Southern Chow Chow Relish

5 from 7 votes

Southern chow chow is a traditional green tomato relish, diced finely and combined with sweet spices. It's the perfect topping for burgers or hot dogs, or anywhere else you'd use homemade relish.

Prep Time2

Cook Time10

Additional Time10

Total Time2 20

Course: Relish

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Chow Chow, Green Tomato

Servings: Servings, Three Pint Jars

Author: Ashley Adamant

Equipment

Ingredients

4 cups green tomatoes chopped
2 cups bell peppers green and red mixed, chopped
4 cups cabbage finely chopped
1 cup onion chopped
¼ cup canning salt
1 tbsp dry mustard
2 cups granulated sugar
2 tsp celery seeds
¼ tsp ground allspice
½ tsp ground turmeric
2 ½ cups apple cider vinegar

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Gather your ingredients. This is a two day recipe, with dicing and salting on day one and canning on day two.
Finely dice call the vegetables into even pieces. A food processor can help with this. I like mine pretty fine, but you can make it a coarser dice if you prefer.
Soak the tomatoes, cabbage, peppers, and onions overnight in water and salt. Do not skip this step, it's essential for both flavor and texture. Drain, then rinse and drain again.
Prepare a brine by mixing the sugar and spices into the vinegar. Bring it to a boil on the stove and simmer about 2-3 minutes, until the sugar is fully dissolved.
Add the salted, drained and rinsed veggies.
Simmer the mixture for 5 minutes to thoroughly heat the veggies and make sure they're all completely coated in vinegar.
Pack the hot Southern Chow Chow into hot pint jars, leaving 1/2" headspace. Adjust headspace, remove bubbles and more Chow Chow, if necessary, to fill the space in the jars.
Wipe the rims of the jars to remove any food residue before adding the sanitized lids and bands. Screw the bands on until they're fingertip tight.
Load the jars into a water bath canner. Process the pints for 10 minutes at 0 to 1000 feet, adjusting the time for altitude if needed (see below).
Once the processing time is done, remove the jars from the canner and let them cool at room temperature for 24 hours.
Check the labels, seal, and store for one year. Any jars that didn't seal properly can be refrigerated and enjoyed right away.

Notes

Altitude Adjustments

Water boils at a lower temperature at higher altitudes, so jars need to be processed a bit longer as you go up in elevation. Here are the altitude adjustments for canning Southern Style Chow Chow:

For 0 to 1,000 Feet in Elevation - Process pint jars for 10 minutes, and quart jars for 15 minutes.
For 1,001 to 6,000 Feet in Elevation - Process pint jars for 15 minutes, and quart jars for 20 minutes.
Above 6,001 Feet in Elevation - Process pint jars for 20 minutes, and quart jars for 25 minutes.

Nutrition