Relish recipes open to any interpretation

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Messing around with zucchini relish made me think that there are some things that are all about the extra flavors we put into them. If you nibble a slice of raw zucchini, it does not have a very interesting flavor by itself. If you cook it, the flavor improves somewhat. If you make it into something such as ratatouille, all the other good stuff – the eggplants, tomatoes, onions, peppers and herbs – are really what gives the dish a lot of flavor.

Cucumbers, the other thing we make relish out of, have a bit more flavor by themselves. Maybe it is because they are so plentiful and so susceptible to picking up other flavors that we like them for relish.

Basically, making relish seems to be about finding some vegetable that there is a lot of, grinding it up, adding spices, sugar and vinegar, and putting it away to brighten up the flavor of still something else later on.

Six zuke relish recipes were offered up for our consideration this time around, two identical ones, and the others with substantial agreement on all the basics. Three called for 12 cups of ground-up zucchini, others for 10. All but one thought you ought to have 4 cups of ground-up onion. All call for green pepper, and five called for red. Mustard, turmeric, celery salt or seed, along with sugar and vinegar, were the usual spices, and all in similar proportions. One called for cayenne and another for garlic powder. Three called for nutmeg.

My neighbor Annmarie Mouw started me off on this by wondering what other people did to make zuke relish, and I guess we have to say, “Pretty much what you do, Annmarie.”

Mark Nadeau sent his recipe, which he has been using for years. This year he had a yellow zucchini, but he added in a small green one to give it color. His is a 10-cup recipe, and he uses big zukes nobody wants and cuts out the punky middles. That sounds like a good idea – get those big seeds out of there. He doesn’t bother paring the squash, so neither should we.

Phyllis Borns has made her relish to sell at her church fair, using “humongous, overgrown zucchini mysteriously left on my front porch.” She probably ought to look around at her fellow churchgoers to see who is growing big zucchinis, since they can count on her to make it into relish for the fair. Paula Gillen in Milbridge found her relish in Patti Forbes’ “The Camp Cook” section of the Downeast Coastal Press. That’s the one that calls for garlic powder. Dorothy Lewis in Camden wrote with her recipe and noted that she weighed the zucchini once and found that about 5 pounds of squash gives her 12 cups. Add a couple pounds of onions and hers is a pretty typical yield of 6 or 7 pints.

A unique recipe came from Therese Lussier from Ludlow. She sent Grand-Maman’s Zucchini Relish and wrote that the recipe comes from her 87-year-old mom, who lives south of Montreal in St.-Alexandre. Her grandchildren are scattered from Quebec to North Carolina and Colorado, and all look forward to receiving jars of her relish. The instructions say to cut the zucchini and peppers into “tiny cubes.” Therese said, “She is very meticulous and cuts the ingredients in tiny, even sizes.” Whew. God bless her.

You could invent your own relish. In fact, my young friend Marie Fisk did by substituting overgrown yellow summer squash for zucchini in her grandmother’s recipe. It turned out a gorgeous golden yellow color with little flecks of sweet red pepper in it, and it tasted just like any good relish will. Or you can use the recipe above.

Zucchini Relish

12 cups ground zucchini

4 cups ground onions

1 red pepper, ground

1 green pepper, ground

1/2 cup pickling salt

2 1/2 cups cider vinegar

1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon dry mustard

3/4 teaspoon cornstarch

3/4 teaspoon turmeric

1 1/2 teaspoon celery salt (or seed)

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/8 teaspoon cayenne (optional)

3/4 teaspoon nutmeg (optional)

Put zucchini, onions and peppers in a large bowl and sprinkle in the salt. Let stand at least three hours to overnight. Then rinse well in cold water and drain.

Combine vinegar, sugar, spices and cornstarch in a large pan, and mix in the ground vegetables. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for an hour, stirring often enough to prevent sticking.

Spoon the relish into sterilized jars, put on the lids, and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Yield is about 6 to 7 pints.