Cucumber based relish, tweaking seeded spices

5 years ago

last modified: 5 years ago

I have a cucumber relish recipe in an old canning book and its rather vague about the bwb processing so I'd like to tweak this Bernadin recipe to be similar to it. I'm thinking of subbing fennel for the celery OR subbing some fennel seeds and maybe coriander seeds for the mustard seeds. I may not do the fennel depending on how fresh and expensive it is at the market, I see the fennel seeds as being an easy substitution seed, but I'm leery about the corriander. I made corriander dills once and did not like them. Dill seed would be another substitution. I dunno, do you think fennel and mustard would go together? If so, just subbing in some fennel seed would be easy peasy. I also have cumin seeds. Also wondering about throwing in a bit of lemon peel. Using certified rules on adding spices of course . . . The pickles I didn't like were corriander and also lemon pickles. But they didn't have sugar like this relish. I have never made pickles with fennel. I make fennel slaw and like it, with fennel, apple and lemon juice and evoo.

7 cups (1750 ml) peeled and finely chopped cucumbers, about 6 medium
4 cups (1000 ml) finely chopped green peppers, about 4
4 cups (1000 ml) finely chopped red peppers, about 4
2 cups (500 ml) finely chopped celery
1 cup (250 ml) finely chopped onion
1/2 cup (125 ml) pickling salt
2 1/4 cups (550 ml) granulated sugar
3 cups (750 ml) white vinegar
3 tbsp (45 ml) Each: celery seed and mustard seed

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Comments (5)

bragu_DSM 5
5 years ago
i would make a much smaller test batch to try first ...
busylizzy
5 years ago
I swap out spices and fresh herbs all the time in recipes.. i ferment a small batch first usually to see if i like the mix.
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l pinkmountain
Original Author
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
I was thinking that's what I was going to do, make a small batch of fermented pickles with my own mix. I'm thinking some cider vinegar, fennel and coriander seed, and lemon and orange peel along with the mustard seed. Will give it the flavor of one of my favorite fennels salads with green apples and a lemon evoo dressing. And my second favorite is orange, black olive and fennel salad . . . I was going to halve the pickle relish recipe anyway because that is way more relish than I will ever use or even give away considering all the other kinds of relishes and pickles I am making this year . . . I have a small deep pot just for small batch BWB.

I found another recipe with the mix of fennel and mustard seed so it must be sort of good. Not many recipes featuring coriander . . . I like it but in small doses . . .

I'm making this relish to serve along with cheeses. Also wondering about coarse chopping the relish vegetables. It would change the texture but not make it more dense, it would be less dense . . .
Lars
5 years ago
Here's a list of spices I use for a small batch:

10-12 cloves garlic, peeled
Several sprigs of fresh dill (can substitute 1 Tbsp dill seed, if necessary)
1 teaspoon celery seed
1 Tbsp coriander seed
1 teaspoon mustard seed

6-9 Bay leaves

For me, coriander is essential, and I would never use cumin. I can see that your taste and preferences are very different from mine, and I always add Habanero to my pickles.

I might consider using fresh fennel instead of dill, but I would not use fennel seeds, as I would be afraid that they would have too strong a flavor. I also never add sugar to pickles that I make.

One experiment I did that I really did not like was to add daikon radish to the pickles. It did not ruin the cucumber, but I could not eat the daikon, and I gave the daikon to a friend of mine who is Chinese. She said it reminded her of pickles that her mother made.
l pinkmountain
Original Author
5 years ago
I am making a jar of marinated cukes using my proposed spice idea. So far I am LOVING the results. Maybe my fennel seeds are old, because I'm not detecting much from them, but I really like the coriander seeds. I think the reason I didn't like the coriander pickles when I made them years ago is because the recipe used lemon juice and coriander leaves. It was too harsh. In this batch I used a clove of garlic, fennel, celery and mustard seeds, some dried lemon peel and a bay leaf. I used a mix of cider and white vinegar with a couple dashes of wine vinegar. They are delicious.