It would be difficult to can with just using lemon juice as the acidifier. Because the 'brine juice' is usually salt, lots of vinegar and sugar, the use of lemon would make it difficult to get any other taste to come through all that lemon juice. This recipe may be fine for the refrigerator, but for canning, a lot of quantity imodification would be required.

Improvising your own canning recipe is extremely risky. There are too many ways it can go wrong. Even what may seem to be minor modifications should be checked by a professional.

Jim

Amy, maybe your library would have a copy of The Joy of Pickling, and there's probably a Branston pickle recipe in there. I remember Carol (readinglady) posted about making Branston pickle once, so if you start a new thread with Branston pickle and/or readinglady in the subject, maybe she will post it for you.

I would think just about anything can be pickled in 100% vinegar (no water added), and lemon juice is more acidic than vinegar. You would want to make sure you have enough salt, as that also preserves pickles, but I don't have much experience with sweet pickles. So your recipe might work, but as everyone said above, not worth the risk. Maybe your county extension could help though.

Melissa

I found a recipe for Branston pickle here:

http://www.howtopickle.com/recipes/branston_pickles.html

Unfortunately, Joy of Pickling doesn't have a Branston pickle (or copycat recipe, as that's a brand name), nor do any of the other pickling sources I have around. Believe me, I checked.

There are recipes online but I never did get around to looking at them seriously. Branston pickle is actually more of a relish or even a chutney, so what you would want to do is find a tested chutney recipe that has a mixture of low-acid vegetables and high-acid fruits. A Tomato and Apple Chutney with onions, bell peppers and cucumbers might be a good place to start. (From Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving). Then you could substitute vegetables and fruits used in the Branston pickle, as long as you maintained the same proportions of high and low-acid and didn't reduce the vinegar or dilute it with water.

In the same book there's a recipe for a Marrow 'n Onion Mustard Pickle. That might be an even better choice because Branston pickle is thickened and the Onion Mustard Pickle is an all-vegetable pickle thickened with ClearJel. The vegetables are also cubed, which is the same as the Branston pickle. Again, if the same total amounts and proportions were maintained, you can't go wrong substituting some fruits in an all-vegetable recipe as they are higher-acid, not lower.

A Branston pickle is high sugar (a natural dessicant) and 100% undiluted vinegar, so I don't see acidity as an issue, but density is, as that affects processing time, so it's as important to find a recipe with the same density as it is to match up the proportions of ingredients.

If I were making this relish, I'd probably go with a small initial batch and focus first on flavor and texture, taking scrupulous notes on amounts, methods, etc. as that is more critical to me. If I really liked the result and wanted to make it in larger amounts than can be conveniently refrigerated, then I'd start working through the canning issue.

One thing about the online recipes I've seen. They call for cider vinegar, but I doubt I'd ever achieve anything close to an authentic taste unless I used malt vinegar.

For anyone interested, here are the ingredients as listed on the jar: sugar, vinegar, carrot, rutabaga, onion, cauliflower, zucchini, dates, salt, tomatoes, apples, gherkins, cornstarch, lemon juice, caramel color, spices, acetic acid and garlic.

Carol