ApplePalozza ~ Apple Relish

As promised from yesterday I finally am at the end of making Apple Relish.  I have to admit this recipe took me forever.  It was adapted from a recipe I found online.  It tastes yummy but it was so LONG to make. I plan on making another run and I am going to make more changes to shorten the length of the puttin together stage.  

First, chop your onions.  I do not normally use a food processor due to the fact whatever I am canning normally looks much better if I hand chop.  Let's be serious though, this is ONIONS and I need 4 cups chopped!!  They make ya cry.  Plus in this recipe, the onions are more for flavor not for looks.  

Once you are done with the chopping, add 2 Tablespoons of canning salt and allow to sweat for 2 whole hours.  

You need to spread them out some so the salt can work its magic.

After the 2 hours are up, drain the liquid as much as possible.  I let my sit a while and drain on its own then I use my hand to mash as much liquid out.

To conserve time I started on chopping apples when my onions had been sitting for an hour and a half. 

Chop 2 cups of soft apples and chop 4 cups of tart apples.  I always sprinkle lemon juice on my apples so they do not darken.  

I chop both apples all at one time and keep them separate that way my chopping is pretty much done.

After 2 hours is over, start the water bath to sterilize your jars.  Also add mustard seeds, cinnamon, nutmeg, red pepper flakes, brown sugar and apple cider vinegar to your pot.  Heat till your sugar has melted.

Add the onions, soft apples, and the stout beer.  Bring to boil and then reduce heat to a simmer.   You want to cook until the liquid has thickened and reduced.  The apples need to be extremely tender and a bit broke down.  

Add the tart apples and bring back to a boil and reduce heat.  Cook until most of the liquid has been absorbed.  

Fill your jars with the relish and water bath can for 15 minutes for half pints.  

Apple Relish ~ 6 to 7 half pints

Ingredients

• 4 Cups chopped yellow onions
• 2 Cups peeled chopped soft apples 
• 4 Cups peeled and chopped tart apples
• Lemon juice to sprinkle on apples
• 2 T canning salt
• 1 T mustard seeds
• 1 T red pepper flakes
• 1/4 t ground cinnamon
• 1/4 t ground nutmeg
• 1 1/2 Cups light brown sugar
• 1 Cup stout beer
• 1 Cup apple cider vinegar

Directions

• Chop onions.  Add 2 tablespoons of canning salt and allow to sweat for 2 hours. * see update below
• Drain onions as dry as you can get them
• Chop 2 cups of soft apples sprinkle with lemon juice
• Chop 2 cups of tart apples sprinkle with lemon juice
• Add mustard seeds, red pepper flakes, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, light brown sugar and apple cider vinegar to a pot and heat until sugar has melted
• Increase your heat to medium high and add onions and soft apples along with the stout beer and bring to boil, then simmer until liquid thickens and apples are tender
• Stir in tart apples and again bring to boil and reduce heat to simmer, allow most of the liquid to absorb
• Ladle into sterilized half-pint jars
• Water bath can for 15 minutes

Again this recipe took me the entire day to complete.  I did waste a little time due to having to run errands but that was done during the 2 hours while the onions sit in the salt.  I also posted a couple of other entries but overall this is a very long process.  Tomorrow I hope to try it again but cut back by not sweating the onions and see what happens.  The reason I think it might be ok to do this is the fact the onions are really not that dry afterward and that is what this step is about.  I will update as soon as I do another run.

Enjoy!

**UPDATE**

I just finished making this again.  As I said yesterday I was going to do a few things to make the process quicker. 

I did not sweat the onions in salt for the 2 hours.  Instead, I chopped them and put them directly into my heated enamel cast iron pot.  I did not add any butter or EVOO.  I allowed the onions to cook gently.  I did not brown them at all!! 

I also chopped my apples differently.  Yesterday I used the knife to hand chop them.  Today, I used an old hand chopper that was my grandmothers.  This saved a huge amount of time. 

As soon as I was done with chopping the soft apples I added all the ingredients except the tart apples to the onions.  I brought this to a good boil and allowed it to stay boiling for a while to help cook down everything.  I did lower it to a simmer after about 10 to 15 minutes.  

Overall the changes I made truly cut down on the time of processing this recipe.  I do not think you need to sweat the onions in salt.  I think that is a huge waste of time.  BUT you do need to add at least a tablespoon of canning salt to the recipe.  Instead of this taking me most of the day I was done in an hour and half.  That is huge in time-saving.  

I also did a taste test and I could not tell a difference.  Plus the recipe still made 7 half pints.  

I am getting ready to make Apple Salsa shortly so stay tuned. 

Enjoy!!