Cold pack is not safe except for certain things like plain fruits and veg that get hot water or syrup or brine over them. This recipe would definitely not be safe.

Sad to say, old recipes just aren't trustworthy. Do you have access to the Ball Blue Book or the Ball Complete Book of Home Food Preservation? If not, try a forum search for [pepper relish mustard] to see if anyone's posted a tested/approved recipe here. Shirley's Harry & David taste-alike is delicious and you could safely add some mustard seed to it.

Hope you find something suitable, but yeah, this sounds like bad news, very outdated.

Melissa

I agree with Melissa. Unless you are doing a refrigerator pickle/relish and plan to eat the relish within a short time it would not be safe. There are some recipes for relish and pickles that are not intended for storage - they are put in the fridge and eaten in a very short time.

DL

Here is a link that might be useful: Refrigerator pickle search link

"Cold Pack" is currently labeled "raw pack." Originally that instruction was probably designed to preserve texture. However, as we know today, in a recipe like that packed raw you can end up with low-acid chunks of pepper or carrot (just think how dense carrots are) where the vinegar hasn't penetrated. So despite the vinegar, there is still risk.

That's why any current tested pepper relish recipe I know of calls for cooking the mixture and hot packing then BWB. For crisper texture pickle crisp (i.e. calcium chloride) could be added.

I hope this clarifies the issue.

Carol