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Home / Relish / Thousand Island Relish

Thousand Island Relish

Filed Under: Relish, Seasonal Summer Tagged With: Canadian, Canadian Living, Flour, Mustard, Thickeners

Thousand Island Relish 2001

Thousand Island Dressing has lived on, but Thousand Island Relish has largely been lost to history.

You can revive this old relish in your own kitchen, though, through home canning.

We’re not certain of the exact culinary historical origins of this recipe, or just how old it is, but it has been kicking around Canadian kitchens along the St Lawrence River in handwritten form for several generations now. And it almost certainly was kicking around in relatives’ kitchens on the American side of the river, too. This rendition of the recipe has been tested to modern USDA canning safety standards for heat penetration, density, pH, seal, etc, by Canadian Living. (See: Canadian Living as a reputable source of lab-tested recipes.)

This recipe makes a lot; you may wish to cut the recipe in half unless you have a lot of friends who’d love a jar for summer cookouts.

44 calories, 79 mg sodium per 2 tablespoons. (A sugar and salt-free take on it would be 16 calories, 2 mg sodium, per 2 tablespoons.)

1000 islands

The 1000 islands, near Alexandria, New York. (Bill Blevins / flickr / 2007 / CC BY 2.0. )

Contents hide
  • 1 The recipe
  • 2 Thousand Island Relish
    • 2.1 Ingredients
    • 2.2 Instructions
    • 2.3 Nutrition
  • 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

Jar size choices: Quarter-litre (½ US pint / 250 ml / 8 oz)

Processing method: Water bath or steam canning

Yield: 12 x quarter-litre (½ US pint) jars

Headspace: 2 cm (½ inch)

Processing time: 10 minutes

Thousand Island Relish
Print

Thousand Island Relish

12 x quarter-litre (½ US pint / 8 oz / 250 ml) jars
Course Condiments
Cuisine Canadian
Keyword Cucumber, Mustard
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 50 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 50 minutes
Servings 12 quarter-litre (½ US pint / 8 oz / 250 ml) jars
Calories 16kcal
Metric - US Customary

Ingredients

  • 3 kg cucumber (6 pounds / 6 large, before prep)
  • 1 kg onion (2 lbs / 6 large, before prep)
  • 150 g red bell pepper (finely chopped. Measured after seeding, chopping. 1 cup / 1 large / 5 oz)
  • 150 g green bell pepper (finely chopped. Measured after seeding, chopping. 1 cup / 1 large / 5 oz)
  • 4 tablespoons pickling salt (OR non-bitter, non-clouding salt sub)
  • ½ cup flour (2.5 oz / 70 g)
  • 3 tablespoons mustard powder
  • 1 ½ teaspoons turmeric
  • 1 ½ teaspoons mustard seed
  • 1 ½ teaspoons celery seed
  • 250 ml water (1 cup / 8 oz)
  • 750 ml white vinegar (5% or higher. 3 cups / 24 oz)
  • 700 g sugar (white. 3 cups / 24 oz.)
Metric - US Customary

Instructions

  • Wash, peel and seed the cucumber and chop it finely.
  • Put in very large pot or bowl.
  • Peel and chop the onion finely; add to bowl.
  • Wash, seed and chop the peppers finely; add to bowl.
  • Sprinkle the salt over the vegetable mixture .
  • Pour enough cold water over the mixture to cover it; mix with your hands or a sturdy spoon.
  • Let stand, covered, for 1 to 2 hours, then drain well.
  • In a very large heavy pot, mix together the dry ingredients: the flour, mustard powder, turmeric, mustard seed, and celery seed.
  • Now add in the wet ingredients gradually, stirring to make a sauce: the water, the vinegar and the sugar OR the liquid stevia.
  • Add in the drained veg, stir.
  • Put pot on stove burner, bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer and simmer uncovered for about 30 minutes or until the sauce has thickened.
  • Pack hot into quarter-litre (½ US pint / 250 ml / 8 oz) 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 filled jars for 10 minutes; increase time as needed for your altitude.
  • Best after at least a month of jar time.

Nutrition

Serving: 2g | Calories: 16kcal | Carbohydrates: 2.9g | Protein: 0.5g | Fat: 0.2g | Sodium: 2mg | Fiber: 0.5g | Sugar: 1.2g

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 (follow the table above.)

For salt substitute, Herbamare Sodium-Free was used.

For stevia, Better Stevia liquid stevia was the stevia used.

More information about Sugar and Salt-Free Canning in general.

Australia and New Zealand vinegar strength special notes.

What is the shelf life of home canned goods?

Recipe notes

  • Trim off both ends of cucumbers; this is to get rid of an enzyme that could make your relish go soft.
  • To seed the cucumber, cut it lengthwise and drag the tip of a spoon along the centre.
  • To chop the cucumber, you can cut the peeled, seeded into chunks, pop in a food processor and use the pulse button.
  • For the flour, use plain flour or all-purpose (i.e. don’t use self-rising.) Feel free to cut back a bit on the flour, by up to half, even, for a less thick relish.
  • You can use all one colour of a pepper; the two different colours are just for look.
  • The purpose of the soaking here is to infuse the vegetable with flavour.
  • Instead if the sugar, you could use the same volume amount of Splenda® OR 3 teaspoons liquid stevia.

Recipe source

Thousand Island Relish. Canadian Living Test Kitchen. The Complete Preserving Book. Montreal, Canada: Transcontinental Books. 2012.  Page 178.

Note: This recipe is lightly thickened with flour. While it generally isn’t considered safe to thicken home-canned products with flour, the exception is if the recipe has been lab-tested for safety by professionals, as this one has been. So enjoy!

All Canadian Living home canning recipes are lab-tested to meet or exceed Bernardin and USDA standards for quality and safety.

Modifications

Thousand Island Relish 2004

Safety Check

Thousand-Island-Relish-pH

Thousand Island Relish has a pH of 3.77, 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:

  • 44 calories, 79 mg sodium

thousand island relish nutrition regular

Sugar and salt-free version

Per 2 tablespoons / 30 ml:

  • 16 calories, 2 mg sodium

thousand island relish

* Nutrition info provided by https://caloriecount.about.com

* Better Stevia ® is a registered trademark of the NOW Foods Company.

* Herbamare ® is a registered trademark of the A. Vogel Corporation.

Thousand Island Relish 2002

Tagged With: Canadian, Canadian Living, Flour, Mustard, Thickeners

Filed Under: Relish, Seasonal Summer Tagged With: Canadian, Canadian Living, Flour, Mustard, Thickeners

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. David

    August 21, 2022 at 4:05 am

    Hoping you can clarify a question I have about this recipe.

    Step 7 calls for draining the veg. Most other relish recipes I have seen call for draining and rinsing as well. Is that not necessary for this recipe? Is the expectation that some of the salt makes it into the finished product?

    Thanks so much! I really appreciate the commitment to safety from this website.

    Reply
    • Healthy Canning

      August 29, 2022 at 4:50 pm

      Confirming that no rinsing is called for.

      Reply
  2. Kat

    July 21, 2022 at 11:58 pm

    Can you please tell me who tested this recipe and what tests were performed? TY

    Reply
    • Healthy Canning

      July 24, 2022 at 2:41 pm

      This is covered in paragraph 3 up above on this page.

      Reply
    • Sally

      August 23, 2022 at 11:20 pm

      5 stars
      Made this over the weekend and thought the flavor was good. Thinking back When draining the veggies do we rinse off the salt, or is it not necessary for this recipe? Just want to check as I’m a newbie to canning

      Reply
      • Healthy Canning

        August 29, 2022 at 10:39 am

        Confirming that this recipe does *not* call for rinsing.

        Reply
  3. Karen Niemi

    August 17, 2020 at 1:47 pm

    is it possible to substitute the flour with something else as a thickener. We have a celiac family member and cannot use flour in the relish

    Reply
    • Healthy Canning

      September 22, 2020 at 1:15 pm

      We’re not qualified to speak on what possible alternatives would be safe, either canning wise, or health wise for that family member. Probably a good idea to just search for another relish recipe to can.

      Reply
  4. Jill

    August 31, 2019 at 9:53 pm

    Is this relish used to make thousand island dressing? If so, how do you make the dressing? Thanks

    Reply
    • Healthy Canning

      September 08, 2019 at 2:42 pm

      Though it’s from or named after the same area, this relish is a separate food item from the dressing.

      Reply
      • Mary Glenister

        October 26, 2019 at 2:20 pm

        You can just add a couple tablespoons of this and catsup to salad dressing or mayo. Makes thousand island dressing or (special sauce) for hamburgers. yum. May recipe is old and also has one head of cauliflour and a bunch of celery in the original relish recipe.
        For French dressing you can add more catsup and Lea and Perrins sauce and a bit of garlic pounder mayo.

        Reply
  5. Jessie

    September 01, 2018 at 11:48 am

    How many cups of cucumbers will I have after they are peeled, seeded and finely chopped?

    Reply
    • Healthy Canning

      September 11, 2019 at 6:29 pm

      Sorry, we didn’t think to get that measurement, though in retrospect it would have been interesting, for sure.

      Reply
      • Carly

        August 11, 2022 at 7:13 pm

        Is it 6 pounds after the peeled, seeded and chopped cucumbers? I started with 6pounds of cucumbers, after I do all of that it comes to 3 pounds after I cut the ends off and seeds out and weigh it. Thanks

        Reply
        • Healthy Canning

          August 29, 2022 at 11:53 pm

          Sorry, yes it was 6 lbs before prep. You got it right. That clarification has now been added.

          Reply
    • Sally

      August 24, 2022 at 10:46 am

      5 stars
      Canning newbie here – when we drain the veggies do we rinse the salt off, or no? It doesn’t say to rinse, but the last relish recipe I made was adamant about rinsing so just wanted to check. Some instructions often assume we know more than we do so can’t be too careful 🙂 thank you.

      Reply
      • Healthy Canning

        August 29, 2022 at 10:38 am

        Confirming that this recipe does *not* call for rinsing.

        Reply
  6. Jessie

    August 24, 2018 at 9:07 pm

    Can this be done in pints?

    Reply
    • Healthy Canning

      September 11, 2019 at 6:35 pm

      No. The largest tested size is half-pints.

      Reply
  7. Stacy

    July 29, 2018 at 6:53 pm

    Made a few jars of this last year to make sure we loved it. It was gone before the fall. Everyone loved it. Making a full batch right now and can’t wait. Followed exact recipe to the weights. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
  8. Madeleine

    May 24, 2017 at 4:06 pm

    I am taking a Canadian roadtrip this summer from Maine, through Canada, to Michigan. I have never been across the border before. If I was to visit farmers markets and buy canned goods such as this, am I allowed to take them back across the border if they are unopened??

    Reply
If you need FAST or relatively immediate canning help or answers, please try one of these Master Food Preserver groups; they are more qualified than we are and have many hands to help you. Many of them even operate telephone hotlines in season.

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