PICKLES.
Do not keep pickles in common earthen ware, as the glazing contains
lead, and combines with the vinegar.
Vinegar for pickling should be sharp, but not the sharpest kind, as it
injures the pickles. If you use copper, bell metal, or brass vessels
for pickling, never allow the vinegar to cool in them, as it then is
poisonous. Add a tablespoonful of alum and a tea-cup of salt to each
three gallons of vinegar, and tie up a bag with pepper, ginger-root,
and spices of all sorts in it, and you have vinegar prepared for any
kind of common pickling.
Keep pickles only in wood, or stone ware.
Anything that has held grease will spoil pickles.
Stir pickles occasionally, and if there are soft ones, take them out
and scald the vinegar, and pour it hot over the pickles. Keep enough
vinegar to cover them well. If it is weak, take fresh vinegar, and pour
on hot. Do not boil vinegar or spice over five minutes.
_To Pickle Tomatoes._
As you gather them, throw them into cold vinegar. When you have enough,
take them out, and scald some spices tied in a bag, in good vinegar,
and pour it hot over them.
_To Pickle Peaches._
Take ripe but hard peaches, wipe off the down, stick a few cloves into
them, and lay them in _cold_ spiced vinegar. In three months they will
be sufficiently pickled, and also retain much of their natural flavor.
_To Pickle Peppers._
Take green peppers, take the seeds out carefully, so as not to mangle
them, soak them nine days in salt and water, changing it every day, and
keep them in a warm place. Stuff them with chopped cabbage, seasoned
with cloves, cinnamon, and mace; put them in cold spiced vinegar.
_To Pickle Nasturtions._
Soak them three days in salt and water as you collect them, changing it
once in three days, and when you have enough, pour off the brine, and
pour on scalding hot vinegar.
_To Pickle Onions._
Peel, and boil in milk and water ten minutes, drain off the milk and
water, and pour scalding spiced vinegar on to them.
_To Pickle Gherkins._
Keep them in strong brine till they are yellow, then take them out and
turn on hot spiced vinegar, and keep them in it in a warm place, till
they turn green. Then turn off the vinegar, and add a fresh supply of
hot, spiced vinegar.
_To Pickle Mushrooms._
Stew them in salted water, just enough to keep them from sticking. When
tender, pour off the water, and pour on hot spiced vinegar. Then cork
them tight if you wish to keep them long. Poison ones will turn black
if an onion is stewed with them, and then all must be thrown away.
_To Pickle Cucumbers._
Wash the cucumbers in cold water, being careful not to bruise, or break
them. Make a brine of rock, or blown salt (rock is the best), strong
enough to bear up an egg, or potato, and of sufficient quantity to
cover the cucumbers.
Put them into an oaken tub, or stone-ware jar, and pour the brine over
them. In twenty-four hours, they should be stirred up from the bottom
with the hand. The third day pour off the brine, scald it, and pour it
over the cucumbers. Let them stand in the brine nine days, scalding it
every third day, as described above. Then take the cucumbers into a
tub, rinse them in cold water, and if they are too salt, let them stand
in it a few hours. Drain them from the water, put them back into the
tub or jar, which must be washed clean from the brine. Scald vinegar
sufficient to cover them, and pour it upon them. Cover them tight,
and in a week they will be ready for use. If spice is wanted, it may
be tied in a linen cloth, and put into the jar with the pickles, or
scalded with the vinegar, and the bag thrown into the pickle jar. If a
white scum rises, take it off and scald the vinegar, and pour it back.
A small lump of alum added to the vinegar, improves the hardness of
the cucumbers.
_Pickled Walnuts._
Take a hundred nuts, an ounce of cloves, an ounce of allspice, an ounce
of nutmeg, an ounce of whole pepper, an ounce of race ginger, an ounce
of horseradish, half pint of mustard seed, tied in a bag, and four
cloves of garlic.
Wipe the nuts, prick with a pin, and put them in a pot, sprinkling
the spice as you lay them in; then add two tablespoonfuls of salt;
boil sufficient vinegar to fill the pot, and pour it over the nuts and
spice. Cover the jar close, and keep it for a year, when the pickles
will be ready for use.
Butternuts may be made in the same manner, if they are taken when
green, and soft enough to be stuck through with the head of a pin. Put
them for a week or two in weak brine, changing it occasionally. Before
putting in the brine, rub them about with a broom in brine to cleanse
the skins. Then proceed as for the walnuts.
The vinegar makes an excellent catsup.
_Mangoes._
Take the latest growth of young muskmelons, take out a small bit from
one side, and empty them. Scrape the outside smooth, and soak them four
days in strong salt and water. If you wish to green them, put vine
leaves over and under, with bits of alum, and steam them a while. Then
powder cloves, pepper, and nutmeg in equal portions, and sprinkle on
the inside, and fill them with strips of horseradish, small bits of
calamus, bits of cinnamon and mace, a clove or two, a very small onion,
nasturtions, and then American mustard-seed to fill the crevices. Put
back the piece cut out, and sew it on, and then sew the mango in cotton
cloth. Lay all in a stone jar, the cut side upward.
Boil sharp vinegar a few minutes, with half a tea-cup of salt, and a
tablespoonful of alum to three gallons of vinegar, and turn it on to
the melons. Keep dried barberries for garnishes, and when you use them
turn a little of the above vinegar of the mangoes heated boiling hot on
to them, and let them swell a few hours. Sliced and salted cabbage with
this vinegar poured on hot is very good.
_Fine Pickled Cabbage._
Shred red and white cabbage, spread it in layers in a stone jar, with
salt over each layer. Put two spoonfuls of whole black pepper, and the
same quantity of allspice, cloves, and cinnamon, in a bag, and scald
them in two quarts of vinegar, and pour the vinegar over the cabbage,
and cover it tight. Use it in two days after.
_An excellent Way of Preparing Tomatoes to eat with Meat._
Peel and slice ripe tomatoes, sprinkling on a little salt as you
proceed. Drain off the juice, and pour on hot spiced vinegar.
_To Pickle Martinoes._
Gather them when you can run a pin head into them, and after wiping
them, keep them ten days in weak brine, changing it every other day.
Then wipe them, and pour over boiling spiced vinegar. In four weeks
they will be ready for use. It is a fine pickle.
_A convenient Way to Pickle Cucumbers._
Put some spiced vinegar in a jar, with a little salt in it.
Every time you gather a mess, pour boiling vinegar on them, with a
little alum in it. Then put them in the spiced vinegar. Keep the same
vinegar for scalding all. When you have enough, take all from the
spiced vinegar, and scald in the alum vinegar two or three minutes,
till green, and then put them back in the spiced vinegar.
_Indiana Pickles._
Take green tomatoes, and slice them. Put them in a basket to drain
in layers, with salt scattered over them, say a tea-cup full to each
gallon. Next day, slice one quarter the quantity of onions, and lay
the onions and tomatoes in alternate layers in a jar, with spices
intervening. Then fill the jar with cold vinegar. Tomatoes picked
as they ripen, and just thrown into cold spiced vinegar, are a fine
pickle, and made with very little trouble.
_To Pickle Cauliflower, or Brocoli._
Keep them twenty-four hours in strong brine, and then take them out and
heat the brine, and pour it on scalding hot, and let them stand till
next day. Drain them, and throw them into spiced vinegar.