Aunt Edna's Pear Relish
Aunt Edna was eighty + years of age before I finally persuaded her to tell me her recipe for pear
relish. I had many times helped her make it, but never really did it often enough (not even annually
was I there with her to make it) to "absorb" right amounts. She did for me as I did for my children:
she prepared everything and as she cut, grated, chopped, etc., I took the completed quantity
and poured it into a teacup, and that is the measurement I used. A teacup was our farm/backcountry
unit of measurement in those days.
However, with pear relish, Aunt Edna wrote the recipe for me so that I "always had it right", and this
is what she wrote. I think it is legible enough. If not, please let me know, and I will transcribe it.
For non-deep south folks who don't know what this is/how to use it: we serve this relish with dinner;
you will find pear relish alongside almost any kind of dinner meat. Some folks, like me for example,
also serve it beside the rice on the plate when you are serving, for example, rice and butter beans
and corn bread.
Every year for Christmas we fixed up gift boxes of our prized home-canning and gave to family and
friends. Included were of course this pear relish, watermelon pickles, pickled peaches, fig preserves
and chow-chow. Christmas gift-receiving was a delight as many folks gave their favorite pound cake,
or pecan cake or fruit cake. Some folks who lived in N FL gave preserved kumquats and home-made
orange marmalade.
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