Choose young walnuts tender enough to be pierced with a pin or needle.
Prick them in several places, and lay in a jar with a handful of salt
to every twenty-five, and water enough to cover them. Break them with
a billet of wood or wooden beetle, and let them lie in the pickle a
fortnight, stirring twice a day. Drain off the liquor into a saucepan,
and cover the shells with boiling vinegar to extract what juice remains
in them. Crush to a pulp and strain through a cullender into the
saucepan. Allow for every quart an ounce of black pepper and one of
ginger, half an ounce of cloves and half an ounce of nutmeg, beaten
fine. Put in a pinch of cayenne, a shallot minced fine for every _two_
quarts, and a thimbleful of celery-seed tied in a bag for the same
quantity. Boil all together for an hour, if there be a gallon of the
mixture. Bottle when cold, putting an equal quantity of the spice in
each flask. Butternuts make delightful catsup.