Nuts! I forgot to put a (?) at the end of Subject of Posting. Am looking for new ideas too.

I don't see any reason at all why you couldn't use yellow onions in that relish. Actually it should be pretty good. I'd be inclined to use a dry white wine and perhaps a white balsamic rather than a red.

There are numerous old onion relish recipes. Most fall into the sweet relish category, tend to be 100% vinegar with some mixture of pickling spices, turmeric for a golden color and lots of sugar.

I think if you search for onion relish on this forum something should turn up, if you're interested. If not, I can post one.

Carol

I've been wanting to try this vidalia onion relish. I've heard it's a lot like the onion relish you get at hot dog stands in New Jersey.

Here is a link that might be useful: Vidalia Onion Relish.

Agree just sub the yellow onions. There is also a good pepper and onion relish recipe we like and you can make it as hot or as mild as you wish depending on the type peppers you use. Just keep the total amount of peppers the same. We sub jalapenos for the sweet green peppers.

And once the peaches come into season check out Oscar Relish.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Pepper Onion Relish

I have to say I'm not a fan of the Vidalia onion relish recipes but that's purely personal. I've made it and served it. My husband likes it and so do others, but not me.

Carol

Thanks so much for the replies!!

I think I have the ingredients to try all of the recipes except white balsamic vinegar and dry white wine. Just googled dry white wine & am pretty sure saw Sauvignon Blanc & Chardonnay at Walmart when was looking for dry red wines. Don't think I saw any white balsamic vinegar though. My yellow onions aren't Vidalia, but will try them anyways.

Going to be a busy, busy next few days. I want to can sauerkraut with Pickle Crisp fist and then will start on the onion relishes. My doomsday pantry is really growing.

When I was canning various dried beans a few weeks ago, the thing I thought would complement them the most was onion.

Possum in my critter trap this morning. Yum yum!

Thanks again & I will report how everything turns out.

jt

Ahh, stewed possum for Easter dinner. Some of those onions and a few carrots thrown in too. :)

Dave

Help! I was just going to start batch #3 (in 3 days) and just noticed that I haven't been following the instructions correctly. See underlined in step 3:

I've been hot-packing directly from the skillet into the hot jars. How serious is this?

It's not a huge issue. The cooling permits the onions to sink a bit so that you can more accurately assess headspace and adjust contents if necessary. It also reduces air bubbles naturally. However, you're working with half-pints so volume differences will be minimal.

You may find after processing the contents of some jars have sunk quite a bit more, but personally I wouldn't be concerned. Those onions are quite thoroughly acidified (not to mention the brown sugar).

Carol

18 half-pints of relish finished:

Tried 3 diff combos:

Will sample one of them tonight when eat my daily meal. (caught another possum last night... true story!) Caught a coon earlier in the week. And a cat. Don't like the taste of cats though.

3 lbs sliced onions
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 cups dry wine
6 tbs balsamic vinegar
salt & pepper
Yielded 6 half-pints relish all three times

Learned a little bit abt wines too. Only real previous experiences were Thunderbird and Strawberry Hill back in the 60s & who knows what when stationed in Germany. These links might be helpful:

Types of dry red wines
List of the dry red wines
Examples of dry white wines

Thanks again for the help!

Carol writes: "I don't see any reason at all why you couldn't use yellow onions in that relish. Actually it should be pretty good. I'd be inclined to use a dry white wine and perhaps a white balsamic rather than a red."

Grilled burger season here in Misery & have really been enjoying the 3 diff wine/vinegar combo onion relishes. The white & white is my fav, but all are distinctly different and delicious. I want to do pint jars next time. Can I just increase the canning time?

So far have used the relishes on burgers, egg mcmuffins, sweetcorn and in garden salads. Grilled porkchops, hashbrowns, fish & chicken breasts are on my list.

The canning recipe was taken from "Small-Batch Preserving" and is for half-pint jars. (see link below) I want to do pints. How can I safely do so?

Have caught 5 ea possum and coon in my garden since last post. And 1 snapping turtle. Going to need lots of relish!

Here is a link that might be useful:

I wish recipes would gives weights or volume or something. How large is large? I have some sweet onions that I would like to use for john's white on white version. A few of these onions are enormous.

Are there any safety concerns with doing the Caramelized Red Onion recipe in pints using the NCHFP guidelines for pressure canning mixed vegetables?

Hot pack, 75 min at 10 lbs pressure.

Half-pint jars are just too small & don't last long enough.

Thanks...

Here is a link that might be useful: NCHFP Mixed Vegetables

Pretty much every relish recipe on the NCHFP site allows for canning relish in pints, and uses the same processing time as half-pints. Therefore I think you would be fine going with the same processing as half pints.

PC at 10 lbs for 75 minutes sounds like you with end up with onion puree.

Here is a link that might be useful: NCHFP Relishes

pixie lou,

My apologies for not replying back. Don't know what happened, but every time I've checked this forum since asking the question this thread has appeared "grayed-out" (no new posts) and I didn't open it to read. Weird. Glad I opened it anyways today. Have 9 lbs already caramelized onion slices in the fridge since Sunday night waiting for an answer. I'm such an idiot!

Am going to try pressure canning 3 lbs (the weight before caramelizing) today at 10 lbs for 75 min just to see what happens. Tomorrow will BWB the other 6 lbs in pints.

Thanks much! My faith in this forum is restored.