It’s that time of year again! (I mean canning time, of course) First on the canning schedule this year was corn salsa (or corn relish, if you prefer). Skelly’s Farm Market, a local farm stand, is selling the sweetest, juiciest sweet corn right now and I just had to preserve some of it. I’ve not canned corn salsa in a few years, so we were long overdue for a new batch.

Luckily, I was able to track down my old recipe in my pile o’ recipes, full of scribbles and notes and such. This is, obviously, a canning recipe, but feel free to cut it in half and make some for the fridge. It’s great as a salsa or relish and the possibilities for it are almost endless.

You can also customize this as you like, though if you are canning it, try and stick close to the measurements. If, for example, you don’t want yours very spicy, substitute some celery, or bell peppers or more corn for the hot peppers.

Hot Corn Salsa Relish Canning Recipe

Makes 6 pints

•  18 ears sweet corn, shucked and cleaned, cut off the cob (8 cups)
• 2 tablespoons butter (do not use a butter substitute)
• 1 onion, diced (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 2 large jalapenos, finely chopped
• 3 large cloves garlic, minced
• 1 large red bell pepper, diced (1 1/2 cups)
• 1 large orange bell pepper, diced (1 1/2 cups)
• 3 stalks celery, sliced (3/4 cup)
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 4 cups cider and/or white vinegar

Have your jars, lids, and bands sterilized and ready to go.

• In a large pan, melt butter until bubbly. Add onion, jalapeno, and garlic. Saute for about 5 minutes, until onion is translucent. Add bell peppers, celery, sea salt, and pepper. Saute another 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
• Add vinegar and bring corn mixture to a boil. Remove from heat and pack corn salsa into sterilized canning jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.
• Wipe rims of jars, place seals and bands on jars, and process in a hot water bath for 15 minutes.
• Remove jars from bath and let sit, undisturbed, for 24 hours. If any seals have not sealed correctly, place in refrigerator, otherwise, place sealed jars in cool dark place to store.

I’m sure I’ve said this before but I’ll say it again. The biggest time-suck with canning is making sure everything is sterilized and ready to go. Once everything’s ready, it’s really a pretty quick process. These should seal almost immediately upon removing from the hot water bath; mine take 5 minutes at the most.

This is one of the best ways to preserve fresh sweet corn and it makes a lovely gift since it’s not something you can usually find on your grocer’s shelves.

Again, we like ours pretty hot, so I tend to add a lot of jalapenos. Feel free to mix it up with a different hot pepper or just substitute sweet bells for the hot ones.

I hope you’re all enjoying your summer so far!