Cucumbers for pickling should be very small, and as free from spots
as possible. Make a brine of salt and water strong enough to bear an
egg. Pour it over your cucumbers, cover them with fresh cabbage leaves,
and let them stand for a week, or till they are quite yellow, stirring
them at least twice a day. When they are perfectly yellow, pour off the
water. Take a porcelain kettle, and cover the bottom and sides with
fresh vine leaves. Put in the cucumbers (with a small piece of alum)
and cover them closely with vine leaves all over the top, and then with
a dish or cloth to keep in the steam. Fill up the kettle with clear
water, and hang it over the fire when dinner is done, but not where
there is a blaze. The fire under the kettle must be kept very moderate.
The water must not boil, or be too hot to bear your hand in. Keep them
over the fire in a slow heat till next morning. If they are not then of
a fine green, repeat the process. When they are well greened, take them
out of the kettle, drain them on a sieve, and put them into a clean
stone jar. Boil for five or six minutes sufficient of the best vinegar
to cover the cucumbers well; putting into the kettle a thin muslin bag
filled with cloves, mace, and mustard seed. Pour the vinegar scalding
hot into the jar of pickles, which should be secured with a large flat
cork, and an oil-cloth or leather cover tied over it.
Another way to green pickles is to cover them with vine leaves or
cabbage leaves, and to keep them on a warm hearth, pouring boiling
water on them five or six times a day; renewing the water as soon as it
becomes cold.
In proportioning the spice to the vinegar, allow to every two quarts,
an ounce of mace, two dozen cloves, and two ounces of mustard seed.
You may leave the muslin bag, with the spice, for about a week in the
pickle jar to heighten the flavour, if you think it necessary.
GREEN PEPPERS--May be done in the same manner as cucumbers, only
extracting the seeds before you put the pickles into the salt and
water. Do not put peppers into the same jar with cucumbers, as the
former will destroy the latter.
GHERKINS.--The gherkin is a small thick oval-shaped species of cucumber
with a hairy or prickly surface, and is cultivated solely for pickling.
It is customary to let the stems remain on them. Wipe them dry, put
them into a broad stone jar, and scald them five or six times in the
course of the day with salt and water strong enough to bear an egg, and
let them set all night. This will make them yellow. Next day, having
drained them from the salt and water, throw it out, wipe them dry, put
them into a clean vessel (with a little piece of alum,) and scald them
with boiling vinegar and water, (half and half of each,) repeating it
frequently during the day till they are green. Keep them as closely
covered as possible. Then put them away in stone jars, mixing among
them whole mace and sliced ginger to your taste. Fill up with cold
vinegar, and add a little alum, allowing to every hundred gherkins a
piece about the size of a shelled almond.
The alum will make them firm and crisp.
RADISH PODS.--Gather sprigs or bunches of radish pods while they are
young and tender, but let the pods remain on the sprigs; it not being
the custom to pick them off. Put them into strong salt and water, and
let them stand two days. Then drain and wipe them and put them into a
clean stone jar. Boil an equal quantity of vinegar and water. Pour it
over the radish pods while hot, and cover them closely to keep in the
steam. Repeat this frequently through the day till they are very green.
Then pour off the vinegar and water, and boil for five minutes some
very good vinegar, with a little bit of alum, and pour it over them.
Put them into a stone jar, (and having added some whole mace, whole
pepper, a little tumeric and a little sweet oil,) cork it closely, and
tie over it a leather or oil-cloth.
GREEN BEANS.--Take young green or French beans; string them, but do not
cut them in pieces. Put them in salt and water for two days, stirring
them frequently. Then put them into a kettle with vine or cabbage
leaves under, over, and all round them, (adding a little piece of
alum.) Cover them closely to keep in the steam, and let them hang over
a slow fire till they are a fine green.
Having drained them in a sieve, make for them a pickle of cider
vinegar, and boil in it for five minutes, some mace, whole pepper, and
sliced ginger tied up in a thin muslin bag. Pour it hot upon the beans,
put them into a stone jar, and tie them up.
PARSLEY.--Make a brine of salt and water strong enough to bear an egg,
and throw into it a large quantity of curled parsley tied up in little
bunches with a thread. After it has stood three days (stirring it
frequently) take it out drain it well, and lay it for three days in
cold spring or pump-water, changing the water daily. Then scald it in
hard water, and hang it, well covered, over a slow fire till it becomes
green. Afterwards take it out, and drain and press it till quite dry.
Boil for five minutes a quart of cider vinegar with a small bit of
alum, a few blades of mace, a sliced nutmeg, and a few slips of
horseradish. Pour it on the parsley, and put it away in a stone jar.