Chop the cukes into bits, add onion if you like, and if sweet, add celery seeds and mustard seeds, along with a little dill. Here, there was just a very recent thread about pickle relishes. There are also very good tasting mixes for these from Mrs. Wages and Ball. I cannot enjoy much sugar, so I use Splenda instead. It has worked very well and I don't use much of it, as Splenda and vinegar seem to work very well together, so you need very little Splenda. For sweet sugar instead, most recipes are. Suggest you do a search, like I just did.. Here is the results of a search for the words 'sweet pickle relish'.

Here is a link that might be useful: relish recipes

I made this diil recipe and loved it! Very similiar in flavor to a store-bought type.

Dill Relish
(My note: made a lot! I canned in half-pints. 2006)

Ingredients
8 pounds pickling cucumbers
1/2 cup Ball 100% Natural® Canning and Pickling Salt
2 teaspoons turmeric
1 quart water
1 pound yellow onions
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons dill seed
1 quart white wine vinegar
Instructions
Prepare Ball® or Kerr® jars and closures according to instructions found in Canning Basics.
Wash cucumbers; drain. Remove 1/16-inch from blossom and stem ends of cucumbers. Finely chop cucumbers in a food processor or food grinder. Place chopped cucumbers in a bowl and sprinkle with salt and turmeric. Pour water over cucumbers; let stand 2 hours. Peel and finely chop onions. Drain cucumbers. Rinse under cold water; drain. Combine cucumbers, onions, sugar, dill seed and white wine vinegar in a large saucepot; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Carefully ladle hot relish into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles with a Ball® Bubble FREER or a nonmetallic spatula. Wipe rim and threads of jar with a clean damp cloth. Place lid on jar with sealing compound next to glass. Screw band down evenly and firmly just until a point of resistance is met - fingertip tight.
Process 15 minutes in a boiling-water canner.
Yield: about 7 pints.

Sorry I don't have a sweet relish recipe, but Linda Lou's zucchini relish is awesome too! It is sweet, but not like store-bought. More of a bread and butter flavor.

Zucchini Relish (very good)

10 cups ground zucchini
3 cups ground onion
5 tablespoons salt
4 1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon dry mustard
3/4 teaspoon tumeric
1 1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 1/2 cups cider vinegar
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 red bell pepper, ground
1 green bell pepper, ground

Using coarse grinder, grind zucchini and onion. If large zucchini are used, remove seeds before grinding. Combine zucchini and onion with salt and let stand overnight in the refrigerator. Drain thoroughly.
Combine sugar, dry mustard, turmeric, celery seed, pepper, vinegar and nutmeg. Cook over medium heat until it begins to thicken; then add ground bell peppers and cook on low heat for 30 minutes or until desired consistency is reached.
Pour into pint jars, leaving 1/2 inch head space. Adjust lids.
Process in boiling water for 15 minutes.
Yield: 6 pints

I process everything for both of these recipes in my food processor as I like a "fine grind" rather than chunky.

Have fun!
Deanna

this works with all cukes ... or cukes and onions... I love it as is.

Sweet Jalapeno Relish
Source: Pepperfool.com
Makes about 6 pints

1 1/2 quarts finely chopped jalapeño peppers (6 cups)
1 quart finely chopped cucumbers (4 cups)
2 onions finely chopped (2 cups)
1/4 cup + 2 tbsps salt
5 1/4 cups sugar
3 cups cider vinegar
4 tbsps pickling spices tied in cheesecloth bag.

Combine jalapenos, cucumbers, onions and all of salt in a large glass or ceramic bowl. Cover with cold water and let stand for 2 hours. Drain thoroughly, pressing on the vegetables to remove excess liquid. Combine the sugar, spice bag and vinegar in a large non-reactive pot. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the vegetables and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove spice bag. Pack into hot sterile jars and process for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath.

dgkritch,
That recipe for dill relish looks great. I think I'll make some this weekend.
Thanks!

I came home, picked 16 pounds of cucumbers and am making a double batch of the dill relish.

Ok....dill relish is almost done. Anyone want a pic?

I'm always happy to see pix of people's canning achievements. It inspires me to do more things myself. Please post some! =)

One of each things that I've canned... Actually, the dill pickles aren't canned, just in a jar.

BTW..I decided to try canning some of the summer squash. I just used the necks to try to keep them from not going too mushy. We ate the rest fresh.

For the big jar of dills, they need to be totally covered with brine, or could spoil.

ksrogers,
The cukes are fully covered with brine. Some garlic is floating. Will that be a problem?

It might. I would try to push the garlic under the cukes. Cutting it up in pieces also helps get more flavor into the brine. In the photo, it looked like the liquid level was about half way through a cuke on the right side of the jar. If these are half sours, they only need 2-3 days of room temps and then can be capped and placed in the fridge. If you want full fermentation, they can also be capped with a plastic Ball cover (if it fits) as the plastic ones DO LEAK OUT so any gasses will go out too. I add a tablespoon of white vinegar to mine and usually pack a LOT of fresh dill weed at the bottom with the garlic and then the cukes, then the brine. One time the jar was so packed tight, I was unable to get the top cuke out to eat it, so had to run a knife through it so I could grab one end. I pickle my cukes at a little bit smaller size, so I can fit more in the jars. In any case they all look very nice. If your pickling, you may also want to try the Ball Pickle Crisp product. It helps to hold the crispness of the veggies a litte bit longer.

dgkrich's dill relish recipe looks good. Is it possible to use regular white vinegar 5% for the white wine vinegar? I am sure it would change the flavor some but I already have the regular.

I decided to try canning some of the summer squash.

It is my understanding was that canning summer squash isn't safe. Pickled, yes, canned, no.

From NCHFP:

Why is canning summer squash or zucchini not recommended?
Recommendations for canning summer squashes, including zucchini, that appeared in former editions of So Easy to Preserve have been withdrawn due to uncertainty about the determination of processing times. Squashes are low-acid vegetables and require pressure canning for a known period of time that will destroy the bacteria that cause botulism. Documentation for the previous processing times cannot be found, and reports that are available do not support the old process. Slices or cubes of cooked summer squash will get quite soft and pack tightly into the jars. The amount of squash filled into a jar will affect the heating pattern in that jar. It is best to freeze or pickle summer squashes, but they may also be dried.

Dave

Some where on here I saw a post from linda lou (I think) that said as long as the brine used is half 5% acidity to water ratio that you could use squash in any pickle recipe.

I have been looking and looking for a dill zucchini relish but all that I have found using zucchini are sweet. Has any one ever tried using zukes instead of cukes for dill relish? What did you think? Them I have coming out of my ears. Pickling cucumbers aren't doing as well as the slicing cucumbers, which I read on another post, don't work well for pickling. So when I saw linda lou's post (I think) thought zukes might be the answer.

never-give-up: Yes, you can sub regular white vinegar in the relish as long as (like you said) it's 5%.

The dill relish recipe isn't mine. Unfortunately, I forgot to note the source (probably from here), so whoever posted it originally, please take credit!!

Deanna

----Some where on here I saw a post from linda lou (I think) that said as long as the brine used is half 5% acidity to water ratio that you could use squash in any pickle recipe. ----

Yes, you may if you pickle the squash. But macheske said it was canned squash, not pickled squash. Different things. ;) Canned plain is what isn't approved.

So macheske, is the squash you did pickled squash or plain canned squash?

Dave

I wonder if I do the dill recipe using zucchini then it SEEMS like I should I soak the zucchini over night with the salt like linda lou's sweet recipe. Would I add the turmeric when soaking like it does in the 1st recipe?

Sorry for all the questions, but I really do appreciate all the help you all have given me.

Tumeric is mostly for bright yellow color. Its use in the final brine is usually where its added. Salting the zucchini is meant to draw out lots of water. Salting cukes also does this, so they don't shrink as much and release much more than zucchini. The 5% strength vineger is just that, 5% acetic acid wixed with 95% water, and is the 'industry standard' for home vinegar use. This is the also the same standard percentage used in many picking recipes. If a recipe calls for 10 cups vinegar and 10 cups water, that acid/water ratio is now down to 2.5%, which in many cases may be too low for some home canning. A recipe that calls for 10 cups of vinegar and just 5 cups of water, is safer yet, as the vinegar to water ratio is much higher. When I make relish is usually near the end of cuke season where you find a few big ones, as well as any others that have been left over. Its not as important to have very fresh cukes/zucchini for relish as they are being chopped up. Onions are also used. My relish was a bit more 'green' due to the addition of a little bit of green food coloring. I also add some celery seed.

Thank you ksrogers. I appreciate the info.

The dill recipe posted is identical to the one in the Ball Blue Book. How do I know? I just made it two days ago :) and found the recipe in the BBB. :) And btw, my end result looks just like yours!

I also made some sweet relish. Here is the recipe also from the Ball Blue Book.

Sweet Pickle Relish
1 quart chopped cucumbers
2 cups chopped onions
1 cup chopped sweet green pepper
1 cup chopped sweet red pepper
1/4 cup salt
3 1/2 cups sugar
1 TBL celery seed
1 TBL mustard seed
2 cups cider vinegar

Combine cucumbers, onions, green and red peppers in a large bowl; sprinkle with salt and cover with cold water. Let stand 2 hours. Drain; rinse and drain thoroughly Combine sugar, spices and vinegar in a large saucepot. Bring to a boil. Add drained vegetables; simmer 10 minutes. Pack hot relish into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space. Remove air bubbles. Adjust two-piece caps. Process 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner.
Yield: about 8 half-pints (however, I only got 6 pints - not sure why).

The first time I made pickle relish I did it just to use up a couple of cukes that had gotten bigger than I like (once in a while, the vine conspires to hide one or two until they can get too big), but it was so good, much better than the store bought, that I've been making my own ever since.

The problem is that I like the veggies to be nicely even in size, tiny cubes and all that chopping is so tedious. So once, I tried a batch in the food processor, as suggested in a recipe. Won't do that again. The texture was completely different.

My recipe is a little different from the Ball Book's, though it seems I might have gotten the original recipe from it, as the proportions are the same. But I add 2 cups of chopped celery to the other veggies, 1/4 t tumeric and I use half and half yellow and brown mustard seeds.

Here is an excellent red onion relish. The recipe comes from "Small Batch Preserving", but I generally triple it because I can't be bothered to slowly caramelize the onions and go through the whole canning process for only 2 cups of finished product.

Caramelized Red Onion Relish

2 large red onions-peeled and very thinly sliced
1/4 c firmly packed brown sugar
1 c dry red wine
3 T balsamic vinegar
1/8 t salt
1/8 t freshly ground black pepper

Combine onions and brown sugar in a heavy, nonstick pan. Cook, uncovered over med-high heat about 25 minutes or until onions turn golden and start to caramelize. Stir frequently.

Stir in wine and vinegar. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat to low and cook for about 15 minutes until most of the liquid has evaporated. Stir frequently.

Season to taste with salt & pepper.

Pack in clean hot jars, leaving 1/2" head space. Process half pints in boiling water bath for 10 minutes.