I like a hot relish for hamburgers and hot dogs, maybe a little mixed with some ketchup for a pork chop. The stuff in stores has panties on it so I make my own. Batch #1 for this year is done now.
First I make a sweet syrup using 2 cups of cider vinegar, 4 cups of sugar, two thumb sized pieces of ginger root - peeled and sliced thin and three teaspoons of whole cloves. This gets simmered for about fifteen minutes over just enough heat to dissolve the sugar and so you can see it boil slightly. After 15 minutes on the heat I cover it and let it sit for 24 hours on the counter. After the syrup gets set aside to cool, I grind up three nice sized [about like a baseball] yellow onions along with a mixture of peppers. This year I am using some jumbo cayennes, some breed of Asian pepper, some yellow Jalepenos and some green Jalepenos. I core the stem from the pepper and gring all of it, including the seeds. I look to have about 1/2 as much more pepper ground up than onion. The pepper/onion mix is salted lightly with canning salt and covered to wilt in a cool spot for 24 hours.
After 24 hours I strain the syrup back into a sauce pan and heat it up to almost boiling. While that is happening I rinse the veggies in a seive using cold water and rinse until a small bite isn't salty to taste. I pack the veggies in 12 ounce canning jars loosely and spoon in enough of the hot syrup until there is about 1/2" at the top, cover and put the band on. These jars get a hot [boiling] water bath for 20 minutes then are set out to cool.
This is great relish when served as I use it. Others may find uses to their liking. Word of caution....don't scratch your eyes while grinding the veggies. Or use a finger to wipe your nose.
