Success? Preserving 10 lbs of Zucchini

Friday, October 3, 2014

Um. I had a lot of zucchini. They go on sale in early August for a dollar a pound. And here we are. Ten pounds later. Here are my recipe notes:

Pickled Zucchini with Lime and Cumin
Yield: 6 pints
I followed Marisa McClellan's recipe for Pickled Zucchini from her book "Food in Jars", although I didn't have any cumin seed on hand, so just added in a bit more ground cumin to each jar. I suspect it's going to make the brine super muddy super fast. This made a lot of pickles. 6 pints. I think next time I'd like to try her Curried Zucchini Pickles.

Garlic Dill Zucchini
Yield: 3 pints
I halved this recipe from FoodInJars for garlic dill pickles and used 1/2" slices of 2lbs of zucchini instead of cucumbers. And used 2 dill heads per jar, instead of dill seed. We'll see how that works out. It yielded 3 pints instead of 4. This is also the first time I had excess brine and didn't have to make any extra!

Zucchini Pepper Sweet Relish
Yield: 3 pints
I halved the recipe for zucchini pepper relish from Marisa McClellan...because there's no way I'd go through 6 pints of this stuff. It is tasty though. On chicken nuggets. On everything.

Bread and Butter Zucchini Pickles
Yield: 2.5 pints
I made these bread and butter zucchini pickles from Marisa McClellan's "Preserving by the Pint" and ended up with an extra half pint (no gain, no pain?). I decided this savory endeavor was a good time to use up some buckwheat honey. A similar-ish recipe can be found, also by Marisa McClellan, here: www.mrswages.com/page/Bread_and_Butter_Zucchini_Pickles_....

Zucchini Butter (not shelf stable)
Yield: 1 pint
Zucchini Butter from Marisa McClellan, although I swapped rosemary for the thyme, because that's what's growing on my fire escape. I also covered the butter in a thin layer of olive oil after the butter froze, to keep out the freezer burn.



[Edit 11/15/14: Shared the garlic dill zucchini at a recent game night. These are very tasty, although a bit mushier than dilly beans. Might be worth making again, since zucchini are so cheap.]
[Edit 12/7/14: The pickled zucchini with cumin & lime are great. Different flavor from the cumin and the vinegar is a bit strong, but definitely worth another batch.]