Jalapeno relish canning question

helenb1949

7 years ago

Found this recipe for jalapeno relish. Uses 2 lbs jalapeno, 2 pounds tomatoes, garlic,oregano, 1 onion chopped. You cold pack. Add 1 teaspoon each salt and sugar per 8 oz jar. The brine is 3 cups vinegar and 1 1/2 cups water. I used 9 percent vinegar. Process 45 minutes in hot water bath. Problem is I could only fit about 2-3 tablespoons of brine per jar. Now I am wondering if this is shelf stable as I seem to have a lot of brine left.

Featured Answer

digdirt2

7 years ago

"OK so what can I do now? Heat it all back up with more brine and reprocess?"

If it has been less than 24 hours since you processed it, that is what the guidelines would recommend you do. Like I said above, use the same ingredients, hot pack it all, loose-pack the jars so that
much more brine would fit in (relishes are supposed to be packed
"sloshy" and then drained if needed after opening), and then BWB
process. You'd need to make a double batch of the brine to have enough for the loose sloshy packing and you would need to boil the solids in the brine before filling the jars.

It would still be an untested recipe so some risk would remain but the risk would be greatly reduced.

If it has been more than 24 hours then the guidelines recommend it be frozen instead.

Dave

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Comments (6)

digdirt2
7 years ago
Sounds like the jars were over-packed with solids. Don't know the source of the recipe but it sounds like an untested, unapproved one since cold -packed relishes aren't approved.

So no, given the ratio of unacidified low acid foods in the jar to the amount of acidic brine used, I would not consider it self-stable unless pressure canned.

In theory you could use the same ingredients, hot pack it all, loose-pack the jars so that much more brine would fit in (relishes are supposed to be packed "sloshy" and then drained if needed after opening), and then BWB process. But it would still be untested.

Dave
nancyofnc
7 years ago
Please find another recipe - this one is dangerous. You are not brining the veg if you can't get vinegar to them so the veg's pH is still very high, and not safe nor shelf stable!

45 minutes in BWB would make it mush and totally unappealing and would not kill the pathogens because the heat may not have penetrated to the center of the veg and the brine is just not there. Please use one of the NCHFP, Joy of Pickling, or Ball BBB recipes (sub hot peppers for sweet if called for). Hot pack only takes 5 minutes in BWB so the peppers and onions stay crisp but are pickled properly.

Why are you using 9% vinegar? That would peel off paint. 5% is tart enough even when diluted with the standard of less water than 1:1. IMO
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Here is the tested and approved recipe for Pepper Relish. It can be made with any combination of sweet and/or hot peppers as long as the total mounts remain the same and you can use red or white onions and even add sugar to taste if you wish. If you want to use only jalapenos for the peppers then it would be 6 cups of them but I would suggest making part of that sweet peppers instead for the taste you are after - say 4 cups jalapenos and 2 cups sweet. But the choice is yours. The recipes you posted, especially the first one, seem quite high in low-acid ingredients for the small amounts of vinegar even though it is straight vinegar. Are they actual canning recipes? If not I wouldn't use them. If they are, what processing time do they call for? If none is given then guessing at processing time is never a good idea. ;) Dave Here is a link that might be useful: NCHFP - Pepper Relish
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Amy which of the many NCHFP relish recipes did you use? The one that has you refrigerate it for 24 hours before reheating and filling the jars? If so then it is probably well enough acidified and safe to leave as is if you don't want to re-do it. It would be normal for the brine alone to have a strong vinegar flavor since that is the major ingredient. But it doesn't mean the relish will be the same. Next time if you don't like the taste of the white vinegar use cider vinegar instead. It is a more mellow flavor. I don't think it is possible for any set of instructions to anticipate and address all the issues involved. Right or wrong, they assume some basic knowledge and they incorporate enough safety margin into the instructions to allow for those things we don't know. As for the cooking too long, that really isn't possible to over-cook it but I can't help with why it might have taken so long to boil as that all depends on the size of the pot and the BTUs of the stove used. Normally it should come to a full boil within 10 mins. Dave
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helenb1949
Original Author
7 years ago
OK so what can I do now? Heat it all back up with more brine and reprocess? It was a lot of work to just Throw away. The peppers are not mush., just soft. And I used the 9% vinegar because that is what I had left from making Dill Pickles.
laceyvail 6A, WV
7 years ago
Where did you get 9% vinegar?
helenb1949
Original Author
7 years ago
My local grocery store, HEB, carries it. Actually did not even know they had it until one day I actually looked past the usual Heinz 5% . For pickles I like it better.

Jalapeno relish canning question

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Jalapeno relish canning question

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