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Home / Relish / Thousand Island Relish

Thousand Island Relish

Filed Under: Relish, Seasonal Summer Tagged With: Canadian, Canadian Living, Flour, Mustard, Thickeners

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

 

Thousand Island Relish 2001

Thousand Island Dressing has lived on, but Thousand Island Relish has largely been lost to history.

You can revive this old relish in your own kitchen, though.

We’re not certain of the exact culinary historical origins of this recipe, or just how old it is, but it has been kicking around Canadian kitchens along the St Lawrence River in handwritten form for several generations now. And it almost certainly was kicking around in relatives’ kitchens on the American side of the river, too. This rendition of the recipe has been tested to modern USDA canning safety standards for heat penetration, density, pH, seal, etc, by Canadian Living. (See: Canadian Living as a reputable source of lab-tested recipes.)

This recipe makes a lot; you may wish to cut the recipe in half unless you have a lot of friends who’d love a jar for summer cookouts.

44 calories, 79 mg sodium per 2 tablespoons. (A sugar and salt-free take on it would be 16 calories, 2 mg sodium, per 2 tablespoons.)

1000 islands

The 1000 islands, near Alexandria, New York. (Bill Blevins / flickr / 2007 / CC BY 2.0. )

Contents hide
  • 1 The recipe
  • 2 Thousand Island Relish
    • 2.1 Ingredients
    • 2.2 Instructions
  • 3 Reference information
  • 4 Recipe notes
  • 5 Recipe source
  • 6 Safety Check
  • 7 Nutrition information
    • 7.1 Regular version
    • 7.2 Sugar and salt-free version

The recipe

Jar size choices: Quarter-litre (½ US pint / 250 ml / 8 oz)

Processing method: Water bath or steam canning

Yield: 12 x quarter-litre (½ US pint) jars

Headspace: 2 cm (½ inch)

Processing time: 10 minutes

Thousand Island Relish
4.41 from 20 votes
Print

Thousand Island Relish

12 x quarter-litre (½ US pint / 8 oz / 250 ml) jars

Course Condiments
Cuisine Canadian
Keyword Cucumber, Mustard
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 50 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 50 minutes
Yield 12 quarter-litre (½ US pint / 8 oz / 250 ml) jars
Calories 16 kcal

Ingredients

  • 3 kg cucumber (6 pounds / 6 large)
  • 1 kg onion (2 lbs / 6 large)
  • 150 g red bell pepper (finely chopped. Measured after seeding, chopping. 1 cup / 1 large / 5 oz)
  • 150 g green bell pepper (finely chopped. Measured after seeding, chopping. 1 cup / 1 large / 5 oz)
  • 4 tablespoons pickling salt (OR non-bitter, non-clouding salt sub)
  • ½ cup flour (2.5 oz / 70 g)
  • 3 tablespoons mustard powder
  • 1 ½ teaspoons turmeric
  • 1 ½ teaspoons mustard seed
  • 1 ½ teaspoons celery seed
  • 250 ml water (1 cup / 8 oz)
  • 750 ml white vinegar (5% or higher. 3 cups / 24 oz)
  • 700 g sugar (white. 3 cups / 24 oz.)
Metric - US Customary

Instructions

  1. Wash, peel and seed the cucumber and chop it finely.
  2. Put in very large pot or bowl.
  3. Peel and chop the onion finely; add to bowl.
  4. Wash, seed and chop the peppers finely; add to bowl.
  5. Sprinkle the salt over the vegetable mixture .

  6. Pour enough cold water over the mixture to cover it; mix with your hands or a sturdy spoon.
  7. Let stand, covered, for 1 to 2 hours, then drain well.
  8. In a very large heavy pot, mix together the dry ingredients: the flour, mustard powder, turmeric, mustard seed, and celery seed.

  9. Now add in the wet ingredients gradually, stirring to make a sauce: the water, the vinegar and the sugar OR the liquid stevia.
  10. Add in the drained veg, stir.
  11. Put pot on stove burner, bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer and simmer uncovered for about 30 minutes or until the sauce has thickened.
  12. Pack hot into quarter-litre (½ US pint / 250 ml / 8 oz) jars.

  13. Leave 2 cm (½ inch) headspace.
  14. Debubble, adjust headspace.
  15. Wipe jar rims.
  16. Put lids on.
  17. Process in a water bath or steam canner.
  18. Process either size jar for 10 minutes; increase time as needed for your altitude.
  19. 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 (follow the table above.)

For salt substitute, Herbamare Sodium-Free was used.

For stevia, Better Stevia liquid stevia was the stevia used.

More information about Sugar and Salt-Free Canning in general.

Australia and New Zealand vinegar strength special notes.

 

Recipe notes

  • Trim off both ends of cucumbers; this is to get rid of an enzyme that could make your relish go soft.
  • To seed the cucumber, cut it lengthwise and drag the tip of a spoon along the centre.
  • To chop the cucumber, you can cut the peeled, seeded into chunks, pop in a food processor and use the pulse button.
  • For the flour, use plain flour or all-purpose (i.e. don’t use self-rising.) Feel free to cut back a bit on the flour, by up to half, even, for a less thick relish.
  • You can use all one colour of a pepper; the two different colours are just for look.
  • The purpose of the soaking here is to infuse the vegetable with flavour.
  • Instead if the sugar, you could use the same volume amount of Splenda® OR 3 teaspoons liquid stevia.

 

Recipe source

Thousand Island Relish. Canadian Living Test Kitchen. The Complete Preserving Book. Montreal, Canada: Transcontinental Books. 2012.  Page 178.

Note: This recipe is lightly thickened with flour. While it generally isn’t considered safe to thicken home-canned products with flour, the exception is if the recipe has been lab-tested for safety by professionals, as this one has been. So enjoy!

All Canadian Living home canning recipes are lab-tested to meet or exceed Bernardin and USDA standards for quality and safety.

Modifications

 

 

Thousand Island Relish 2004

Safety Check

Thousand-Island-Relish-pH

Thousand Island Relish has a pH of 3.77, tested using 25 g solids, 50 ml distilled water. Well below upper safety cut-off of 4.6 pH.

 

Nutrition information

Regular version

Per 2 tablespoons / 30 ml:

  • 44 calories, 79 mg sodium

thousand island relish nutrition regular

 

Sugar and salt-free version

Per 2 tablespoons / 30 ml:

  • 16 calories, 2 mg sodium
  • Weight Watchers PointsPlus®:  1 to 2 tablespoons, 0 points. 3 to 8 tablespoons, 1 point; 9 to 13 tablespoons, 2 points.

thousand island relish

 

* 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.

Thousand Island Relish 2002

Tagged With: Canadian, Canadian Living, Flour, Mustard, Thickeners

Filed Under: Relish, Seasonal Summer Tagged With: Canadian, Canadian Living, Flour, Mustard, Thickeners

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Karen Niemi

    August 17, 2020 at 1:47 pm

    is it possible to substitute the flour with something else as a thickener. We have a celiac family member and cannot use flour in the relish

    Reply
    • Healthy Canning

      September 22, 2020 at 1:15 pm

      We’re not qualified to speak on what possible alternatives would be safe, either canning wise, or health wise for that family member. Probably a good idea to just search for another relish recipe to can.

      Reply
  2. Jill

    August 31, 2019 at 9:53 pm

    Is this relish used to make thousand island dressing? If so, how do you make the dressing? Thanks

    Reply
    • Healthy Canning

      September 08, 2019 at 2:42 pm

      Though it’s from or named after the same area, this relish is a separate food item from the dressing.

      Reply
      • Mary Glenister

        October 26, 2019 at 2:20 pm

        You can just add a couple tablespoons of this and catsup to salad dressing or mayo. Makes thousand island dressing or (special sauce) for hamburgers. yum. May recipe is old and also has one head of cauliflour and a bunch of celery in the original relish recipe.
        For French dressing you can add more catsup and Lea and Perrins sauce and a bit of garlic pounder mayo.

        Reply
  3. Jessie

    September 01, 2018 at 11:48 am

    How many cups of cucumbers will I have after they are peeled, seeded and finely chopped?

    Reply
    • Healthy Canning

      September 11, 2019 at 6:29 pm

      Sorry, we didn’t think to get that measurement, though in retrospect it would have been interesting, for sure.

      Reply
  4. Jessie

    August 24, 2018 at 9:07 pm

    Can this be done in pints?

    Reply
    • Healthy Canning

      September 11, 2019 at 6:35 pm

      No. The largest tested size is half-pints.

      Reply
  5. Stacy

    July 29, 2018 at 6:53 pm

    Made a few jars of this last year to make sure we loved it. It was gone before the fall. Everyone loved it. Making a full batch right now and can’t wait. Followed exact recipe to the weights. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
  6. Madeleine

    May 24, 2017 at 4:06 pm

    I am taking a Canadian roadtrip this summer from Maine, through Canada, to Michigan. I have never been across the border before. If I was to visit farmers markets and buy canned goods such as this, am I allowed to take them back across the border if they are unopened??

    Reply
If you need FAST or relatively immediate canning help or answers, please try one of these Master Food Preserver groups; they are more qualified than we are and have many hands to help you. Many of them even operate telephone hotlines in season.

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