Dill Pickle Relish – {Canning Relish}
A simple and easy recipe for canning amazing Dill Pickle Relish. This tangy dill pickle relish is perfect for anyone new to canning. Enjoy it on burgers, hot dogs, in potato or chicken salad.
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This dill relish is not sweet relish! I believe we have previously established that sweet relish is the spawn of cucumbers that satan grew in his garden of lost souls.
There is a little bit of sugar in here (much less than the original recipe calls for), but feel free to leave it out if you’d like. I find it brightens up the other flavors without making it sweet. Because, gross.
What is Relish Made Of?
This dill relish has fresh cucumbers, onion, pickling salt, onion, red pepper, turmeric, dill seed, and a little sugar.
It is important to use pickling salt in this recipe as regular salt has anti-caking agents in there which can impact the appearance of your relish.
What kind of cucumbers should you use for this dill relish? The basic answer is whatever you have on hand! I used a mix of slicing cucumbers and pickling cukes as that is what I grow in my garden.
Cucumbers from the store tend to have a wax coating on them which impacts their pickling ability. It is best to use homegrown or farmer’s market cukes in this recipe.
Try a few tablespoons of the finished relish in Chicken Salad With Dill or Instant Pot Potato Salad.
Canning Supplies for Dill Pickle Relish
Check out this in-depth post for a complete list of canning supplies.
For canning relish, you’ll want:
- Water bath canner
- Jars – I recommend 8 oz jam jars unless you REALLY love relish and need it in bigger quantities
- New lids and rings
- Canning funnel
- Saucepan (I used my dutch oven)
- Ladle
- Food processor (optional, but highly recommended)
- Strainer
- Mixing spoon
- Knife
- Cutting board
Do You Peel Cucumbers For Relish?
For this recipe I have you leave the peels on. It adds more depth to the finished recipe. If your cucumber skins are tough, peel a few strips off (tiger stripes) to reduce the toughness.
How Do You Make Dill Pickle Relish
Wash cucumbers using a vegetable scrub brush. Cut the cuke butts off, slice into 8 sections. Cut the seeds out of each section. Cut into 1-2 inch chunks.
In a food processor, pulse (use “pulse” instead of “on”, else you’ll end up with cucumber sauce) the cuke chunks in batches until the pieces look “relishy”. (That is a real term. Insert fart noise here).
Put the cucumber pieces in a bowl, sprinkle with salt and turmeric, and then pour the water over it. Cover, and let stand for 2 hours.
After 2 hours, put the cukes in a colander, and rinse thoroughly. Let drain and squeeze the cukes to release excess water.
In your food processor, dice the onion and pepper, or dice by hand. Add to a heavy-bottomed saucepan.
Add the cukes, sugar, dill seed to the onion/peppers. Pour the vinegar over everything, and bring to a boil (this will create a liquid called brine). Reduce the heat, and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Pro tip: It’s a good idea to start your water in the canner at this point.
Ladle the hot relish into your jars. Top with the hot brine (excess liquid from the pot). Leave 1/4 inch of headspace (the amount of space between the top of the food in the jar and the top of the jar).
Wipe the rim with a clean damp towel, and place your sanitized lid on top. Secure the ring.
Place the jars in the boiling water bath canner, and put the lid on. Process 15 minutes.
Remove the canner from the burner when the time is up. Let sit for 5 minutes, then remove the jars and place on a thick towel. Let the jars cool completely, check the seal, and store for up to one year in a cool dark location. Makes about 7 pints.
Dill Pickle Relish Pro Tips/Recipe Notes:
- If you would prefer to use fresh dill for this recipe, substitute the dill seed with 8 heads of fresh dill.
- Don’t want to add onion to this dill relish? Feel free to leave it out!
- I like to peel half of the cucumbers that I use and leave the skins on the other cukes. It gives the texture and color a fun variety.
- You can use zucchini instead of the cucumbers if you’re knee-deep in zukes right now. Processing time remains the same.
- Leave the bowl of cucumbers, salt, turmeric, and water at room temperature during the brining process. This time is important for drawing out extra moisture from the cucumbers. Cold temps will slow that process.
- Wait one week after canning before opening to give the flavors a chance to meld.
- Upon opening, store the jar in the fridge for up to four weeks.
- If you don’t have enough jars to fill the canner, consider Canning Water in a few jars to stock your emergency drinking water supplies.
How Long Does Homemade Canned Relish Last?
Store sealed jars in a cool dark place for up to 12 months.
More Simple Canning Recipes Like This
- Low-Sugar Strawberry Jam
- Canning Carrots
- Easy Hot Pickled Peppers from Binky’s Culinary Carnival
- Blackberry Syrup
- Canning Stewed Tomatoes
- Canning Peaches – How to Can Peaches
- Canning Whole Tomatoes
- Canning Diced Tomatoes
- Check out all my canning recipes!
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Dill Pickle Relish - {Canning Relish}
Ingredients
- 9 pounds pickling cucumbers
- 1/2 cup pickling salt
- 2 tsp turmeric
- 4 cups water (see step 3)
- 3 cups white vinegar
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 white onion {diced}
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp dill seed
- 1/4 cup red pepper {fresh}
Equipment
Instructions
- Wash cucumbers using a vegetable scrub brush. Cut the cuke butts off, slice into 8 sections. Cut the seeds out of each section. Cut into 1-2 inch chunks.
- In a food processor, pulse (use "pulse" instead of "on", else you'll end up with cucumber sauce) the cuke chunks in batches until the pieces look "relishy". (That is a real term. Insert fart noise here).
- Put the cucumber pieces in a bowl, sprinkle with salt and turmeric, and then pour the water over it. Cover, and let stand for 2 hours.
- After the 2 hours, put the cukes in a colander, and rinse thoroughly. Let drain and squeeze the cukes to release excess water.
- In your food processor, dice the onion and pepper, or dice by hand. Add to a heavy-bottomed saucepan.
- Add the cukes, sugar, dill seed to the onion/peppers. Pour the vinegar over everything (to create the brine), and bring to a boil.
- Reduce the heat, and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Pro tip: It's a good idea to start your water in the canner at this point.
- Ladle the hot relish into your jars. Top with the hot brine (excess liquid). Leave 1/4 inch of headspace (the amount of space between the top of the food in the jar and the top of the jar).
- Wipe the rim with a clean damp towel, and place your sanitized lid on top. Secure the ring.
- Place the jars in the boiling water bath canner, and put the lid on. Process 15 minutes for pints or half-pints.
- Remove the canner from the burner when the time is up. Let sit for 5 minutes, then remove the jars and place on a thick towel.
- Let the jars cool completely, check the seal, and store for up to one year in a cool dark location.
Notes
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
This recipe was originally published in September 2012. It has been retested and updated with reader feedback. New photos have been added and the recipe has been made printable. For reference, this is one of the photos from the original post:
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Can I leave the tumeric out all together?
Yes if you’d like!
Did you mean seven and a half PINTS instead of seven half-pints? Because I just filled seven half-pint jars and there’s no end in sight to the amount of relish I need to can.
Hi Brian, no, it should make 7 half-pints or 7 8 oz (jelly) jars.
edit: sorry, no, you’re correct it is 7 pints. Sorry for the confusion. I have many canning recipes and confused this one with another.
I love (and totally agree) with your comment about sweet relish. It’s a waste of a perfectly good cucumber. And I appreciate that you can adjust the recipe for a specific quantity before printing. Going to try this out tomorrow!
It’s evil Jay, evil!!! 🙂
Thank you a bunch for sharing this with all people you really know
what you’re speaking about! Bookmarked.
Can you tell me how many cups of post-chopping zucchini I use for this recipe?
The recipe makes 7 pints, so between 7-8 cups of chopped cukes/zukes.
I want to try this recipe but use zucchini instead. How would I modify step 3 for this, since zucchini holds so much water already? Thanks for your help! I can’t wait to try this!
I would follow the same process. Cucumbers have a super-high water content as well. The soaking process is to infuse the cukes with the flavor. You’ll get the extra water out later in the recipe.
If you substitute fresh dill do you add it to the boiling brine or put it in the jars like pickles?
I would put it in with the cucumbers.
You stole this recipe from the Ball Blue Book page 53. Just because you tweaked the amount of sugar it’s still plagiarism.
I did much more than tweak the sugar, and the original recipe source has been attributed in the recipe card (see under notes).
Can this recipe be halved safely since I have a little less than 8 lbs of cucumbers?
Absolutely! Down in the recipe card you’ll find a little slider that says “servings”. Move it around until it is halved and the recipe card will show you the amount of ingredients for a reduced batch.
The processing time will remain the same.
What if you don’t have turmeric? Will that affect how the recipe turns out?
It doesn’t impact the taste much. Turmeric gives it the yellowish color you find in storebought relish.