Dill Pickle Relish Recipe: Simple and Classic
All those overwhelming cucumbers in your garden that were so fun at first? I know. I know. Let’s turn them (eight pounds of them!) into the best dill pickle relish you’ve ever had. And then we’ll can it so you can enjoy it all year long. Take that, evil cucumber empire.
Sometimes I like canning because it feels lovely and productive and I don’t want to waste produce. But this recipe is one I make every single year because I love the end result so well.
Dill Relish for Canning
Ingredients
- 8 pounds cucumbers about 16 medium cucuumbers
- ½ cup diced yellow onion
- 1 medium diced jalapeno
- ½ cup pickling salt
- 2 teaspoons turmeric
- 4 cups water
- 4 cups white vinegar
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon dill seed
- 1 tablespoon fresh dill
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Instructions
- Prep the veggies. Peel the cucumbers (fully or halfway) and remove the seedy center. Roughly chop them into quarters or eighths. Place them in a food processor and pulse to chop. You want them chopped but not pureed. Depending on the size of your food processor, you may want to work in many batches. (You can also dice the onion and jalapeno now, then cover them separately and set them aside so you don't need to take o ut your cutting board later.)
- Soak cucumbers in salt and turmeric. Place the cucumbers in a large bowl and sprinkle with the salt and turmeric. Pour the water on top and stir. Allow the mixture to sit, covered, at room temperature for 1-2 hours.
- Rinse and drain. Place chopped cucumbers in a cheesecloth lined bowl and rinse. Lift the cheesecloth and gently squeeze to drain. You can also leave this in the fridge overnight and continue in the morning.
- Add the remaining ingredients and cook. Place the cucumbers, diced jalapeño, diced onion, vinegar, sugar, dill weed, and dill seed in a saucepan and simmer for 15-20 minutes, until the mixture has thickened slightly and has changed from green to yellow-green.
- Process in waterbath canner. Ladle hot relish into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Twist lids fingertip tight and process in a water bath canner for 10 minutes. Cool until sealed and store in a dark place for up to 1 year.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
My grandmother was a big baker, quilter, canner, and all the rest. I did not appreciate it at the time because I thought I was going to be a lawyer. (I was, in fact, a secretary and then a housewife.) Anyway. Years after she died, I wished I had learned from her when I could. I do have one old gardening book of hers, out of which came a handwritten recipe for relish.
It read:
Sweet relish, 6 pints
Prepare cucumbers and onions and cover with vinegar. Add sugar to taste.
Pour into hot jars and cool.
So that “recipe” was a no-go.
I searched high and low for a recipe without weird ingredients and that wasn’t too sweet or too oniony. It could not be found, so I made some simple tweaks to the Ball Blue Book recipe to suit my tastes.
What You’ll Need for Homemade Relish
You’ll need the following for this simple canning recipe:
- cucumbers
- pickling salt
- turmeric
- water
- white vinegar
- yellow onion
- jalapeno
- sugar
- dill seed
- fresh dill
- large water bath canner
- pint or half-pint jars
- new lids
- canning funnel
- small saucepan
A Pretty Recipe for You
Click on the image below, and you can print this version to put in your canning binder.
🔍 FAQ
You can use pickling or regular cucumbers for this dill relish. Since you are chopping them up, the size doesn’t;t matter. One consideration is that you will need to remove any seeds. Smaller pickling cucumbers will have few, if any seeds, so they will make things easier. If you don’t have any, regular cucumbers will work fine–you’ll just have to de-seed them. Whatever you choose, make sure it’s unwaxed.
Pickling salt doesn’t have any anti-caking chemicals that can cause cloudiness. So it’s not essential, but it will give you a nicer-looking finished product.
The onions, jalapeño, and dill seed can be reduced if you do not like them.
No, the salt and vinegar cannot be altered as they are essential to preserving the relish.
How to Use Up Dill Relish
- Sandwich spread: Use dill relish as a spread on sandwiches or burgers.
- Hot dogs: Add it on top of hot dogs.
- Tuna salad: Mix it into tuna salad for extra flavor.
- Potato salad: Add it to potato salad to give it a tangy taste.
- Egg salad: Stir it into egg salad.
- Salad dressing: Mix it into a simple vinaigrette.
- Deviled eggs: Use it in the filling for deviled eggs.
- Meatloaf: Add it to meatloaf mixture for moisture and flavor.
- Baked fish: Spread some on top of fish before baking.
- Tartar sauce: Mix with mayonnaise to make tartar sauce for fish
- Pasta salad: Mix it into a cold pasta salad.
- Coleslaw: Blend it into coleslaw.
- Chicken salad: Add to chicken salad mix.
You can use sweet relish for any of these too!
More Recipes for Cucumber Season
When cucumbers are ready to be picked, they’re ready. Use them up!
- Small Batch Refrigerator Pickles are good for those first and last smaller harvests.
- A favorite summer lunch, Chicken Cucumber Salad uses just a few cukes.
- But my favorite is Old Fashioned Cucumber Salad, a simple blend of vinegar, salt, and sugar.
Remember those overwhelming piles of cucumbers we started with? They are now vanquished, transformed into jars of bright, tangy relish for potato salad and hot dogs. I hope that next summer, you’ll be ready, and maybe even excited.
By Katie Shaw
Katie shares simple, reliable recipes from her home in Virginia, where she lives with her husband, three daughters, a chocolate lab, and over thirty chickens.
I really liked this recipe. One of those slam choppers worked great for the veggies. I really really wish you could of put how many cups of chopped cucumber because it’s hard based on cuc sizes amount of removed seeds types of cuc’s to know I have an accurate vinegar to cuc’s ratio. Thank you for posting this and another household is using your relish recipe and relishing it! lol!!
I was wondering if it’s necessary to leave the cucumbers over night or can I just process them the same day.
Looks delicious!
same day is okay! just press them through a bit to get extra moisture out 🙂
This is my go-to recipe for dill relish! — family and friends love it; makes great gifts; I add extra jalapenos (total of 2 or 3 depending on the size); a little zing but not too much. This relish is terrific in egg salad, tuna salad.
Just saw the answer to my question about number of cucs! Impossible! I weighted on my bathroom scale so close enough looking forward to trying this.
I have a question that was asked but not answered also. I do not have a scale either. Approximately how many cucs in 8 lbs. or how many cups of the finished chopped cucs should there be? Would love to try this recipe.
Approx 30-40 cucumbers. Depending on size (4-5″). I always prepare an extra jar or two just in case. Since you’re making relish you can get away with using some larger cucumbers that you found that have been hiding on the vine. 🙂