TO PICKLE GHERKINS.
Let the gherkins be gathered on a dry day, before the frost has touched them; take off the blossoms, put them into a stone jar, and pour over them sufficient boiling brine to cover them well. The following day take them out, wipe them singly, lay them into a clean stone jar, with a dozen bay leaves over them, and pour upon them the following pickle, when it is boiling fast: as much vinegar as will more than cover the gherkins by an inch or two, with an ounce and a quarter of salt, a quarter-ounce of black peppercorns, an ounce and a half of ginger sliced, or slightly bruised, and two small blades of mace to every quart; put a plate over the jar, and leave it for two days, then drain off the vinegar, and heat it afresh; when it boils, throw in the gherkins, and keep them just on the point of simmering for two or three minutes; pour the whole back into the jar, put the plate again upon it, and let it remain until the pickle is quite cold, when a skin, or two separate folds of thick brown paper, must be tied closely over it. The gherkins thus pickled are very crisp, and excellent in flavour, and the colour is sufficiently good to satisfy the prudent housekeeper, to whom the brilliant and poisonous green produced by boiling the vinegar in a brass skillet (a process constantly recommended in books of cookery) is anything but attractive. To satisfy ourselves of the effect produced by the action of the acid on the metal, we had a few gherkins thrown into some vinegar which was boiling in a brass pan, and nothing could be more beautiful than the colour which they almost immediately exhibited. We fear this dangerous method is too often resorted to in preparing pickles for sale.
Brine to pour on gherkins:—6 oz. salt to each quart water: 24 hours. Pickle:—to each quart vinegar, salt, 1-1/4 oz.; black peppercorns, 1/4 oz.; ginger, sliced or bruised, 1-1/2 oz.; mace, 2 small blades; bay leaves; 24 to 100 gherkins, more when the flavour is liked: 2 days. Gherkins simmered in vinegar, 2 to 3 minutes.
Obs.—The quantity of vinegar required to cover the gherkins will be shown by that of the brine: so much depends upon their size, that it is impossible to direct the measure exactly. A larger proportion of spice can be added at pleasure.
TO PICKLE GHERKINS.
(A French Receipt.)
Brush or wipe the gherkins very clean, throw them into plenty of fast-boiling water, and give them a single boil, take them out quickly, and throw them immediately into a large quantity of very cold water; change it once, and when the gherkins themselves are quite cold, drain them well, spread them on sieves or dishes, and dry them in the air. When this is done, put them into stone jars, and pour on them as much boiling vinegar as will cover them well; heat it anew, and pour it on them again the following day; and on the next throw them into it for a minute so soon as it boils, with plenty of tarragon in branches, a few very small silver onions, and salt and whole pepper in the same proportions as in the receipt above. It should be observed that the French vinegar, from its superior excellence, will have a very different effect, in many preparations, to that which is made up for sale generally in England.[[172]]
[172]. We have already spoken in Chapter [VI.] of the very superior Vinaigre de Bordeaux so largely imported by the Messrs. Kent and Sons, of Upton-on-Severn, and sold by their agents in almost every town in England. It may be procured in small quantities (bottled) of Mr. Metcalfe, Foreign Warehouse, Southampton Row, London, and of other agents, whose names may easily be known by applying to the Messrs. Kent themselves.
TO PICKLE PEACHES, AND PEACH MANGOES.
Take, at their full growth, just before they begin to ripen, six large or eight moderate-sized peaches; wipe the down from them, and put them into brine that will float an egg. In three days let them be taken out, and drained on a sieve reversed for several hours. Boil in a quart of vinegar for ten minutes two ounces of whole white pepper, two of ginger slightly bruised, a teaspoonful of salt, two blades of mace, half a pound of mustard-seed, and a half-teaspoonful of cayenne tied in a bit of muslin. Lay the peaches into a jar, and pour the boiling pickle on them: in two months they will be fit for use.
Peaches, 6 or 8: in brine three days. Vinegar, 1 quart; whole white pepper, 2 oz.; bruised ginger, 2 oz.; salt, 1 teaspoonful; mace, 2 blades; mustard-seed, 1/2 lb.: 10 minutes.