This is a recipe for a home-canned corn relish with a bit of a Tex-Mex slant on it.

This is a very easy relish to make especially if you avail yourself of the cheats: thawed frozen corn, and canned diced tomatoes.

Contents hide

1 The recipe
2 Southwestern Corn Relish
3 Reference information
4 Recipe notes
5 Recipe source
6 Safety Check
7 Nutrition information
- 7.1 Regular version
- 7.2 Sugar and Salt Free Version

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: Either water-bath or steam canning

Yield: 4 x half-litre (US pint) jars

Headspace: 2 cm (½ inch)

Processing time: 15 minutes either size jar

Southwestern Corn Relish

Yield: 4 x half-litre (pint) jars

Course Condiments

Cuisine American

Keyword Relish

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 45

Total Time 1 15

Servings 4 x half-litre (pint) jars

Calories 21kcal

Metric - US Customary

Ingredients

600 g corn kernels (frozen or fresh. 4 cups / 1 US quart / 21 oz in weight)
750 ml tomatoes (diced. Drained from a can is fine. 3 cups / 24 oz)
150 g onion (chopped. 1 cup, 5 oz. 1 large)
250 g green bell pepper (seeded, chopped. 1 ½ cups, 8 oz. 1 large)
125 g red bell pepper (seeded, chopped. ¾ cup, 4 oz. 1 medium)
100 g sugar (white. ½ cup / 4 oz)
500 ml cider vinegar (cider vinegar, 5% acidity or higher. 2 cups / 16 oz)
1 tablespoon pickling salt
2 tablespoons mustard seed
1 teaspoon chile flakes (optional)
liquid smoke (few drops, optional)

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Zap the frozen corn niblets in the microwave with some water just until they are all thawed and no cold spots are left. About 5 to 6 minutes should do it. Drain well.
Add to a large pot, along with all the other ingredients down to and including the chile flakes.
Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer for 30 minutes.
Add liquid smoke to taste, if using.
Pack hot into quarter-litre (½ US pint) jars or half-litre (US pint) jars.
Leave 2 cm (½ inch) headspace.
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 few weeks 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

For the canned tomatoes, you’ll want about 1200 ml (42 oz) canned tomatoes, before draining. If you are in North America, that’s 1 + ½ tins that are 800 ml (28 oz) each. You don’t need to go crazy pressing the liquid out of the tomatoes, just get out what comes out easily without a lot of excessive pressing. You’ll want to end up with between 600 and 700 g (21 to 24 oz) of tomato that you’re adding to the pot, if you are using canned.
Feel free to increase the heat by adding more chile flake. You might also wish to add in some cayenne pepper, or some ground dried cumin.
Do not use any starch thickener to thicken this; it could affect heat penetrating properly to the centre of the jars during processing.
Tip: add the drained-off corn water and tomato juice to a tub in the freezer for making soup stock from.
Instead of the salt, you can use a non-bitter, non-clouding salt sub. We have found Herbamare Sodium-Free to meet those requirements.
You can reduce the sugar, or use the same volume amount of granulated Splenda®, or use 1 teaspoon of liquid stevia. For stevia, we’d recommend Better Stevia liquid stevia .

Recipe source

Corn Relish with Tomatoes. Ziedrich, Linda. The Joy of Pickling. Boston, Massachusetts: The Harvard Common Press. 2009. Page 318.

Modifications made:

Added flavouring of chile flakes and liquid smoke;
Devised off-season alternatives for using frozen corn and tinned tomatoes.

To make original recipe: Use corn kernels scraped from 9 cobs of corn (making about 1 litre / US quart in volume). Skip the microwave warming phase. Just use them direct. Use a volume of 750 ml (3 cups / 24 oz) of seeded, diced fresh tomato: Ziedrich advises to gently squeeze out some excess liquid from them.

Safety Check

Southwestern Corn Relish has a pH of 4.01, tested using 25 g solids, 50 ml distilled water. Well below upper safety cut-off of 4.6 pH.

Nutrition information

Regular version

Per 2 tablespoons / 30 ml

21 calories, 106 mg sodium

Sugar and Salt Free Version

Per 2 tablespoons / 30 ml

14 calories, 4 mg sodium
Weight Watchers PointsPlus®: 2 tablespoons: 0 points; 2 to 8 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.