On to the next recipe, beet relish. I personally love beets, pickled beets in particular. My mother made her own pickled beets and would add peeled hard boiled eggs to the pickling juice. The eggs would turn a beautiful purple color and were great additions to a salad. But I digress. I've eaten a lot of relishes, but I can say that I never had this version.
Ingredients
1 qt cooked beets, chopped fine
1 qt raw cabbage, "
1 scant cup horseradish chopped or ground
1 tsp black pepper
1 sweet green pepper, chopped
2 or 3 heads of celery*
1 heaping tblsp salt
2 cups white vinegar
Directions
Cover with cold cider vinegar
And that's it. Pretty simple, right? I made a couple of executive decisions. I used canned beets, 3 drained cans worth, and green cabbage, as the heads were smaller at Kroger - the red would be prettier, but the heads were gargantuan. I was a little stumped by three heads of celery, I mean 3 heads of celery is a damned lot of celery - so I made the executive decision to use just 3 stalks. Finally, it calls for white vinegar but then mentions cider vinegar. I used white because it was what I had on hand. Lastly, about all that chopping...yeah. I debated the authenticity angle and then thought, screw it, and pulled out my food processor. I used the shredder attachment for everything except the celery, for which I used the slicer. I did chop the pepper by hand. And that was quite enough, thank you. 
So, this is the finished product. It is quite tart, a bit salty, somewhat inexpensive for the large quantity made, and something of a question mark. What exactly do you do with this quantity of relish except perhaps as an offering at a picnic, especially when DH reminds you that he doesn't like beets ? And is it my imagination or does the handwriting look different for this recipe than the others? More on that in a minute. As to the relish, I was initially torn. I'm reluctant to pitch the whole thing, but the "balance" of the recipe doesn't taste right. On scouring the Google, I have found similar archival recipes, and they almost all call for a certain amount of sweetness (such as sugar). Considering the recipe in it's current state was practically inedible, hot and vinegary, I added a cup and 1/2 of sugar, and let it sit for a day. I then remembered that while DH doesn't like beets, SIL LOVES them. He pronounced it delicious, one of the best he'd had - and being Polish by birth, he's had a lot of beet relishes. He took the entire bowl, ostensibly to share with his brother - but I doubt it will last that long. Talk about your fiber!
I'm guessing that if you're a canner, this would be a great recipe to hot pack - heat the vinegar, pepper and sugar, pour over the veggies and pack into sterilized jars, much like a sauerkraut. The Big Blue Book of Ball canning does have a beet relish recipe, but it calls for cooking and processing, which would degrade the freshness of the veggies, I think. Would I make this again? Depends on how much the SIL begs for it - but considering he's pretty handy in the kitchen, I'm thinking he can manage it himself.
Verdict: Interesting, but needed additions to make it palatable. For me, I don't think this will be a repeat recipe.
As to the handwriting, I realized that this belongs to my Uncle Ray Cunningham. I believe that he and possibly his mother Ruth added their own favorite recipes to the book. I'll do a bit of research and see if I can attribute specific recipes to their respective writers. Stay tuned...
Next week - an entree! Some of these are real doozys...stay tuned!
Next week - an entree! Some of these are real doozys...stay tuned!
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