A few years ago family friend Betty Jean Hogan showed Corie and me how to make cucumber relish. Betty Jean has become known for the tasty relish in our area. Her church has a ministry of visiting elderly people in the community and Betty Jean is part of it. The people she visit love to get a jar of her delicious cucumber relish each summer.
Betty Jean learned the recipe from her mother. She said when she was growing up they had to use everything that come from the garden, even those cucumbers that hide from you and get way too big. Her mother came up with the simple recipe to utilize those huge cucumbers that weren’t very good for eating.
As with many old make do recipes there aren’t any exact measurements. Betty Jean said since she uses what she has on hand it never turns out the same way twice but it’s always good.
Betty Jean’s Cucumber Relish
- large cucumbers
- cabbage
- peppers (a mixture of hot and sweet works well but use what you like best)
- canned tomatoes
- onions
- salt
- vinegar
- sugar
Peel large cucumbers and then slice off the sides leaving the core of seeds to be discarded or used in another way.
Dice cucumbers, as much cabbage as you want, as many peppers as you want, and as many onions as you want.
Stir mixture together and sprinkle with salt. Let sit for at least 4 hours or over night.
Drain mixture well.
Add as much tomatoes as you want and a mixture of vinegar and sugar at a 1 to 1 ratio. Cook mixture till it comes to a slow boil.
Ladle into sterilized jars and seal.
I made a run of cucumber relish last week and I forgot and added the tomatoes in with everything else. I also added in a couple of fresh tomatoes from the garden. It still turned out delicious.
I love the way Betty Jean described using the vinegar and sugar. She said “Take you some vinegar and sweeten it.”
Betty Jean and I use the open kettle method of canning the relish, which means the relish is piping hot and so are your jars. But canning experts don’t recommend that method. Another method you can use to can the relish is to water bath the jars for 5-10 minutes.
Cucumber relish is really good with soup beans and cornbread, but I love to eat it like a salsa with tortilla chips.
You can see Betty Jean make cucumber relish here.
Last night’s movie: A Pitiful Garlic Harvest.
Tipper
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Yummy sounding for sure. I think this relish would be great on a hotdog. Almost sounds like the ingredients on a Chicago dog. Love the Chicago dog.
Randy, blisters on a work glove?? That is too funny. I also miss my Grandma’s pickled peaches I used to help her make every summer. They were soooo good. I made pepper relish and apple butter this week. I’m getting sad thinking about the end of this year’s gardening season. But we have peas and butterbeans and corn and string beans and tomatoes put up to enjoy this winter. Love and prayers to all and Granny too.
Kathy, I like to read books by Gene Hill. He wrote in one of his stories that was about hunting in southern Georgia and when sitting down to eat there would be a jar of these tomatoes and peppers on the table. He said if you and several generations of you family was not from the south, to not touch them, he said eating them was no worse than getting kicked in the mouth by a mule but was no better either. The only purpose they served was for the local sheriff to come by and eat some so he could feel and be mean the rest of the day.
Dogs Days of Summer officially ends today. We here have experienced what my mother referred to as Wet Dog Days. It has rained here, at least a little, for the past month. Normally we have Dry Dog Days wherein little to no rain occurs.
I made this recently following the instructions in your video. Loved “meeting” Betty Jean. Her relish is delicious. My whole family loves it! ❤️ I love that it uses all the big cucumbers and garden bounty!
We like relishes on greens. This one sounds delicious!
My name is Betty Jean. She must be a really nice person . Love it
That relish looks and sounds just delicious and it’s also colorful to boot! Mommy’s chow chow was the same except she used green tomatoes that weren’t gonna turn because it was just too late in the year. And like some fine acorns here-she wasted not and wanted not-or that was her thinking. Yesterday I pulled up half my green beans, banana peppers and cabbages that weren’t gonna turn just plumb rotten and bug bit to pieces… it looks like a few purple cabbage may make it…now I gotta be honest and tell ya I hardly tried on the cabbage so it shows… Tomatoes are coming fast and plentifully. I’ve ate tomato ( put you some canned corned beef on there) sandwiches, Spanish omelettes, salads etc and it’s been great. I’m winding it down cause I’m planning on moving here soon. I’d say anybody who makes that relish like you girls put up makes friends quick! Have a great day and enjoy it… I ain’t a gardener or much else, but I try. It gives me a reason to go on I guess. Love to all!
Love that casual ‘use what you have and experiment’ approach, akin to ‘start out and fix on the fly’. Definitely not my nature. Helps explain the heart endless variety of foods and their recipes. (And, I might add, one of the hallmarks of a queen or king of their kitchen.) There are side benefits of having to make-do. Speaking of making do Tipper, you can substitute hardware cloth rounds for a Mason jar lid and have a nice floral “frog” for your flowers. They are made but are hard to find yet very easy to do yourself. Matt will know about hardware cloth if you don’t already.
Sounds a lot like what we used to call: GREEN TOMATO KETCHUP.
We used green tomatoes (obviously) rather than ripe ones.
Best thing ever on a big bowl of bean soup w/cornbread!
Take you some apple cider vinegar and mix it with the same amount of honey. Take you a tablespoon of that and stir it into a glass of water. It’s good and good for you!
Relishes add something extra special to soup beans and this one will also!
Have a great day!
This relish does sound tasty. Wonder how it would taste on a hot dog?
I live to make sweet relish and plan to do that today and tomorrow. I’ve never thought to add cabbage. I make much better relish than I do pickles!
It sounds delicious! I’ve not had but a few oversized cucumbers this season, but bitter cucumbers have been a major problem for us this year. We were constantly watering them, so we know it’s not the lack of water, but it’s been the extreme heat and humidity that has caused them to go extremely bitter this year. I didn’t know this until I looked it up on line. Other local gardeners had told me the same thing. I’m just thankful for the ones that tasted good so we could enjoy them in our salads and sandwiches. I was able to make 2 half gallon jars and 2 quarts size jars of refrigerator dill pickles. I feel blessed to have the refrigerator pickles to enjoy this fall and maybe first of winter, if we eat them sparingly. I’m thankful you all got a bountiful harvest to can this year Tipper. Maybe next year I’ll have enough to try Betty Jean’s recipe. Thank you Tipper and Betty Jean for sharing it with us!
Christine, we had the same problem with our cucumbers. The Sweet Slicers were all good, but I planted some Straight Eights and a third type that I can’t recall the name of. Both of those would be bitter about every third or fourth cucumber. They looked perfect but I soon learned not to slice up several at a time to put on the supper table because someone was bound to get a bite of bitterness. I started cutting a piece off of each spear and tasting it myself, just in case. I know they had plenty of rain so I guess it was the heat. Also, both the cucumbers and the vines just ate me up with their spines. They felt like fiberglass in my hands and it’s never been that bad before this year.
My Granny always used cabbage cucumbers onions vinegar sugar and pickling spice, my Mom did the same recipe just added some hot peppers. I like the option of putting it up in jars or just making a batch any time of year, and keeping it on hand, in the fridge ready for soup beans and cornbread any time
I remember my mother and grandmother making relish that seemed to be like this. They would also can small green tomatoes and pods of hot pepper together in quart jars. I don’t know from personal experience, but I heard these tomatoes would put a blister on a work glove. I have never liked relish or those green tomatoes. One thing I dearly loved was the small pickled peaches they made, the ones I now find at produce stands don’t compare.
Some of yesterdays comments about moon pies, peanuts in cokes, RC colas, Lance crackers (nabs) and old time country stores made me think of how it used to be when I was growing up back in 50 and 60’s. If not working me would be hang around the outside of these stores in warm weather or sit around a potbellied stove in the winter months. A lot of them sitting on turned up wooden Coke Cola crates. I am sure there would be some off color stories and jokes told, but not if children and ladies were around to hear them. They had and showed the upmost respect for women and children. Tipper, have you ever wrote anything about the old time country stores? Betty, I think I found some RC colas at a local grocery store, I will have to check it out.
Thanks for sharing. I’ve got cucumbers out my ears so I’ll be trying this.
I can share the zucchini relish recipe if interested. It sure helps a body when you have so much zucchini needing to be used.
Have a great day! Many blessings
I do my mustard pickles that way. They only boil for one minute and then you put them in hot jars. The cucumbers and onions stay crunchy this way. You really should try them.