Water Bath Canning Summer Squash Relish Recipe

I made a batch of this Yellow Summer Squash Relish Recipe.

I found it to be quite tasty, but entirely toooooooo sweet!!!

If anyone has an abundance of summer squash and are out of ideas for preservation recipes, I do recommend this one. However, I'd suggest starting with only .5 cups of sugar and adding more as necessary. The original recipe called for 4 whole cups of sugar!!!

That DOES sound awfully sweet! But, otherwise it's good? Hmmm... With the vinegar, I wonder if the sugar is necessary at all, for the sake of preservation, or if it's just a sweetener. I'm trying hard to get away from all sugars, and especially from processed white sugar, so adding it to anything makes me cringe. If it's only there for sweetening, I can sub in monkfruit - which I'm planning, for my pickle relish and bread&butter pickles, this year. In fact, if I actually need any sweetness added to my wild blackberry jam, that's what I'll use there, too.

I don't think the sugar is necessary for the preservation process. I am confident the vinegar and a good water bath can would suffice. But other than the sticky-sweet-candy flavor, the rest of the recipe was quite tasty.

Here is the recipe that I like:

https://permies.com/t/90577/kitchen/summer-squash#742304

It calls for 3 cups of sugar.

I don't remember how sweet it is though most of my relishes are tangy sweet and I prefer sweet relish over dill relish.

That thread might have some other squash recipes you might like.

In general,  my wife and I dramatically reduce the amount of sugar called for in most recipes.  Even with active bread making, we seldom use anywhere near what is called for.

Me too, John. I saw that particular recipe got  several rave reviews, so I decided to try it as written before I modified it. I will probably make it again with next year's harvest, but I will not add sugar. We like unsweetened dill pickle relish, so I think we're okay with an unsweetened squash relish.

I grew up in a family where added sugar was a rarity. Any sort of refined sugar other than rice syrup, honey, or molasses is a severe migraine trigger for my mother. (She went blind in one eye, numb on one side of her body, and vomited. And the pain was excruciating. Several doctors couldn't help her, so she decided to be her own health detective.)

Thus, we generally didn't eat much sugar. I absolutely think my health is better for it!