Take half a dozen middle-sized cucumbers, cut them open lengthwise,
take out the seeds, cut off the pulpy part, and soak them three days
in strong salt and water, and weighted down so as to be completely
submerged. Next, take them out and wash them in cold water, and put
them, with plenty of cold water, into a pan on the fire, and when it
comes to the boiling point, take them off, pour off the water, and add
more cold water with a quarter of an ounce of bicarbonate of potash
to each quart of water. Now boil them half an hour, and set by in the
water they were boiled in till next day. Then take out, and set them to
drain on a sieve, covered with a cloth. Then take
Best ginger, bruised 10 oz.
Best cloves, bruised 1 oz.
Cinnamon, bruised ½ oz.
Rain or soft water 5 pints
which boil five minutes, then simmer for half an hour, in a closely
covered pan, strain the liquor through a flannel bag, and add to each
pint of it one and a quarter pounds of sifted loaf-sugar, making a
syrup, which must be clarified with the white of egg. Boil this, and
skim with care till no scum rises. Peel the cucumbers, and cut them
in pieces the size and shape of a pigeon’s egg. Simmer two ounces more
of bruised ginger, tied in a piece of muslin, in a pint of water,
till reduced to a moderate sized teacupful, and add it to the syrup.
Take the ginger you first used, put it with the syrup and cucumbers
into a clean pan, and boil for ten minutes. Empty all into a clean
earthenware jar, and let stand two days and nights. Next pour off the
syrup, boil it five minutes, taking off the scum if any arises; then
add the cucumbers, boil five minutes longer, and put all back again
into the jar, and let stand three days. Return the syrup and the whole
of the ginger tied in muslin into the pan, and boil until the syrup
adheres to the spoon. Then put in the cucumbers, and boil, a quarter
of an hour, when return all into the jar, and let remain twenty-four
hours uncovered. Then tie wet bladder well over, and in a month it may
be removed into small wide-mouthed glass jars and covered with bladder,
and green paper over that. This, as dessert, is an excellent stomachic,
assisting digestion in weak habits.