Miriam Wentworth Dodge’s Pottsfield Pickle Relish

This is the other relish that Daniel and I made the weekend of the 17^th of September; it takes some time, but it is worth it.  We really love this relish on scrambled eggs, pork chops, and hot dogs.

This recipe makes about 5 or 6 pints, so if you’re going to go to this much work, you might as well double it so you have plenty on hand through the Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer until you make it again.

Ingredients

• 6 green tomatoes, chopped to fit into the grinder
• 6 ripe tomatoes, peeled, cored, and chopped to fit into the grinder
• 2 yellow unions, chopped to fit into the grinder or food processor.
• 3 fresh jalapeño (or hotter, to taste) peppers, with stems removed.
• ½ cup pickling salt
• 1 quart white vinegar
• 2 cups sugar
• ½ cup whole mustard seeds (about 2 ounces)
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground cloves

Method

1. Grind the tomatoes, onions, and peppers together into a large non reactive container with whatever size plate you desire (a ¼ inch plate works well), add the pickling salt and stir well to dissolve the salt.  Let the mixture sit overnight.
2. The next day, rinse and drain the mixture by putting a little bit into a jelly bag and massaging it until there is little to no water running out.  As each batch is drained, add it to a kettle or dutch oven.
3. When all the mixture is in the kettle, add the vinegar, sugar, mustard seeds, and spices.
4. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes over medium heat.  It should start to thicken a little.
5. Put in very hot canning jars using a canning funnel (wide bottom opening so to keep the rim of jar clean) top with hot lids.  Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

Notes

I generally figure that a tomato weighs about ½ pound, and that an onion weighs about the same, so I generally weigh all the green tomatoes that I have, and start from there to figure out how many batches I will be making.  This is cooking, not baking, so a little variance one way or the other on the vegetables isn’t gonna wreck anything.

We generally grow some tomatoes and use the green ones left over at the end of the season and fill in with other fresh ingredients that we get at the farmers market.  Sometimes you can find the green tomatoes at the farmers market, or you can ask one of the farmers to bring them the next week.  It always helps to pay them in advance for this if you really want to make this relish and you don’t have your own tomato plants.

My mother originally used to chop all the vegetables by hand, but that is even more work than doing it with the grinder.  However, if you like a chunkier relish then a &frac14 inch chop is about the right size.