These are more useful as garnishes than otherwise, and a great many are annually pickled for that purpose. Take half a sieve of fine, high-coloured fruit, pick out all the nice bunches that are sound, and keep them apart by themselves; the best of the single ones must also be had, but put in separate jars. Wash both in salt and water, and set them to drain. Now take two and a half pounds of bay salt to each gallon of water, and fill up the jars with the mixture, to running over; skim them daily for four or five days, and then pour the liquor away, and fill the jars again with a similar mixture of salt and water, adding half a pint of the strongest pickling vinegar. Let it merely steam over the fire, until it has become crisp and finely green, then take it off quickly, and let it cool, drain off the liquor, and put the fruit along with a light scattering of the following mixture into a jar, and cover it well with the liquor:
| Mace, beaten roughly | ½ | oz. |
| Nutmeg, sliced | 1 | oz. |
| Bay leaves, shred | 1 | oz. |
| Saltpetre | ½ | oz. |
Close the jar with a bung and secure that with resin. In a month it will be ready for table.
ASPARAGUS.
Take two hundred of fresh cut asparagus, fully grown, take off the root ends so high up as to leave the remaining parts tender, and wash the green tops in cold water, slightly tasted with salt, then remove them into fresh water, and let them remain in it for about two hours. Put them next into a shallow pan with as much cold spring water as will just cover them, and putting it on the fire, watch them closely, so that the moment the water comes to the boiling point you will remove it from the fire, and taking out the asparagus heads very carefully, lest they break, lay them on a sieve to get cold, being covered over with cloths. Place them now in jars and pour upon them a pickle made of
| White pepper | ½ | oz. |
| Nutmeg | 1½ | oz. |
| Mace | ½ | oz. |
| Bay salt | 1½ | oz. |
| White-wine vinegar | 4 | quarts |
boiled ten minutes or more, and well skimmed, to be used hot. Tie leather over the jars, and let them remain for five or six days, when you will boil the pickle again, and pour over hot. When cold make up the jars securely with bungs and leather.
GHERKINS.
From out of three hundred gherkins of the markets you may probably pick two hundred that will suit your purpose, and they should be all nearly of the same size; put them into a pickle made of two pounds and a half of common table salt to one gallon of soft or river water, and let them remain in it for three hours if they run small, or four hours if large. Let them lie on a sieve to drain, and wipe them carefully quite dry, and place them in stone jars—glazed ware is objectionable on many accounts for pickles. Next make a pickle of
| Cloves | 1 | oz. |
| Mace | ½ | oz. |
| Allspice | 1 | oz. |
| Two nutmegs, sliced | ||
| White mustard seed | 1 | oz. |
| A stick of horseradish | ||
| Bay salt | 8 | oz. |
| White-wine vinegar | 4 | quarts |