Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Pottsville Relish

Pottsfield Relish

The "official" version of this has cabbage in it - but my grandmother only used onions, tomatoes, green peppers, salt, vinegar & sugar.

RECIPE:
10# seeded, peeled & chopped tomatoes (reserve juice separately for soup)
8.5# to 10# chopped onions
5 large green bell peppers, seeded & chopped
2 c apple cider vinegar
2 c unrefined cane sugar
3 Tb salt

Cook down til the onions are translucent and you've reduced most of the liquid.

YIELD:
14 pint jars
11 half pint jars

5 comments:

Green Bean said...

Heyyyyy, that looks pretty good! I love trying recipes from other people's grandmas as mine didn't have any - recipes that is.

Matriarchy said...

Should the "8.5# chopped tomatoes" really be "8.5# chopped onions"?

Any idea why it is called "Pottsville" Relish? There is a Pennsylvania coal town called Pottsville, and I wondered if it was an heirloom recipe from the area.

How do you use this relish? What do you put it on?

Jenn said...

yes, Matriarchy - it should be! Thanks for catching that. I wish I had put more onions in - it should be visually way more onions than tomatoes when you mix up all the veggies in the pot.

This is a Pennsylvania recipe - but my grandmother moved from Philly to Ohio in her 20s, and all the other recipes for Pottsville relish seem to have chopped cabbage in them but the basic idea is the same.

Also, I put a lot less sugar in this than my grandmother did - the onions make it sweet but dang... she had a lot of sugar in it.

This relish is great on top of sandwiches, mashed potatoes, slices of warm bread - sometimes I use as an ad hoc tomato/pepper/onion flavor booster in stir fries and gravies and stuff... it's just yummy.

If you're a meat eater - throw it on scrambled eggs, open face toasted cheese sandwiches, meatloaf, pot roast or even chicken.

Jenn said...

Beany - did you try it?

Jenn said...

Oops - typo - PITTSBURGH is where my grandmother lived... not Philly, I always get those P-towns mixed up.