Dixie Relish is a delicious relish recipe based on cabbage that you can make inexpensively the year round.
Good thing, because in the spring you’re going to want to make sure you have a few jars of this mellowing on the shelf for summer sausage on a bun, and burgers.
It’s also delicious as a side with grilled meats, and barbeque.
Everything about this says lazy days of summer.
This recipe makes a lot, so you may wish to cut the recipe in half.
The recipe
If you wish to adjust batch size, do the math first on paper.
Jar size choices: Quarter-litre (½ US pint / 250 ml / 8 oz) OR half-litre (1 US pint / 500 ml/ 16 oz)
Processing method: Either water-bath or steam canning
Yield: 7 x half-litre (US pint) jars
Headspace: 2 cm (½ inch)
Processing time: 15 minutes either size jar

Dixie relish
7 x x half-litre (US pint) jars
Ingredients
- 500 g cabbage (coarsely chopped. 4 cups / 1 pound)
- 600 g bell peppers (mixed colours, finely chopped. 4 cups / 1 ¼ lbs)
- 250 g onion (finely chopped. 2 cups / 9 oz / 2 medium)
- 4 tablespoons pickling salt
- 2 litres water (lukewarm. 8 cups / 64 oz)
- 1 litre white vinegar (5% acidity or higher. 4 cups / 32 oz)
- 200 g sugar (white. ¾ cup / 6 oz)
- 3 tablespoons mustard seed
- 2 tablespoons celery seed
The final 3 ingredients are optional spicing that you may wish to also add. If using these spices, tie into a spice bag or put into a large tea genie, put into vegetable and vinegar mixture when you simmer it, then remove spice bag and discard:
Instructions
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Prep the cabbage, onion and bell pepper (free free to use a food processor, but use the pulse button so you don't purée it.)
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Put into a large bowl.
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Dissolve salt into water.
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Pour salt water over veg mixture. (If more water is needed to cover, add more.) Let stand for an hour on the counter or table, covered.
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Drain, rinse and drain again, squeezing out excess liquid.
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Put into a large pot with the vinegar down to and including the celery seed. Add spice bag, if using.
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Cover the pot, bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer for 20 to 25 minutes, until thickened to your liking.
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Discard spice bag, if used.
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Pack hot into quarter-litre (½ US pint) jars or half-litre (US pint) jars.
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Leave 2 cm (½ inch) headspace for either size jar.
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Debubble, adjust headspace.
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Wipe jar rims.
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Put lids on.
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Process in a water bath or steam canner.
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Process either size jar for 15 minutes; increase time as needed for your altitude.
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Best after at least a month of jar time.
Reference information
How to water bath process.
How to steam can.
When water-bath canning or steam canning, you must adjust the processing time for your altitude.
Australia and New Zealand vinegar strength special notes.
Recipe notes
- For a zippier relish you can replace some of the bell pepper with an equivalent amount of chopped hot pepper instead, or, add a teaspoon of dried red chile flakes.
- Don’t increase the amounts of cabbage, pepper or onion, or, decrease the amount of vinegar.
- Instead of the salt, you can use a non-bitter, non-clouding salt sub. We have found Herbamare Sodium-Free performs well in that regard.
- You can reduce the sugar, or use the same volume amount of granulated Splenda®, or use 2 teaspoons of liquid stevia. For stevia, we’d recommend Better Stevia liquid stevia.
- Instead of distilled white vinegar, you may try any vinegar you wish provided it is 5% acid or higher.
Recipe source
Dixie Relish: in Kingry, Judi and Lauren Devine. Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving. Toronto, Canada: Robert Rose Inc. 2015. Page 228.
Dixie Relish: in Ball Blue Book. Muncie, Indiana: Healthmark LLC / Jarden Home Brands. Edition 37. 2014. Page 87
The Ball Blue Book calls for ½ cup pickling salt to be mixed into 8 cups of water; the Complete Book calls for ¼ cup to be mixed into 7 cups of water. We went with the lower salt amount as there were cautions in the Complete Book notes about how salty some people could find the relish.
Modifications made:
- Ball / Bernardin Complete uses the spice bag spices; Blue Book doesn’t. We went with those spices for more of that old-time, added taste complexity, but let the mustard and celery seed be free range in the relish for added visual interest.
Nutrition information
Regular Version
Estimating that 10% of the salt was absorbed by the vegetable.
Per 2 tablespoons / 30 ml
- 14 calories, 65 mg sodium
Sugar and salt-free Version
Per 2 tablespoons / 30 ml
- 8 calories, 3 mg sodium
- Weight Watchers PointsPlus®: 1 to 7 tablespoons: 0 points; 8 to 21 tablespoons: 1 point.
Safety check

With a pH of 3.51 on this Dixie Relish, the recipe is well below the upper safety cut-off of 4.6 pH.
* Nutrition info provided by https://caloriecount.about.com
* PointsPlus™ calculated by healthycanning.com. Not endorsed by Weight Watchers® International, Inc, which is the owner of the PointsPlus® registered trademark.
* Better Stevia ® is a registered trademark of the NOW Foods Company.
* Herbamare ® is a registered trademark of the A. Vogel Corporation.
* Pickle Crisp ® is a registered trademark of the Jarden Corporation.
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