and sugar and added the vinegar. Now here in Canada we don’t measure in quarts so I used 4-250ml cups of vinegar. Mixing the vegetables and the sugar mix can be done in a large canning pot.  I brought the relish mixture to a boil and turned down the heat so it would simmer for 40 minutes. Once it was cooked I was ready to place it in jars and process it.

Here is the original recipe below. Now when I read bottle and seal that was when I thought I better bring this up to current canning standards. I sure don’t want to make anyone sick by not canning things right. I placed the relish into warm sterilized jars, wiped the rims carefully before placing seals and rings on the jars. Once the relish was in jars I placed them in a boiling water bath in a large canner and processed for 15 minutes. Be sure to have the boiling water cover your jars at all times. Remove jars carefully using tongs and let cool. Label your jars with product and date. So how does it taste? Its sweet and isn’t something you eat alone. I look forward to trying it on a hotdog or hamburger very soon. After all, it’s what makes a good hotdog, right?

Milllion Dollar Pickle ( Cucumber Relish) Original recipe

6 lb. cucumbers  (do not peel) I would remove some of the seeds when I make this again.

2 lbs. onions, cut in wedges

3 red peppers, remove seeds and membrane

2 green peppers, remove seeds and membrane

Method:

Put cucumbers, onions and peppers through a mincer ( I used a food processor). Cover with 1/2 cup of coarse salt to 2 quarts of water. Let stand overnight. Drain and rinse.

Mix

2 tsp. dry mustard

1 tbsp. turmeric

2 tsp. mustard seed

1 tsp. celery seed

1/4 cup cornstarch

4 cups white sugar

Blend spices, cornstarch and sugar with 1 quart of vinegar.  Pour over pickle mixture-cook 40-45 minutes, bottle and seal.