This Dill Pickle Relish might just possibly become your most favourite relish ever for hotdogs and burgers.
It’s delicious and goes well with ketchup and mustard, and fresh chopped onion and tomato.
And, it’s one of the easiest relishes you will ever make.
This recipe makes a lot, so you may want to cut it in half: though mind you, come summer, people shovel this stuff onto their burgers and dogs.
This is a tested recipe from Ball and Bernardin.
The recipe
If you wish to adjust batch size, do the math first on paper.
Jar size choices: Quarter-litre (½ US pint / 250 ml / 8 oz) OR half-litre (1 US pint / 500 ml/ 16 oz)
Processing method: Water bath or steam canning
Yield: 7 x half-litre (US pint) jars
Headspace: 2 cm (½ inch)
Processing time: 15 minutes either size jar
Dill Pickle Relish
Ingredients
- 3.5 kg pickling cucumbers (8 lbs)
- 2 teaspoons turmeric
- 175 g pickling salt (½ cup / 6 oz)
- 1 litre white wine vinegar (5% acidity or higher. 4 cups / 32 oz)
- 75 g sugar (white. ⅓ cup / 2 oz)
- 2 tablespoons dill seed
- 325 g onion (finely chopped. 2 ½ cups / 12 oz / 3 medium. Measured after prep. About 500 g / 1 lb before.)
Instructions
- Wash the cucumbers under cold running water, trim off both ends. Chop into large chunks, then finely chop in a food processor (use pulse) or put through a food mill. Put in a large pot or very large bowl. Sprinkle with the turmeric plus the salt, mix the vegetables a bit with your hands. Top with enough cold water to cover completely. (The exact quantity of water doesn't matter.) Let stand for 2 hours.
- Meanwhile, you can prep the onion (wash, peel, then chop) and set aside.
- Drain the cucumber, rinse, and drain again.
- In large pot, mix together everything from the vinegar down to and including the dill seed, then stir in the onion and then the cucumber.
- Bring to a boil, lower to a simmer and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Pack hot into quarter-litre (½ US pint) jars or half-litre (US pint) jars.
- Leave 2 cm (½ inch) headspace for either size jar.
- Debubble, adjust headspace.
- Wipe jar rims.
- Put lids on.
- Process in a water bath or steam canner.
- Process either size jar for 15 minutes; increase time as needed for your altitude.
- Best after at least a month of jar time.
Nutrition
Reference information
How to water bath process.
How to steam can.
When water-bath canning or steam canning, you must adjust the processing time for your altitude.
Australia and New Zealand vinegar strength special notes.
Recipe notes
- The reason they call for pickling cucumbers is because those varieties have the least water in them, and, because the skins are unwaxed. Other varieties would work, provided the skin is unwaxed (e.g. from your garden, or English cucumbers.) You’ll just need to work a bit harder to get the extra water out.
- Instead of white wine vinegar, you could use regular white vinegar (5% acidity or higher).
- Instead of the salt, you can use a non-bitter, non-clouding salt sub. We have found Herbamare Sodium-Free performs well in that regard.
- You can reduce the sugar, or use the same volume amount of granulated Splenda®, or use ½ teaspoon of liquid stevia. For stevia, we’d recommend Better Stevia liquid stevia .
This is about the texture you want.
Showing how much liquid was pressed out, even after the initial draining.
Recipe Source
Dill Relish. In: Ball Blue Book. Muncie, Indiana: Healthmark LLC / Jarden Home Brands. Edition 37. 2014. Page 87.
Dill Relish. In: Kingry, Judi and Lauren Devine. Ball /Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving. Toronto, Canada: Robert Rose Inc. 2015. Page 219.
Modifications made:
- Suggested swaps of sugar and salt.
Nutrition information
Regular version
Estimating that 10% of the salt was absorbed by the vegetable.
Per 2 tablespoons / 30 ml:
- 11 calories, 63 mg sodium
Sugar and salt-free version
Per 2 tablespoons / 30 ml:
- 8 calories, 1 mg sodium.
- Weight Watchers PointsPlus®: 2 to 4 tablespoons: 0 points; 5 to 14 tablespoons: 1 point.
* Nutrition info provided by https://caloriecount.about.com
* PointsPlus™ calculated by healthycanning.com. Not endorsed by Weight Watchers® International, Inc, which is the owner of the PointsPlus® registered trademark.
* Better Stevia ® is a registered trademark of the NOW Foods Company.
* Herbamare ® is a registered trademark of the A. Vogel Corporation.
* Pickle Crisp ® is a registered trademark of the Jarden Corporation.
KATHY R NUNNALLY
Could zucchini be used instead of cucumbers?
Dionne U Blanchard
I’ve made a great batch of your dill relish recipe. It was great and is now in my collection of “this is how I like to eat” Thanks again!! I’ll be checking in on some more recipe!!
Mindy P
Can I ask why the salt bath with rinse step? Genuinely curious what this does. I’m super new to canning. Thanks!
Healthy Canning
The salt bath allows the salt seasoning to seep into the interior of the cucumber pieces for flavour, and at the same time it would have the effect of drawing some of the water in them out by osmosis.
Caylor Hafen
Super easy! It tastes really good.
Linda
In step # 3 drain, rinse, drain again, how much liquid should be left? My relish turned out very dry looking and I only have 9 pints.
Healthy Canning
Canning yields and dryness / moistness can vary so widely sometimes in home canning that it can make you nuts. It probably depends on the produce one is starting with, but other times it just seems phase of the moon. If a relish seems too dry going in the jars, you could add a bit of vinegar or bottled lemon juice to moisten it.
Paula
Can you use dill leaves instead of seeds? I have fresh dill and would love to use it in a cucumber relish. Thanks for your thoughts.
Healthy Canning
Hi Paula, that does sound good, but I’m not sure what the answer would be. Try asking Ball directly on their FB page if they think you could, and if so, what the equivalency there might be? Reference their Dill Pickle Relish recipe in their Blue Book, so the person answering knows where to look. Let us know what the answer is, if you don’t mind.
Allana Bowman
I thought the same thing. Found this: Use about 1 tsp. dried dill and 1 tbsp. fresh chopped dill to replace 1/4 tsp. of dill seeds. Add to the dish, then adjust the seasonings by adding more if necessary. I calculated this as 1.5 cups of fresh dill for 2 Tbsp of dill seed.
kristan
I have a question about the salt. Do you add extra 2 T. salt when you add the vinegar? Or do you just add salt substitute then?
Healthy Canning
Hi Kristan, are you making it with canning salt, or salt sub?