Well Preserved
Relishes
As summer draws to a close
gardens are still managing to
produce an assortment of vege
tables. When you have all die
basic tomatoes, corn, and green
beans preserved that your fami
ly will use for the year, you may
be seeking some creative ways
to use the leftovers in the gar
den along with the extra onions
and peppers.
Various relishes and pickled
vegetables make use of those
end of the season treasures
while providing a tasty accom
paniment to meals and sand
wiches. Their zesty flavors com
pliment the blandness of a plain
meat. Tossed into a macaroni
salad or potato salad, relishes
add color as well as flavor.
Relishes are made from chop
ped fruits and vegetables cook
ed to a desired consistency in a
spicy vinegar solution. Some are
sweet and some are sour. A sur
vey of cookbooks reveals inter
esting names such as rummage
relish, fall garden relish, and
end of the garden relish.
Relishes are relatively easy to
make because the vinegar used
to flavor them increases the
acidity of the vegetables allow
ing most of them to be pro
cessed in the boiling water bath.
If you are not sure how you will
like a particular recipe, try a
test batch using half the recipe.
Select appropriate ingredi
ents for success. Use fresh pro
duce for best results. Ideally,
fruits and vegetables will be
picked less than 24 hours before
pickling. If it will be longer, the
produce should be refrigerated
until ready to use.
Ingredients for relishes
should be chopped into uniform
pieces for an attractive appear
ance. Besides its contribution to
flavor, salt acts as a preserva
tive and adds crispness by
drawing juices and sugar from
the vegetables. Use canning or
pickling salt which does not
contain additives. Regular table
salt or iodized salt may make
the brine cloudy and darken
pickles and relishes.
Use a high quality vinegar
with a five percent acidity level.
Mellow flavored cider vinegar is
commonly used, but some reci
pes call for white vinegar or
other flavored vinegar. White
vinegar should be used when
color is important.
Usually white cane or beet
sugar is called for. Brown sugar,
honey, and maple syrup are
called for in recipes needing a
more robust flavor. Only use a
sugar substitute if you are using
a recipe specifically designed
for it. Sugar helps to firm the
vegetables in a relish. Spices
and herbs add to the flavor of
the relishes. Most recipes call
for whole fresh spices.
Powdered and salted forms of
spices and herbs may cloud the
pickling mixture. Some recipes
add the spices and herbs direct
ly to pickling mixtures, but
many recipes tell you to tie
them in a spice bag, cheese
cloth, or a coffee filter and hold
them in the pickling solution to
impart their flavor. Avoid using
hard water because the minerals
in hard water will react with the
brine to affect the quality of the
relish.
Avoid types of metals than
may react with chemicals in the
food or brine. Avoid utensils
made of zinc, iron, brass, cop
per, galvanized metal or crack
ed enamelware. These can
cause undesirable taste and
color changes. Enamel that is
not chipped, stainless steel,
glassware, and food-grade plas
tic are appropriate utensils to
use.
Use updated recipes devel
oped since 1994 when USDA
canning standards were revised.
Because the ingredients going
into a relish are low acid foods,
this is not a time to use the little
bit of extra corn or onion that is
left over. Measure accurately so
that you do not reduce the acid
ity level of the finished product.
Relishes are canned by hot
packing the brined ingredients.
Work quickly to fill the jars
with hot relish. Include ade
quate syrup. Allow adequate
headspace-usually Vi inch.
Process the hot packed relish
according to the recipe. It is not
safe to open kettle can relishes
without processing. Having the
water in the canner at the boil
ing point when you add the
filled hot jars saves time and re
sults in a better seal with no si
phoning.
The following com relish rec
ipe is tasty and colorful. It can
be made using fresh or frozen
com.
Lancaster Famnini
Pickled Com Relish
10 cups fresh whole kernel
com (16 to 20 medium
size ears), or six 10-ounce
packages of frozen com
I'A cups diced sweet red pep
pers
2Vi cups diced sweet green
peppers
IVi cups chopped celery
VA cups diced onions
VA cups sugar
5 cups vinegar (5%)
2Vi tablespoons canning salt
216 teaspoons celery seed
2/i tablespoons dry mustard
VA teaspoons turmeric
Yield: About 9 pints.
Procedure: Boil ears of com 5
minutes. Dip in cold water. Cut
whole kernels from cob or use
six 10-ounce packages of frozen
com. Combine peppers, celery,
onions, sugar, vinegar, salt, and
celery seed in a saucepan. Bring
to a boil and simmer 5 minutes,
stirring occasionally. Mix mus
tard and turmeric in 'A cup of
the simmered mixture. Add this
mixture and com to the hot
mixture. Simmer another 5
minutes. If desired, thicken
mixture with a flour paste made
of A cup flour blended in l A cup
cold water and stir frequently.
Fill jars with hot mixture,
leaving '/2-inch headspace. Ad
just lids and process half-pints
or pints for 15 minutes in a boil
ing-water canner at altitudes
under 1,000 feet. (Process 20
minutes at altitudes between
1,001 and 6,000 feet, and 25
minutes above 6,000 feet.)
If you have food preservation
questions, a home economist is
available to answer questions on
Wednesdays 10 a.m.-l p.m., call
(717) or write Penn
State Cooperative Extension,
Lancaster County, 1383 Arca
dia Rd., Rm.l, Lancaster, PA,
17601.
I, Saturday, September 7, 2002-B5
Take Control
Of Your Money
WEST CHESTER (Chester
Co.) Penn State Cooperative
Extension is offering a free work
shop Taking Control of Your
Money. It is offered Tuesday,
Sept. 17, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at
the Penn State Cooperative Ex
tension office in the Chester
County Government Services
Center, 601 Westtown Road,
West Chester.
Learn the basics of creating
and using a spending plan, look
ing for found money, and credit
use. The information will help
you and your family deal with
the dilemmas and decisions re
garding earning, spending, and
saving money.
Financial success requires
teamwork, so a family needs to
talk together about money. Dis
cussions concerning how to
spend money, what the family’s
future needs are, when to use
credit, and other issues are as
necessary as organizing records
themselves.To register or for
more information call Penn State
Cooperative Extension at (610)
396-3500 by Sept. 10.
Gardening
Workshop
TOWANDA (Bradford Co.)
Penn State Master Gardeners of
fers the following workshop at
the Bradford County Demonstra
tion Garden, Fourth Street, To
wanda.
• Putting the Garden to Rest
October 19, 9 a.m. Learn how
to care for the vegetable, herb,
shrub and flower gardens in the
fall. Learn how to plant rye on
those vegetable beds as a cover
crop.