A tested dill pickle relish recipe for canning uses chopped pickling cucumbers, vinegar that is at least 5% acidity, pickling salt, dill seed, and a short hot simmer, then a boiling-water bath. The Ball version most home canners use starts with 8 pounds of cucumbers and yields about 7 pints. The National Center for Home Food Preservation publishes a different tested formula that is closer to unsweetened deli relish. Both are safe when you keep the vegetable-to-vinegar ratios, use the listed process times, and adjust for altitude.
This matters because relish is not a place to improvise. Extra cucumbers, less vinegar, or a family brine that “always worked in the fridge” can leave a jar above the acidity level that keeps shelf-stable pickles safe. Follow a published recipe for the jar. Use the rest of this article for texture, flavor, and the decisions blogs usually skip.
What searchers actually need from this recipe
Most people looking up a dill pickle relish recipe for canning have a pile of small cucumbers and want a tangy, not-sweet condiment that will sit on a pantry shelf. They are not looking for bread-and-butter relish, fermented pickles, or a refrigerator-only chop.
They need four things in order:
- A tested formula, not a scaled-down salad recipe.
- Clear processing times by altitude.
- A way to keep the relish from turning into watery green mush.
- An honest note about what they can change (spices, sugar amount in some tested recipes) and what they cannot (vinegar strength, vegetable load, process time).
If you only need jars in the fridge for a few weeks, you can skip canning. Once the goal is pantry storage, use a water-bath or atmospheric steam canner and a published pickle recipe.
Two tested recipes, and why they are not interchangeable
There are two laboratory-tested dill relish formulas in common use. They look similar on a grocery list and behave differently in the jar.
Ball / Bernardin dill relish (Complete Book of Home Preserving) is the recipe most blogs reprint: cucumbers are salted with turmeric for two hours, rinsed, then simmered with onion, a small amount of sugar, dill seed, and white wine vinegar. The sugar is there to round the vinegar, not to make sweet relish.
NCHFP dill pickle relish skips the long salt soak and the sugar. It uses more vinegar, red bell pepper, garlic, and only dill seed plus salt. The note on the page is blunt: it is “not exactly the same, but close to purchased dill pickle relishes.” Yield is about 7 pints from roughly 5 pounds of cucumbers as purchased. Process time for pints is 15 minutes at 0–1,000 feet, 20 minutes at 1,001–6,000 feet, and 25 minutes above 6,000 feet.
Do not mix the two. Do not take Ball’s cucumber weight and NCHFP’s vinegar volume. Acidity is calculated for the whole formula.
| Feature | Ball-style dill relish | NCHFP dill pickle relish |
|---|---|---|
| Cucumbers | 8 lb pickling cucumbers | 14 cups chopped (~5 lb as purchased) |
| Other vegetables | 2½ cups chopped onion | 2 cups chopped red bell pepper |
| Vinegar | 4 cups white wine vinegar, 5% | 5½ cups cider vinegar, 5% |
| Sugar | ⅓ cup | None |
| Salt step | ½ cup pickling salt + turmeric soak, 2 hours | 5 Tbsp pickling salt in the cooking liquid |
| Seasoning | 2 Tbsp dill seed | 3 tsp dill seed + 6 cloves garlic |
| Typical yield | About 7 pints | About 7 pints |
| Sea-level process (pints) | 15 minutes | 15 minutes |
If you want the classic homemade jar—yellow-green, lightly sweet-tart, onion in the mix—use the Ball formula below. If you want something closer to commercial dill relish with pepper and garlic and no sugar, use the NCHFP page and follow it exactly.
Ingredients for a 7-pint batch (Ball-style)
This is the formula reprinted from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving and used by extension-minded canning sites. Keep the weights and the vinegar volume as written.
- 8 pounds pickling cucumbers, washed, ends trimmed, finely chopped
- ½ cup pickling or canning salt (not iodized table salt)
- 2 teaspoons ground turmeric
- 4 cups cold water (for the soak)
- 2½ cups finely chopped onion (about 1 pound before prep)
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons dill seed
- 4 cups white wine vinegar, 5% acidity (white distilled or cider vinegar at 5% may be substituted)
- Optional: ⅛ teaspoon calcium chloride (Pickle Crisp) per pint
Why these items are not optional in the way a soup recipe is optional:
Pickling cucumbers hold less water and have thinner skins than slicing cucumbers. Waxed supermarket slicers fight the brine and go limp. If garden slicers are all you have, peel if waxed, seed the large ones, and expect a wetter chop that needs a harder squeeze after the salt soak.
Pickling salt dissolves cleanly. Table salt’s anti-caking agents cloud the liquid. Kosher salt can be used only if you weigh it; volume is not the same from brand to brand.
5% vinegar is the safety floor. Cleaning vinegar, “natural” vinegars of unknown strength, and homemade vinegar do not belong in a shelf-stable relish. White wine vinegar is specified in the Ball book for a milder bite; distilled white vinegar is sharper and cheaper. Both work if the label says 5% acidity.
Dill seed, not a handful of fresh dill, is what the tested recipe uses. Fresh dill is excellent in refrigerator pickles. In this relish it is a flavor change, not a 1:1 swap, and it is not what the process was tested with.
The ⅓ cup of sugar is small on purpose. This is still a dill relish. If you want hot-dog-stand sweet relish, use a tested sweet pickle relish recipe instead of stripping the sugar out of this one and calling it the same product. Some tested sources allow reducing sugar or using certain sucralose swaps in this specific Ball relish; they do not allow cutting the vinegar.
Equipment that actually matters
You do not need a 20-piece canning kit. You do need:
- A boiling-water canner or a tested atmospheric steam canner, with a rack
- 7 pint jars (or 14 half-pints) with new lids
- A food processor or a sharp knife (pulse; do not puree)
- A large stainless steel or enamel pot (not aluminum; vinegar pits it and can off-flavor the relish)
- A colander, jar lifter, bubble remover, and a clean damp cloth for rims
Relish is a hot pack. Jars should be clean and hot. Lids follow the manufacturer’s current directions; modern lids are not boiled the way older boxes required.
How to make and can dill pickle relish
Work in this order. The two-hour soak is not busywork. Salt pulls water out of the cucumbers so the finished jar is relish, not cucumber soup.
1. Chop for relish texture, not baby food
Trim 1/16 inch off the blossom end of each cucumber. That end carries enzymes that soften pickles. Leave a bit of the stem end if you want; discard the blossom end either way.
Cut cucumbers into chunks, then pulse in a food processor in short bursts until the pieces are about ⅛ to ¼ inch. Dump each batch into a large glass or stainless bowl before it turns to slurry. Hand chopping works. A food mill works. A blender does not.
Measure after chopping if you are using the NCHFP recipe, which is written in cups. The Ball recipe is written by weight of whole cucumbers, which is easier when you are clearing a garden row.
2. Salt, wait, then squeeze
Sprinkle the chopped cucumbers with the pickling salt and turmeric. Add the 4 cups of cold water, stir, and let the bowl stand 2 hours at cool room temperature (about 70–75°F) or in the refrigerator.
Drain in a colander. Rinse with cold water. Drain again. Then do the step people skip: press or squeeze the chopped cucumber until it stops dripping freely. You should see a surprising amount of liquid leave the bowl. That liquid is what would otherwise thin the relish in the jar.
3. Simmer only long enough to heat through
Combine the drained cucumbers, onion, sugar, dill seed, and vinegar in the large pot. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then lower to a gentle boil for 10 minutes, stirring so the bottom does not scorch.
You are not making jam. The mixture should look hot and slightly thickened, with liquid still visible. A 20-minute hard boil cooks the crunch out.
While it simmers, keep the canner water hot and the jars hot.
4. Pack hot, cover the solids, leave headspace
Ladle hot relish into hot jars. Leave ½ inch headspace. Run a bubble tool around the inside. If the level drops, add more hot relish. The liquid must cover the vegetables. Dry pockets at the top are a quality problem and can interfere with a seal.
If you use Pickle Crisp, add ⅛ teaspoon per pint now. It is calcium chloride, not a preservative. It helps texture; it does not replace a tested process.
Wipe rims. Apply lids. Screw bands fingertip-tight—snug, not cranked. Over-tightening can buckle lids and cause siphoning.
5. Process in a boiling-water bath
Lower jars onto the rack. Water should cover the lids by 1 to 2 inches. Put the lid on the canner. Start the timer only after the water returns to a full rolling boil.
Processing times for this Ball-style dill relish (hot pack):
| Jar size | 0–1,000 ft | 1,001–6,000 ft | Above 6,000 ft |
|---|---|---|---|
| Half-pints or pints | 15 minutes | 20 minutes | 25 minutes |
Those altitude steps match the times commonly published with this Ball relish. If you are using the NCHFP dill pickle relish instead, use that page’s table: 15 / 20 / 25 minutes for pints. Do not borrow a 10-minute time from USDA sweet pickle relish and apply it here. That is a different recipe.
When the time is up, turn off the heat. Wait 5 minutes with the canner lid off or ajar, then lift the jars out. Set them upright on a towel. Leave them alone for 12 to 24 hours. Do not retighten bands.
6. Check seals before you store them
A sealed lid is concave and does not flex. Unsealed jars go in the refrigerator and get used first. Remove the bands for storage so you can see if a lid later fails. Label the lid with the recipe name and date.
Flavor is not finished on processing day. Plan on 3 to 4 weeks in the jar before you judge the batch. A month is better. The vinegar needs time to move into the chopped cucumber.
What you can change without breaking the recipe
Safe canning is picky about acid and density. It is less picky about which seed jar you open.
Usually acceptable in this Ball relish:
- White wine, distilled white, or cider vinegar, as long as each bottle is labeled 5% acidity
- Half-pint jars instead of pints, processed for the same time
- A little less sugar, or a tested sucralose substitution listed by Ball/Healthy Canning sources for this recipe
- Pulse size: coarser or finer chop, as long as you do not turn it into puree
- Optional Pickle Crisp
- A pinch of red pepper flake or a small amount of mustard seed for heat, keeping vegetable volume the same
Not acceptable if the jars are going on a pantry shelf:
- Cutting the vinegar “because it tastes too sharp”
- Adding extra cucumber, zucchini, or onion because you still have a bucket
- Replacing most of the vinegar with water
- Using vinegar of unknown acidity
- Pressure-canning relish to “make it safer” (the extra heat turns it to mush and is the wrong method for this high-acid product)
- Oil in the jar
- Flour, cornstarch, or ClearJel to thicken (use a tested thickened relish if you want that texture)
- Fresh dill as a complete stand-in for the measured dill seed unless you have a separate tested recipe that uses it
If you want garlic-heavy relish, use the NCHFP formula that already includes garlic. Adding six cloves to the Ball pot is a small change; adding a cup of chopped garlic is not.
Why homemade relish turns watery or soft
Watery relish is almost always a prep problem, not a mystery.
You did not squeeze hard enough after the salt soak. Cucumbers are mostly water. The soak only starts the job. If the colander still drips, keep pressing.
The cucumbers were old, large, or waxed. Seeded mature fruit and waxed slicers dump liquid into the pot. Pickling cucumbers processed within a day of harvest hold shape better.
You pureed instead of chopping. Cell walls that are shredded cannot stay crisp. Pulse.
You boiled too long or processed too long. Relish is already cut small. It does not need a 30-minute canner run “for safety.” Use the table. Start the timer at a rolling boil, not when you think it is close.
You used a pressure canner. High heat plus a long come-up time is how people turn pickles into baby food. Water bath or steam canner only.
You opened a jar on day three and decided the recipe failed. Acid pickles taste harsh and unfinished early. Wait.
Soft relish is still safe if the seal is good, the vinegar was 5%, and the process time was correct. Use it in potato salad, tuna salad, and sauces where crunch matters less.
How this relish is supposed to taste and where it belongs
Finished Ball-style dill relish is yellow-green from turmeric, sour first, dill-seed second, and only faintly sweet. It should spoon like a wet chop, not a jam and not a brine with a few floating bits.
Use it where you would use a jar from the grocery store:
- Hot dogs, sausages, and burgers
- Potato salad, egg salad, and tuna salad
- Tartar sauce (relish + mayonnaise + a little onion)
- Thousand Island or burger sauce
- Deviled eggs
- A spoonful in tuna melts or grilled cheese
If a recipe already calls for sweet relish, this dill version will shift the dish toward deli pickle. That is useful in potato salad. It is a surprise in some sloppy joes.
One pint is a lot of hot dogs. Half-pints make more sense if you cook for two.
Storage, shelf life, and what a bad jar looks like
Sealed jars belong in a cool, dark, dry place. Quality is best within a year. The product remains a high-acid pickle as long as the seal holds, but color and texture fade.
After opening, refrigerate and use within about a month.
Do not taste from a jar that is unsealed, spurting, moldy, slimy, or off-smelling. When a pickle product fails, the safe move is to discard it without tasting. Botulism is rare in correctly acidified pickles; it is not a reason to ignore a bad seal.
Common questions
Can I use regular garden cucumbers?
Yes, if they are unwaxed and you treat the extra water as part of the work. Peel if the skin is tough or waxed. Scoop out large seed cavities. Chop, salt, rinse, and squeeze longer than you would with pickling cukes. Flavor is fine. Texture is the gamble.
Can I substitute zucchini?
There are tested zucchini relish recipes. This cucumber formula is not one of them. Zucchini behaves differently in a jar. Use a recipe written for it if that is what you have.
Do I have to use turmeric?
In the Ball formula it is part of the soak, mainly for color. Leaving it out changes appearance more than safety. Do not dump extra turmeric into the simmering pot if you want to avoid grit.
Can I skip canning and just refrigerate it?
Yes. Cool the cooked relish, pack it into clean jars, and refrigerate. Use it within a few weeks. You still need clean handling. You do not need a canner.
Why does my yield differ from 7 pints?
Cucumber water content varies. A dry batch can come up a jar short. A wet batch that was not squeezed well can look generous and then separate in the pantry. If the solids look dry at packing time, add a splash of the same 5% vinegar to cover them. Do not add water.
Is steam canning allowed?
For this high-acid relish, a tested atmospheric steam canner is an accepted alternative to a boiling-water canner when you follow the same time and altitude rules. It is not a pressure canner. Keep the two pieces of equipment straight.
How is dill relish different from sweet pickle relish?
Sweet relish uses more sugar and usually mustard seed, celery seed, and often peppers. Dill relish is built on dill seed and a tart brine. USDA’s generic “pickle relish” is the sweet-spiced cousin and uses a different process time (10 minutes for half-pints or pints at 0–1,000 feet). Use that recipe if sweet is what you want. Do not split the difference in one pot.
Before you start a batch
Check three things the night before: vinegar acidity on the bottle, your elevation, and whether the cucumbers are pickling size and unwaxed. Look up elevation once and write the process time on a sticky note on the canner.
Then keep the formula intact. Chop small, salt, squeeze, simmer 10 minutes, pack hot at ½ inch, process for the time that matches your altitude, and wait a month before you decide whether the relish is “good.” That sequence is the difference between a pantry staple and a watery jar you apologize for at the cookout.