Title: Relish Pointers
Categories: Pickle Check
Yield: 1 Servings

RELISH RULES

Even though turning out lovely relishes is one of the least complicated preserving activities, you do need to follow directions closely. Remember, you're combining low acid foods with high acid foods, with the ultimate goal of creating a condiment high enough in acid that it doesn't have to be processed in a pressure canner.

Do NOT add extra amounts of low acid vegetables or reduce the amount of vinegar called for in a recipe. Either practice may result in a relish no longer safe to process by the boiling water bath method.

Processing times are another factor that must be taken seriously, even in something as seemingly innocuous as relish.

One way cooks may inadvertently goof is if they create a relish that is thicker than intended in the original recipe. As the viscosity of a food increases, the rate at which heat will penetrate through the entire mass of food decreases. An adequate 15 minute boiling water treatment in the original recipe may become inadequate if heat doesn't penetrate the thicker relish in the same length of time.

When a recipe states that the relish should be "reduced by half," or some such obscure method of measurement, it's easy to get it wrong. A simple way to control this problem is by controlling the yield. For example, if a recipe indicates that the yield should be 3 pints, the actual yield can be controlled as follows:

1. Select a pan with a large surface area.

2. Measure 3 pints of water into the pan on a level surface and mark the level of the water onto the pan's side with a sharp metal knife. Pour out the water. (My note: hmmmm, after a few uses this way, I wonder just WHICH mark you would pay attention to? A good idea, but there's got to be a better way to mark it in my opinion. Maybe a special pan you have marked specially with even pint or quart marks all the way up and labeled?)

3. Add the ingredients to be concentrated or thickened to the pan and heat them using a medium high setting until the level of the cooked product reaches the 3 pint mark. Fill the jars and process.

Source: Oregonian FoodDay, Preserving column by Jan Roberts-Dominquez Typos by Dorothy Flatman 1995

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