A tomato relish canning recipe is safe for the pantry only when the mixture stays high-acid: enough 5% vinegar, a tested vegetable ratio, and a full boiling-water process. Relish is not the same as tomato sauce. The vinegar brine, not the tomato itself, is what makes water-bath canning appropriate.
Searchers usually have one of two problems: a crate of unripe green tomatoes before frost, or a pile of ripe red tomatoes that will not keep. Those two piles need different recipes. This guide starts with the tested versions from the National Center for Home Food Preservation, then explains what you can change, what you cannot, and how to process, store, and use the jars.
What kind of tomato relish you are actually making
“Tomato relish” is not one recipe. The jars people expect fall into three groups.
Pickled green tomato relish is the USDA-style pickle: chopped firm green tomatoes, peppers, and onions, briefly salted, then simmered with vinegar, sugar, mustard, and a little cornstarch. It is tangy, spoonable, and the most clearly tested tomato-only relish for water-bath canning.
Rummage relish is the end-of-garden jar: green tomatoes plus ripe tomatoes, cabbage, celery, cucumber, and peppers. It tastes closer to old-fashioned piccalilli than to ketchup. It is also a tested NCHFP recipe.
Ripe red tomato relish is what many home cooks mean: peeled ripe tomatoes cooked down with onion, pepper, brown sugar, and warm spices until thick. Magazine and Ball book versions exist. They are not interchangeable with green-tomato formulas, because ripe tomatoes are milder in acid and release more water.
Choose the recipe that matches the fruit you have. Do not swap a box of ripe tomatoes into a green-tomato formula and assume the process time still applies.
Why a tested recipe matters more here than in jam
Relish is packed with low-acid pieces: onion, pepper, celery, cabbage, cucumber. Those ingredients sit above pH 4.6 on their own. Clostridium botulinum cannot grow in a properly acidified pickle, but it can grow if you cut the vinegar, bulk up the vegetables, or skip a real canner process.
Tomatoes themselves are unreliable as the only acid. Variety, ripeness, and growing conditions can push some ripe tomatoes above pH 4.6. That is why plain canned tomatoes need bottled lemon juice or citric acid. Relish recipes instead rely on a measured volume of vinegar labeled 5% acidity.
Safe changes:
- Swap spice amounts or types (more mustard seed, less clove, a pinch of chili).
- Use cider vinegar or white vinegar if both are 5%.
- Cut the sugar somewhat for taste in a tested pickle relish (texture and color may change).
- Use half-pint jars on a recipe written for pints, with the same process time, when the source allows it.
Unsafe changes:
- Reducing vinegar.
- Adding extra onion, pepper, celery, or other low-acid vegetables.
- Thickening an untested recipe with flour or extra starch and then canning it.
- Skipping the water bath and calling the jar “sealed because it was hot.”
- Canning in quart jars when the recipe only lists pints.
If you want to improvise freely, make a refrigerator relish and keep it cold. Do not invent a shelf-stable formula.
Equipment and ingredients that actually affect the jar
You do not need a pressure canner for these high-acid relishes. You do need a pot deep enough to cover jars with at least 1 inch of boiling water, a rack, a jar lifter, and two-piece lids.
Use:
- Vinegar at 5% acidity. Check the label. “Brown vinegar” or homemade vinegar is not a substitute unless you know it is 5%.
- Canning or pickling salt. Table salt can cloud the brine and often contains anti-caking agents.
- Standard mason jars in the size the recipe names, usually pints or half-pints. Relish recipes are rarely tested in quarts.
- New lids. Bands can be reused if they are not bent or rusty.
Firm, sound produce matters. Do not can tomatoes that are decayed, moldy, or taken from dead or frost-killed vines. Green tomatoes should be hard and solid, not soft and turning.
Pickled green tomato relish (NCHFP tested)
This is the recipe to use when frost is coming and the plants are still full of hard green fruit. Source: National Center for Home Food Preservation.
Yield: 7 to 9 pints
Ingredients
- 10 lb small, hard green tomatoes
- 1½ lb red bell peppers
- 1½ lb green bell peppers
- 2 lb onions
- ½ cup canning or pickling salt
- 1 qt water
- 4 cups sugar
- 1 qt vinegar (5%)
- ⅓ cup prepared yellow mustard
- 2 Tbsp cornstarch
Method
- Wash the vegetables. Coarsely grate or finely chop the tomatoes, peppers, and onions. Peeling the green tomatoes is not required in this recipe.
- Dissolve the salt in the water. Pour it over the vegetables in a large kettle. Bring to a boil and simmer 5 minutes. Drain in a colander.
- Return the vegetables to the kettle. Add sugar, vinegar, mustard, and cornstarch. Stir until the cornstarch is dispersed.
- Bring to a boil and simmer 5 minutes.
- Fill hot sterile pint jars with the hot relish, leaving ½-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles, adjust headspace, wipe rims, and apply lids fingertip-tight.
- Process in a boiling-water canner.
| Jar size | 0–1,000 ft | 1,001–6,000 ft | Above 6,000 ft |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hot pack pints | 5 minutes | 10 minutes | 15 minutes |
Start the timer when the water returns to a full boil with the jars in it. Water must cover the lids by at least 1 inch.
The short cook is intentional. This relish is a pickle, not a jam. It thickens a little more in the jar as it cools and sits.
Rummage relish when the garden is mixed (NCHFP tested)
Use this when you have both green and ripe tomatoes plus odds and ends. Source: National Center for Home Food Preservation.
Yield: about 8 pints
Ingredients
- 2 qt cored, chopped green tomatoes (about 16 medium)
- 1 qt peeled, cored, chopped ripe tomatoes (about 6 large)
- 1 qt chopped cabbage (about 1 small head)
- 3 cups chopped onions
- 2 cups chopped celery
- 1 cup chopped sweet green peppers
- 1 cup chopped cucumbers
- 1 cup chopped sweet red peppers
- ½ cup canning or pickling salt
- 4 cups brown sugar
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 Tbsp celery seed
- 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1 Tbsp mustard seed
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- 2 qt vinegar (5%)
Method
- Combine the chopped vegetables with the salt. Mix well. Refrigerate 12 to 18 hours, then drain thoroughly. The salt draw is what keeps the relish from turning watery later.
- Add sugar, spices, and garlic to the vinegar. Simmer 10 minutes.
- Add the drained vegetables. Simmer 30 minutes, then bring to a boil.
- Pack the hot relish into hot pint jars, leaving ½-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles, wipe rims, and apply lids.
- Process in a boiling-water canner.
| Jar size | 0–1,000 ft | 1,001–6,000 ft | Above 6,000 ft |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hot pack pints | 15 minutes | 20 minutes | 25 minutes |
NCHFP lists a tested variation: add 2 cups raisins and 1½ teaspoons curry powder when the vegetables go into the vinegar. That batch yields about 9 pints. Do not treat that as permission to add other extras.
Ripe tomato relish: use a published recipe or keep it in the fridge
A crate of ripe tomatoes makes a different condiment: softer, sweeter, closer to a thick chutney. There is no NCHFP “ripe tomato only” relish that matches the green-tomato formula above. Two honest options:
Follow a current book recipe written for ripe tomatoes. Ball’s Antipasto Relish (from Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving) is a tested water-bath recipe built on peeled ripe tomatoes, peppers, onion, carrot, celery, vinegar, and brown sugar. It is packed in 8-ounce jars and processed 10 minutes at 0–1,000 feet, with longer times as elevation rises.
Taste of Home’s Garden Tomato Relish is a widely published ripe-tomato version: about 10 pounds tomatoes, onions, peppers, 4½ cups white vinegar, brown sugar, and a spice bag, simmered 60–75 minutes, then processed 20 minutes in pints. It is a magazine recipe, not an NCHFP bulletin. If you use it, do not cut the vinegar, and adjust processing for altitude even if the page lists a single time.
Or skip shelf canning. Chop ripe tomatoes, onion, and pepper; cook them with 5% vinegar, sugar, and salt until thick; cool; refrigerate. Use within a few weeks. That is the right path if you want to change the vegetable mix, add fruit, or cook by taste.
Ripe tomatoes should be peeled for a smooth relish. Score a shallow X on the base, dip in boiling water 30–60 seconds, then ice water. The skins slip off. Skins left on can roll into tough bits after processing.
Water-bath canning steps that prevent failed seals
These steps are the same for either tested recipe.
- Inspect jars for nicks on the rim. A chip almost always means a failed seal.
- Keep jars hot until filling so the glass does not crack and the product stays at packing temperature.
- Leave ½-inch headspace. Relish expands. Overfilling pushes liquid out and can prevent a seal.
- Slide a plastic bubble tool around the inside of the jar. Trapped air causes false headspace, siphoning, and discoloration on top.
- Wipe rims with a damp clean cloth. A smear of sugar or seed on the rim is a common reason lids fail.
- Screw bands fingertip-tight. Cranking them down can buckle lids and block venting.
- Lower jars onto a rack in simmering water. Add more hot water if needed so jars are covered by at least 1 inch.
- Bring to a rolling boil, then start the timer for your altitude.
- When time is up, turn off the heat. Wait 5 minutes before lifting the lid and removing jars. Sudden temperature swings increase siphoning.
- Cool jars 12–24 hours, undisturbed. Then check seals, remove bands, wash the jars, label, and store.
An atmospheric steam canner may be used for these high-acid relishes when you follow current NCHFP steam-canner directions and the same process times.
How thick the relish should look before it goes in the jar
Green tomato relish is only simmered 5 minutes after the vinegar goes in. It will look looser than store relish. That is correct.
Rummage relish simmers longer and should look like a wet commercial pickle relish, not a paste.
Ripe tomato mixtures need a longer uncovered simmer because ripe fruit dumps water. Stop when a spoon dragged across the pot leaves a brief trail, not when the pot is dry. Overcooking concentrates sugar, darkens the relish, and can make it taste bitter.
If a tested green-tomato batch seems thin after cooling, the usual causes are skipping the drain step, chopping too coarse, or using tomatoes that had already started to ripen and soften.
Mistakes that ruin flavor or safety
Using the open-kettle method. Filling hot jars and skipping the canner was common in older community cookbooks. It does not reliably destroy mold or give a dependable seal. Mold on a tomato product can lower acidity enough for more serious spoilage. Discard moldy jars without tasting.
Guessing altitude. Five minutes at sea level is not five minutes in the mountains. Water boils cooler as elevation rises, so process times increase.
Canning overripe or damaged fruit. Soft fruit turns the relish mushy and raises the spoilage risk.
Leaving rings on in storage. Bands trap moisture, rust, and can hide a seal that failed later. Store jars with bands off.
Treating liquid loss as a crisis when it is only siphoning. If the jar sealed, there is no mold, and at least half the liquid remains, the relish is generally still usable; use those jars first. If half or more of the liquid is gone, refrigerate and use within a few days.
Tasting from a bad jar. Bulging lids, leaks, spurting liquid, gas bubbles, cloudy brine with a sour or cheesy smell, or anything that looks fuzzy means the contents go in the trash. Do not taste first.
How to use a jar once it is open
Tomato relish is a condiment, not a side dish you eat by the cup. Good uses:
- Burgers, brats, and hot dogs
- Grilled cheese or a sharp cheddar sandwich
- A spoonful beside roast pork or meatloaf
- Mixed into tuna or egg salad
- On a cheese board with cream cheese or aged cheddar
- Stirred into baked beans or a pot of lentils at the end of cooking
Green tomato relish stays brighter and more pickle-like. Ripe tomato relish tastes closer to a sweet-sour tomato jam and works better with cheese and cold meat.
After opening, refrigerate and use within about a week for best quality, or up to a few weeks if the jar stays clean and cold. Always use a clean spoon.
Storage life and quality
Properly sealed jars belong in a cool, dark, dry place. The usual recommendation for home-canned food is to eat it within a year for best quality. The relish can remain safe longer if the seal holds and there are no spoilage signs, but color, texture, and flavor fade.
Wait at least two to four weeks before judging a new batch. The vinegar and spices need time to move into the vegetables.
Unsealed jars go in the refrigerator immediately and get used first.
Frequently asked questions
Can I can tomato relish without sugar? Sugar is for flavor and texture in these recipes, not the main safety hurdle. Vinegar and process time are. Some tested pickle recipes allow reduced sugar or certain substitutes; follow that specific source. Do not assume a no-sugar ripe-tomato relish is safe to water-bath just because it tastes acidic.
Can I use cherry tomatoes? Yes in a ripe-tomato relish if you peel them or accept skins, and if you stay inside a tested ripe-tomato formula. Do not substitute an equal weight of sweet ripe cherries into the green-tomato relish and keep the short 5-minute process.
Do I have to peel green tomatoes? Not for the NCHFP pickled green tomato relish. Peel ripe tomatoes for rummage relish and for most ripe-tomato recipes.
Why is my canned relish watery? Usually the vegetables were not drained after salting, the tomatoes were too ripe for a green-tomato recipe, or the pot was not simmered long enough on a ripe-tomato recipe. Watery relish can still be safe if it was processed correctly. Drain it at the table or cook a spoonful into a pan sauce.
Can I freeze relish instead? Yes. Cool it, pack in freezer containers with headspace, and expect a slightly softer texture after thawing. Freezing is the better backup when you changed a recipe too much to can it.
Is pressure canning better? Not for these pickles. Extra heat makes the vegetables softer. Pressure canning is the method for low-acid foods that do not have a tested vinegar formula.
Can I double the batch? Yes if your pot is wide enough to boil and you do not crowd the vegetables into a stew that never returns to a proper simmer. Process times do not change because you doubled the pot. Jar size and altitude still control the timer.
A reliable tomato relish canning recipe is the one that matches your tomatoes and keeps the acid in the tested range. Use the green-tomato relish or rummage relish when you want a pantry jar with a clear USDA pedigree. Use a current Ball or other tested ripe-tomato formula—or the refrigerator—when the fruit is red, juicy, and already sweet.