This greatest beef jerky blends savory, sweet, and salty deliciousness with seasonings that will make your knees weak. Once it has dried, store it for two to three months in a cool, dry location in an airtight container.
| Prep Time: | 50 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr 10 mins |
| Additional Time: | 10 hrs |
| Total Time: | 12 hrs |
| Servings: | 112 |
| Yield: | 7 1/2-pints |
Ingredients
- 12 cups shredded unpeeled zucchini
- 4 cups chopped onion
- 5 tablespoons canning salt
- 6 cups white sugar
- 2 ½ cups white vinegar
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
- 1 green bell pepper, chopped
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 ½ teaspoons celery seed
- ¾ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¾ teaspoon ground turmeric
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- Place zucchini and onion in a large, non-metallic bowl; sprinkle salt on top. Use your hands to evenly mix salt with zucchini. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
- Drain zucchini in a colander and rinse well with cool water. Squeeze out excess water; set zucchini aside.
- Place sugar, vinegar, red and green bell pepper, and cornstarch into a large pot. Add celery seed, nutmeg, turmeric, and black pepper. Stir to combine, then add drained zucchini. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat; reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, sterilize seven 1-pint jars and lids. Pack relish into sterilized jars, making sure there are no spaces or air pockets. Fill jars all the way to the top. Screw on the lids.
- Place a rack in the bottom of a large stockpot and fill halfway with boiling water. Carefully lower jars into the pot using a holder. Leave a 2-inch space between jars. Pour in more boiling water if necessary, until the tops of jars are covered by 2 inches of water. Bring water to a full boil, then cover and process for 30 minutes.
- Remove jars from the pot and place on a cloth-covered or wood surface, several inches apart, until cool. Once cool, press the top of each lid with a finger, ensuring that seal is tight (lid does not move up or down at all).
Reviews
My son and his wife absolutely love this recipe. My frien who won’t touch bread and butter pickles tried this and loved it too. The only change I made was using 4 cups sugar rather than the 6 it called for. I really like this recipe. Thanks for sharing
Well that was a wonderful surprise, this recipe with a few of my own tweaks is AMAZING!!!!! I did, 1 and 1/2 recipe with added mustard seed 1 tsp ( could have used a tablespoon ) Apple cider vinegar, 3 cups of sugar, 1 tsp ground mustard. The rest of the recipe was followed. I will never never buy store bought food coloured made in India ( yup thats where most of its made ). Thank you to the person who posted this and to all of you that gave your suggestions. YOU ARE MY PEOPLE 🙂
Easy to follow instruction. Ver tasty Relish, going to make more! Can’t wait to share!
This is absolutely delicious. I made the changes that others had said by reducing the sugar and adding apple cider vinegar, dry mustard and cayenne. Other than it being a tad bit runny it is so yummy.
Absolutely delicious! Recipe is easy to follow. I also added 1 tsp mustard seeds, and a shake of red pepper flakes.
Very good recipe, made again with half sugar and 1 tbsp. mustard seed. Couldn’t tell sugar difference and mustard seed was also a great add on for our tastes
I am giving this recipe five stars for flavor. However, I’m a little annoyed that there was no directions for when to add the onion into the recipe. Luckily, I had another similar recipe and figured it out. Also, if you prefer a less sweet relish, you can decrease the amount of sugar, I decreased mine to 2 cups, and it is delicious.
we made this relish today( aug 13/23) and its fantastic.i cut the sugar in half and added one jalapeno pepper.other then that we followed the recipe .great way to use up all our fresh zuchinni’s from the garden.thanks for sharing this recipe.
This is absolutely delish!!! This will be a staple in our family’s pantry and I’m dwindling in how much zucchini we give away. So many great recipes out there!
I see many people have added this relish to other food items. Try it in tuna fish or with mayo for a tartar sauce. Deviled eggs are good also as mentioned. Our relish from the store usually goes bad by the time we get to it because of homemade Zucchini relish!
Followed the recipe as written. Loved it. This would be easy to modify with some hot peppers of your choice to make a sweet and spicy relish. Think I’ll try this next time around. Next time around occurred on 8/3/2023 and I added one large jalapeño when I chopped my red and green peppers. Followed the recipe exactly the same otherwise. It was fantastic!!
Actually better if you puree the zucchini.
Don’t know if it’s good yet, I’m at the end of step 3 and after 40 minutes of simmering, it’s still too soupy for relish even though I squeezed out the water in step 2.
I have made this recipe for more than 5 years, after receiving a jar of zucchini relish as gift at a wedding I attended. I found this recipe to taste exactly like the relish I was given. So very good! I see on other’s posting that others safely reduced the sugar amount by as much as half, and similar to Ball’s Zesty relish. I reduced mine by 1 1/4 cup and it is sweet enough. I add a Tbsp. or 2 to potato salad and it makes it even better!
This recipe is spectacular! Great way to use up all of that zucchini from the garden. You absolutely can safely adjust the sugar content to half, since this recipe is almost identical to the zesty zucchini relish in the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving (2006), which uses 2 1/2 cups sugar and all of the same base ingredients and same quantities as this recipe. Also according to ball, use 1/2 inch headspace. The only other difference is some spices.
Can anyone tell me if it makes a difference in the taste and/or texture if I forget to rinse off my zucchini before cooking? I made this recipe yesterday and I liked it, even though I forgot to rinse my zucchini, and it was a bit sweet. I made half of the recipe because I did not have enough zucchinis and yielded one pint and 3 1/2 half pint jars.
I have been making this recipe since 1973 when my farm neighbor shared the recipe with me. I haven’t bought store relish since then. If you haven’t added this to your deviled eggs you are missing out on the best deviled eggs ever !!! I don’t put in nutmeg but I do add powdered mustard !
Just wow. This has become my all-around MVP for adding to egg salad, chicken salad, or simply as-is. All my friends are obsessed with this and want jars of their own. I did swap out one cup of the white vinegar with apple cider vinegar, an easy exchange that won’t tinker with the acidity level of the recipe.
Absolutely delicious! The whole family enjoys it. I got two 1 liter jars out of this recipe.
Best relish I’ve ever eaten.
Great relish! After reading reviews, I cut sugar down to 4 cups. I had about 13 cups of zucchini, so rounded up spices to whole teaspoons and added 2 TBSPs of mustard seed and an extra TBSP of turmeric. I didn’t have any peppers on hand but I did have a jar of pimentos and it looks and tastes wonderful. Rounded up vinegar to 3 cups and it was perfect amount of liquid. Not a black pepper fan so next time I will add some cayenne for zing instead. Ended up with 15 pints. Great way to save and use zucchini crop for the year ❤️ This is a keeper!