Homestyle Corn Relish - Canned
Indiana is pretty well-known for its corn, and for good reason! Our hot and humid summers tend to produce the perfect conditions for sweet, juicy, delicious corn. During the summer as a kid, I had a daily ritual of going down to the garden and popping off a fresh ear of corn, shucking it, and eating it right there in the garden. Corn here grows sweet, juicy, and plump enough to eat raw!
Once I've had my fill of raw corn, boiled corn, grilled corn, and corn ice cream, I start thinking about ways to preserve corn to eat all year long. Freezing is one of the best ways to keep corn fresh-tasting and ready-to-eat at anytime, but one of my other favorite ways to use up a surplus of corn is to can some corn relish.
Corn relish is an amazingly versatile dish. You can use it in place of regular cucumber relish on hamburgers, hot dogs, and brats, but it also works as a salsa, mixed in with pasta, or just as a side dish on its own.
The thing I love the most about corn relish though is how stupendously easy it is. Especially for first-time canners. It's a great small-batch dish to get down the basics of canning. I know a lot of folks start with jams and jellies, but I think more savory dishes (like this relish or pickles) are a better way to start. No worries about additives or sugar levels. Just cook it, can it, and process it! Easy. Peasy.
If you are afraid of canning, I promise you have no reason to be! Canning is actually remarkably simple and incredibly rewarding. Trust me, the most satisfying sound in the world is the sound of a jar popping to seal after processing. You will feel so proud of yourself! And you get to eat delicious healthy food all year round.
Before I dig into the recipe, here are a few tips that'll help make the whole process go a lot more smoothly:
- To get the kernels off the corn cob, simply place a small bowl upside down in a larger bowl. Shuck the corn and then rest the corn on the small bowl. Run your knife along the corn cob and let the kernels fall into the big bowl. You can also just use a Bundt pan in the same way (but I don't have one!). See photos of this process in this post.
- Have all of your canning supplies-jars, lids, funnel, ladle, jar basket, jar lifter tong things, etc.-washed, clean, and ready to go before you start cooking.
- Before you twist the lids on the jars, run a damp washcloth along the top to remove any relish. That'll help the cans seal properly.
Alrighty, now onto the recipe. Happy corn season. Enjoy!
📖 Recipe
Homestyle Corn Relish - Canned
Ingredients
- 8 ears of corn kernels only
- 1 ½ cups diced bell peppers green, yellow, red, etc.
- ½ cup diced celery
- 3 cups shredded cabbage
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- ½ cup diced onion
- 1 ½ tablespoons dry mustard
- 1 teaspoon celery seeds
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons black pepper
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 2 cups vinegar
- ½ cup water
Instructions
- Wash and sterilize jars, rings, lids and all utensils. Prepare a water bath canner by filling a large pot with water and bringing it to a simmer.
- To make the corn relish, combine all ingredients in a large stock pot. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Ladle the hot relish into sterilized half-pint jars. Wipe the tops of the jars using a clean towel. Put on the lids and rings and tighten by hand.
- Process the jars in the prepared water bath for 20 minutes. Remove the jars from the bath and let them cool at room temperature. As the jars cool, check the seals by pressing down on top of the lids. If they still “pop,” they are not preserved and need to be refrigerated and used within the next few days. If they don’t move, they can be labeled and stored in a cool, dark pantry.
Nutrition
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Have never canned anything before so I would take your word for how easy it is and do your recipe! LOVE your blog, by the way.
Hello. I would love to win your ball jars. I have started to make Jams . Peach raspberry, lemon strawberry, banana orange! I would love to continue to explore making funky combinations that delight my taste buds. Help me out. 🙂
I just started a little nut butter company and we sell all of our nut butters and jams at local farmers markets. All of our products are stored and sold in ball jars!
I can't tell whether the giveaway is open for international readers as well - but if it is, I'm definitely participating! I have never done much in the way of preserving things before - neither vegetables, nor fruit. However, if I were lucky enough to win the jars, I think my first batch would be peaches or nectarines in some sort of vanilla syrup. I am very heavily into nectarines at the moment, so it would be awesome to be able to preserve some of that goodness for the coming months as well!
The house we bought this winter has 3 apple trees full of apples this year. I'd love to try canning some apples to mike pies this winter.
Giardinera I love it and Pickles of course.
LOVE Ball jars and I am actually drinking my water from one right now. As for canning though I would definitely make pickled brussel sprouts...so yum!
We don't get fresh corn here (otherwise I would be all over this recipe), but we have lots of fresh fruits and tomatoes that I am dying to try and can. Maybe I need to get over my canning fear.
I would make more fresh berry jam! Oregon is overflowing with boysens, marionberries, blackberries and strawberries at this time of year!
I've been doing a bunch of reading on canning and preserving lately, so this is perfect! The first thing I'd try would be pickled beets. I loved eating the ones my grandfather would make each Easter.
I would can peaches! My favorite summer activity is picking fresh New Jersey peaches. I always come home with 10 pounds more than I can eat! I'd love to can them and enjoy them year-round.
Rhubarb and ginger jam!
We're growing lots of peppers and tomatoes this year, so I'll be canning some salsa this summer!
It's a toss up to me between pickles and tomatoes. I love pickles, but winter tomatoes have nothing on fresh summer tomatoes!
Ummm, I would DEFINITELY make that corn relish. I too hail from Indiana (Bloomington!) and would take advantage of the delicious corn from our farmers market. Thanks so much for the recipe and the giveaway!
I'm from Georgia so we pickle anything that will sit still long enough. My favorite is pickled okra but squash, green tomatoes, green beans, and peaches are tasty too. The only one I don't like is sweet watermelon rind pickles.
Oh man. That's actually a good question. I'm a complete novice in the canning realm, though Hubster's family has a long tradition of canning so I'm sure I could get some help. If it were still rhubarb season, I'd whip up some jam and go with that. Since it's not, I'd be more apt to pickle some green beans for winter bloody marys.
I would love to make some blueberry jam or maybe even fig preserves since I have lots of figs coming in on my fig tree.
Though your relish looks delicious, the first thing I'd can would be strawberry jam. Nothing screams summer in a jar more to me!
I'd love to get into canning, but I also just love jars to use for storage and transporting. I blame Pinterest! To start canning, I'd probably do some peach jelly. My husband hates peaches, but I can't get enough of them in the summer. It would be great to have some of that taste to hold onto through the cold winter.