I was canning a batch of watermelon rind pickles last night and it made me think about my granny. She used to make a pear relish that went really good with, like, pork. It was dark brown and had a sort of almost… grainy? texture. I can’t find anything in any of my canning books, not even the Ball Blue Book, so don’t direct me there. I see one or two on recipezaar, but I have no idea if it’s anything like the pear relish I grew up on.
Also, shelf stable canning recipes only. I’m not looking for a fresh or refrigerator relish (although if you have a good recipe, please tell us - but that’s not the answer I’m looking for.) And I’d appreciate if they were modern and safe, even though Granny was probably courting botulism and twenty kinds of diseases since eradicated in the first world.
Granny has been dead for more than a decade, so she’s not talking. My aunts don’t seem to know. Can you guys help me out?
ETA: If it matters, Granny was from southwest Georgia and born in 1904.
If you don’t mind adding pectin, how about the old tried and true Sure-Jell recipe? According to comments, it takes about a week to set. I tried making pear jam once, but the graininess and discoloration bothered me. I never thought of using it as a relish, though.
I try to check the Kraft site whenever I come across out-of-the-ordinary fruits or berries; it has recipes that you won’t find on the Sure-Jell packaged directions.
That’s the one I was looking at. I have no idea what the ingredients might have been, but that recipe and one other on Recipezaar look like they’d be savory instead of jam-like. Unfortunately, that recipe is neither complete nor modern (step 3: “in a large canning kettle”. Wha?), and I’m not sure if the further cooking for appropriate processing time would affect the relish. (I suspect not, but I’d rather find a recipe that says for sure.) This one is similar but includes a hot water bath step; I may try it.
ETA - I love how that one makes the “Simple - 3 or Less Steps” list, when one of those steps is “Ladle the relish into hot, sterilized pint jars, cover, and process in a boiling bath for 15 minutes.”. Not complicated but hardly what I’m looking for when I want a “simple” recipe! Do you have any idea how long it takes to boil a whole canning kettle of water?
Yes, I do. However, if you have a hot mixture going in to the jars, you don’t need to boil them. Just pop the sealers on (of course, making sure that the jar rims are clean!) and finger-tighten the bands, and they’ll seal.
Try looking for a pear chutney, that may garner a better result for you.
The extension office doesn’t recommend that anymore. I’m sure it’s paranoid, but the USDA and everybody now requires hot water processing (or pressure canning, for non-acidic foods.)
Jesus Christ. When I started I did not fully take in the concept of “Peel, core and chop 12 pears. Ditto 12 peppers. Ditto six onions.” I always forget how much damned chopping there is in canning before you even get to the boiling.
Take a closer look at that recipe: It really is simple (though not quite modern, I admit) and the instructions are complete, they’ve just been a little beat up by whatever automated formatting program got ahold of it. Instead of reading it like this:
[ol]
[li]Put through food grinder all the ingredients.[/li][li]When everything is ground up, mix all together[/li][li]in a large canning kettle.[/li][li]Cook for 40 minutes.[/li][li]Put in jars and seal.[/li][/ol]
try reading it like this:
Put through food grinder all the ingredients. When everything is
ground up, mix all together in a large canning kettle [I would
use a large stainless steel stockpot]. Cook for 40 minutes. Put
in jars and seal.
Given the amount of vinegar and sugar, and the bit of salt, I would say that a hot water bath in your canning kettle would be sufficient to process and seal. 12 minutes for pints, 15 minutes for quarts (about the same as I process my bread-and-butter pickles.)
Well, yes, but you can be bringing the kettle up to a boil while the mixture is cooking and you’re filling and capping the jars. I usually make ten- to twelve-jar batches of anything I’m canning anyway, so I have holiday gifts to give later.
Well, that wasn’t it. It was… orange. Very orange. And it did NOT make “3 pints”, it made more like “small ocean”. I kept thinking it would… shrink. So now I have two extra quarts in the fridge AND one half-pint that didn’t seal. Of orange pear stuff. Which my whole house smells like.
Haven’t tasted it cool yet; I might like it, (really probably will), but it isn’t what I was looking for at all. Nobody has any recipes they’ve had experience with themselves?