Dill Pickle Relish Recipe: Simple and Classic
How to make a simple dill pickle relish using fresh produce. It is so much better than store-bought!
Waterbath canning recipes for cucumbers always come in handy because you will often have way more in the garden than you can possibly eat fresh. This relish will make quick work of a lot of cucumbers.
The Best Dill Relish Recipe + How to Can It
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
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
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 does not 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.
Enjoy this relish recipe!
By Katie Shaw
Katie lives in Virginia with her husband, three daughters, a chocolate lab, and over thirty chickens. She loves creating simple tutorials for sourdough, bread, and soap. Her recipes, articles, and YouTube videos reach millions of people per year.