Pick over the rice, and wash it in cold water, put it in three quarts of boiling water with half a tea spoonful of salt, to a pint of the rice. Boil it seventeen minutes, then turn off the water very close, put it over a moderate fire with the lid of the pot off, let it steam fifteen minutes. Rice boiled in this manner is superior to any other; but care must be taken to be exact in the time of boiling and steaming, as a few moments variation makes a great deal of difference with it, the water should boil when it is put in the pot, and not allowed to stop boiling till done. The water that the rice is cooked in makes nice starch if boiled a few moments by itself.
[104.] To Pickle Peppers.
If you do not like them fiery, take out the seeds, they should be taken out carefully with a penknife, so as not to mangle the pepper. Soak them in salt and water, eight or nine days, change the water each day, and keep them in a warm place. If you like them stuffed, put in cinnamon, cloves, mace, and nasturtions, lay them in cold spiced vinegar. Tomatoes when very small, and green, are good pickled with the peppers.
[105.] Mangoes.
Procure muskmelons as late in the season as possible, and those that are very green; if pickled early, they are apt to spoil. Take out the seeds, and soak them in salt and water, three or four days. Then take them out of the water, sprinkle powdered cloves, and nutmeg, round on the inside of the melon, fill them with strips of horseradish, cinnamon, small string beans, or flag root, nasturtion, and radish tops, fill the crevices, with American mustard seed; put on the covers, and sew each one up in a bag. Lay the melons in a stone jar, with the side that the covers are on up; turn on scalding hot vinegar, with alum, pepper corns, and salt in it. Pickled barberries are a pretty garnish for them.
[106.] To Pickle Butternuts and Walnuts.
The nuts for pickling should be picked as early as the first of July unless the season is very backward, if a pin will go through them easily, they are in a right state for pickling. Soak them in salt and water, a week, then drain, and scrape or rub them, with a cloth, sprinkle them with ground cloves, and pour on boiling vinegar, spiced with cloves, pepper corns, allspice, and mace, add a little salt. They will be fit to eat in the course of a fortnight, or three weeks. The vinegar they are pickled in, makes a nice catsup, if boiled down to half the quantity, and a little more spice added.
[107.] To Pickle Cabbage, and Cauliflower.
Purple cabbages are the best for pickling. Pull off the loose leaves and quarter them, sprinkle salt on the flat side of each one, let them lay several days, then rinse off the salt and drain them; sprinkle on powdered cloves, mace, salt, and pour on scalding vinegar, with a few peppers in it, alum and pepper corns. Cauliflowers are pickled in the same manner as the cabbages. They will be fit to eat in the course of a fortnight, after being pickled.