Home made Onion Relish and Jam

While I like making strawberry, peach and other fruit jams, I also like to make some savoury types that go great on meats or with cheeses. So on Saturday I went to the local fresh fruit and veggie market and found some great looking sweet, red onions and decided to get a few kilograms to play with.

I started out with a recipe from The Big Book of Preserving the Harvest and went from there.

The recipe I used as my starting point was for Sweet Onion Relish on page 269.

Sweet Onion Relish

5 pounds sweet onions, pealed and chopped (I used 2.5 kg of sweet red onions)
2 ¼ cups of distilled white vinegar
1 cup of sugar
2 tablespoons of salt

Combine all ingredients in a heavy based saucepan and bring to the boil.

Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally. The recipe calls for 10 minutes, but I simmered mine for 30 minutes to get the texture I wanted. As I was cooking, I was tasting, and I decided to increase the sugar by half a cup. This will be a matter of personal taste and will also be determined by the sweetness of the onions you use.

Ladle the relish into clean jars, leaving a headspace of 1.5 cm. Put on new lids and then process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Starting from the same recipe, I then got creative and made Onion Jam.

2.5kg sweet, red onions, pealed and chopped
2 ¼ cups distilled white vinegar
4 cups sugar
3 tablespoons salt
¼ cup lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a heavy based saucepan and bring to the boil.

Reduce the heat and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until your mixture reduces down to the consistency of jam. This will take about two hours and as it reduces it will change colour from the pink of the relish to a rich brown jam.

Ladle the jam into clean jars, leaving a headspace of 1.5 cm. Put on new lids and then process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Enjoy.