Pickles, Beets and Relish
Even if you don’t grow your own vegetables, you can always make pickles and relish to go with your Sunday dinners!
Pickled Beets
Ingredients:
3 tbsp pickling spice
2 1/2 cups white vinegar
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
10 cups prepared beets
8 to 10 tsp sugar (1 tsp/bottle)
Directions to prepare beets:
To prepare beets, leave root and stem intact to prevent bleeding. Scrub thoroughly and sort by by size. Put larger beets on bottom and smallest on top in large stock pot. Cover with water, bring to a boil and cook for 20 to 40 minutes (until tender). Small beets will cook faster, remove as they are done and run under cool running water. Drain and slip off the skins and remove roots and stems (use rubber gloves as it makes clean up easier). Leave baby beets whole and slice or quarter larger beets.
Directions:
Sterilize mason jars (pint or 1/2 pint size).
Tie pickling spice in cheesecloth or sheer to create a spice bag. In large stock pot combine vinegar, water, sugar and spice bag and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar. Reduce heat and boil gently for 15 minutes. Remove spice bag and add the prepared beets. Return mixture a a boil.
Using slotted spoon, ladle beets into hot jars to 1/2″ of top of jar. Ladle hot pickling liquid to cover beets (leaving 1/2″ clearance at top). Add 1 tsp sugar to each jar. Wipe rims. Centre lids and screw on caps (fingertip tight).
Place jars in canner, ensuring completely covered with water. Bring to boil and process for 30 minutes. Remove canner lid, wait 5 minutes and remove jars. Cool and store
Sweet Mustard Pickles
Ingredients:
8 cups pumpkin
3 1/2 cups white vinegar
1/2 cups water
5 cups white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp pickling spice
8 cups cauliflower
4 cups cuccumber
8 cups onion
Mustard Paste
1 cup flour
1/3 cup water
1 cup mustard OR
2 tbsp ground mustard
1 1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 cup white sugar
Directions:
Cut the pumpkin in wedges, removing the pulp and skin. Cut in chunks. Place 8 cups of chopped pumpkin to a large stock pot and add water sugar, salt and pickling spice. (I always put spice in a cheesecloth or piece of sheer material and tie it). Simmer for 30 minutes. Cut remaining vegetables in chunks (bite size) and to the pot. Simmer another 15 minutes. (Don’t overook. You want the veggies to be crunchy). Strain, reserving both the vegetables and the liquid. Pour the liquid back in the stock pot.
In a small bowl, add flour and water and whisk until a smooth paste. Add mustard, tumeric and white sugar and continue whisking to incorporate. Add the paste to the liquid and continue to whisk until you are sure the mixture is smooth and without lumps. (If there’s any doubt that there may be lumps, I pour the liquid in the blender and blend for a minute or two).
Add the vegetables and the liquid to the stock pot and boil gently until it thickens. Pour into sterilized, hot, jar and process in boiling water bath for 20 minutes after water has come to a rolling boil.
The $40 Pickles
The Sweet Mustard Pickle recipe came from my cousin, Paula. who got it from her Aunt Marvella.
I adapted the recipe a bit by adding cuccumber to the ingredients. Now that worked out just fine. BUT, the first time I made it, I didn’t pay close attention to the process. Sorry, Aunt Marvella! I was far too rushy and just put all the ingredients for the mustard paste right into the cooked pickles. Not a good move! It was horrible and lumpy. By the time I was ready to bottle, I decided to taste test. YUCK! What I thought were chunks of cauliflower instead were globs of flour.
Well, not one to admit defeat, I wasn’t about to throw away that whole batch. After all, there were a LOT of pickles and flour globs.
So I put the works through the blender, one jug at a time. Then I cut up more vegetables (but not more pumpkin) and put it all back into the pot and heated it through again. Best pickles ever and only at a cost of about $40 a bottle.
Rhubarb Relish
Ingredients:
4 cups rhubarb (chopped)
4 cups onions (chopped)
3 cups brown sugar
2 cups vinegar
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp each salt & pepper
Directions:
Chop rhubarb and onions (small pieces). In large saucepan add vegetables, sugar and vinegar and boil for 20 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for 2 hours. Use food processor if vegetables are too large.
Pour in sterilized hot mason jars and process in hot water bath for 30 minutes.
This is an OLD family recipe – thanks to Pete for sharing!
While it is best when made with rhubarb, it also works well with Zucchini. In fact, except for the slight difference in texture, the taste is practically the same.
Just remember the rhubarb (or zucchinin) must be in tiny, tiny pieces. Actually, I just put mine through the food processor.
