Now, I know that this is not a proprietary recipe, hell, it’s probably in the Burk’s Falls Catholic Church cookbook from about forty years ago, or even further back than that.
This recipe came from a time when cookbooks were family affairs, not something you could write and sell on Amazon.
Something will be lost if we lose these historical links to our family roots. I can remember being somewhere under ten years old, feeding the ingredients into the old hand crank grinder/mincer while my aunt or grandma seasoned the resulting mash.
And the aroma, as this stuff was steeping and combining overnight, then the cooking next day. Few things take me back to my childhood harder than the smells I grew up with.
Fresh cut hay fields; newly tilled fields; the peculiar raw meat smell of freshly cleaned game; and of course canning, preserving and storing foods for the 6 month long dormant winter season in Ontario.
But enough about the walk down memory lane, let’s see if I can translate the verbal recitation of a recipe into text that makes sense. See, things used to be much more verbal, with only the barest of written clues to keep us on track…
*think of your typical grandmother, short, round, happy and trying to feed everybody every time they show up, that’s my Grandma, and I haven’t seen her in far too long*
How to make green relish, per my grandma Casey,
– Grind up a dozen large cucumers, them one’s that’s too big to slice into pickles.
– Find the onions that are about to go to seed, pull them and clean them up, feed a dozen of them into the grinder while you’re at it.
-Now, peppers, if you managed to grow any this year, they’ll do, otherwise check with the market, or the neighbor and see if they’ve got any, three or four of each, red and green. You guessed it. Grind them also.
Now that you’ve got a huge bowl of mushed veggies, cover it all with a strong salt brine, then top with lots of salt (a solid layer of salt on top); cover it up tight, and let it sit overnight. Drain it come morning before you start breakfast.
Now, having aired it out a little while you fed the critters breakfast, it’s time to mix in the other bits.
First, get a medium sized bowl, add a big pinch of celery salt, and one of mustard seed, then about a quart of vinegar and a whole pile of sugar. Mix this all up and add to the biggest pot you have along with the vegetables from the grinder.
Boil the whole thing for a good ten minutes. While that’s cooking, mix up a dash of turmeric, three tablespoons of prepared mustard and three-quarters a cup of flour into enough water or vinegar to make it a thick liquid.
Once the relish has cooked for ten minutes, pour in this mix, and stir it all together. Then can it into pint jars, them big ones are too big, it’ll go off before you use it all.
I miss those days of working in Grandma’s kitchen, but I’ve got five little ones (ok, the oldest is 12 and more than 150lbs) of my own and my wife’s amazing at this stuff, so I get to help her now instead.
Therefore, in the interests of accuracy, here’s the pared down version with numbers attached.
-12 large cucumbers – minced or ground up.
-12 onions, mild or sharp depending on preference – also minced or ground
-3 red peppers, 3 green peppers – ground up as well
>>> cover with strong salt brine (water and salt, until saturated solution is reached), also add layer of salt on top of ground vegetables. Let sit overnight. Drain in morning.
– 1 TBSP Celery Salt
– 1 TBSP Mustard Seed
– 4 cups Vinegar
– 9 cups Sugar
>> mix these into Cucumber mix, stirring thoroughly. Now, boil the mix for ten minutes.
>> mix together
– 3/4 cup flour
– 1 tsp of turmeric
– 3 TBSP of prepared Mustard
– vinegar to mix it with, just enough.
>> Add to relish mix, stirring thoroughly.
>> Can the resulting relish into pint or smaller jars, quart jars are too big.
That’s about it. I had to get this down so it made sense to me and so that the paper in the picture above could be reproduced if needed, when it inevitably succumbs to age and kitchen mishaps.
Time to get cooking.
Duke.