Iowa Style Corn Relish

Well, Erma, the heat goes on. I am beginning to get a little tired of it. As always, the kitchen gods have decreed that it MUST be at least 90 degrees when one is putting up food. 95 or 100 degrees is even better.

So based on that opening statement, guess what I have been doing the last few days? Of course, freezing corn. Iowa Corn. That symbol of our state. Huge kettles of boiling water to blanch the corn and then cutting off the steaming hot cobs. But it is sooooo good in the winter.

Remember that I sent you a quick Corn Relish, well, really as we agreed a salad? Here is the one I always make in several batches.

Iowa Style Corn Relish:

4 cups corn kernels (about 9 to 10 ears worth)
1 cup diced sweet green peppers
1 cup diced sweet red peppers
1 cup finely chopped celery
½ cup minced onion
1 ½ cups vinegar (white)
¾ cup sugar
2 teaspoons canning salt
1 ½ teaspoons dry mustard
1 teaspoon celery seed
¼ teaspoon Tabasco sauce
½ teaspoon turmeric for color
2 tablespoon flour, optional, for thickening

Cook the corn in boiling water in a large pot for 5 minutes. Cool and cut from the cob, but do not scrape. In an enameled kettle combine the peppers, celery, onion, vinegar, sugar, salt, celery seed and Tabasco sauce. Boil for 5 minutes and thank your lucky stars that you have a food processor that eliminates all the hand chopping our mothers and grandmothers had to do to make this relish. Use a long handled wooden spoon and stir occasionally.

Dip out ½ cup of the hot liquid and mix it with the dry mustard and turmeric; then return to the large kettle. Add the corn. If you want the relish slightly thickened, blend the flour with ¼ cup of cold water and add to the kettle when you put in the corn.

Boil for 5 minutes, stirring extra well if the relish has been thickened, so that it won’t stick or scorch. Immediately fill clean, sterilized, hot pint or half pint jars to within ½ inch of the top and seal with jar lids.

Today all the experts recommend 15 minutes in a Boiling-Water Bath. Originally the recipe did not require this step.

This makes 3 pints.