Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Sweet and Hot Corn Relish

Cussing Granny was raised on a farm in Colorado. They cooked on a wood stove and made everything from scratch. Her grandma used to make the best corn relish. I personally had never heard of such a thing as corn relish until Cussing Granny mentioned it being her favorite topping for fried eggs. How county can that be? Fried eggs with corn relish scream, "County bumpkin". So, I set out trying to find it. It wasn't in any of our local stores that I could see. I scoured cookbooks and finally found a recipe in the Fannie Farmer Cookbook by Marion Cunningham. It used eighteen ears of corn and a lot of other veggies...and it took forever to chop everything. However, I rolled up my sleeves and decided to give it a whirl. When it was done, it was tart and sweet and hot and heavenly. I wanted it in my sloppy Joe's and my tuna salad. I found great uses for a sweet hot corn relish.

That was about six years ago and I have come to truly appreciate corn relish. I make it once a year, eleven pints at a time...and always have it on my eggs. Now that we are here with Cussing Granny, I imagine the call for corn relish will increase. Corn was on this week...so we husked all 18 ears and made some relish.

Sweet and Hot Corn Relish
adapted from the Fannie Farmer Cookbook
by Marion Cunningham
yield 11 pints


Ingredients:
18 ears of sweet corn, husked and corn kernels sliced off (15 cups)
4 cups minced sweet onion
2 cups chopped bell pepper
1 cup chopped green or red hot peppers, seeds removed
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
8 cups vinegar
3 cups sugar
1T celery seed
2T mustard seed
2 tsp curry powder
2T Chef Tess All purpose seasoning
2 tsp red pepper flakes
Combine all ingredients in a 3 gallon pot and boil 1 hour until thick.
Fill sterilized hot pint jars with relish, leaving 1/4 inch head space. Top with new lids that have been sterilized. Seal with a ring. Process in a boiling water bath caner for 15 minutes. Remove from caner and place on a clean kitchen towel. Allow to cool away from draft 12 hours. Check seals. Lid should not spring back when touched.

There you go. Corn Relish. It's not just another way to use that wonderful summer corn, it's redemption for fried eggs everywhere. Just a little yoke there. I'm cracking my shell-f up! Stop the punishment! Wow. I need to go to sleep. I'm getting slap happy.

4 comments:

mlebagley said...

What do you use this stuff on again? I have never seen corn relish. on hot dogs? over vanilla ice cream? Hmmm...

Jennifer said...

I can eat a jar of sweet corn relish by itself..its great with soup beans cornbread and fried taters too :) its awesome

Tammy Golden said...

Can you safely halve the recipe for canning?

Chef Tess said...

Yup. You can cut it in half for home canning.