EXCELLENT PICKLED CABBAGE.—Shred very fine, with a cabbage-cutter, a large fresh red cabbage. Pack it down (with a little salt sprinkled between each layer) in a large stone jar. The jar should be three parts full of the shred cabbage. Then tie up, in a bag of very thin clean muslin, two table-spoonfuls of whole black pepper; the same quantity of cloves; and the same of cinnamon, broken very small, but not powdered. Also a dozen blades of mace. Put two quarts of the best cider-vinegar into a porcelain-lined kettle; throw in the bag of spices, and boil it. Five minutes after it has come to a hard boil, take out the bag of spice, and pour the vinegar hot over the cabbage in the jar; stirring it up from the bottom, so that the vinegar may get all through the cabbage. Then lay the bag of spice on the top, and while the pickle is hot, cover the jar closely. It will be fit for use in two days.
If you find, after awhile, that the pickle tastes too much of the spice, remove the spice-bag.
You may pickle white cabbage in the same way; omitting the cloves, and boiling in the vinegar a second muslin bag, with three ounces of turmeric, which will give the cabbage a fine bright yellow colour. Having put up the cabbage into the jar, lay the turmeric-bag half way down, and the spice-bag on the top. But the turmeric-bag need not be put into the jar if the vinegar has sufficiently coloured the cabbage.
Small onions may be pickled, as above, with turmeric. Always, in preparing onions, for any purpose, peel off the thin outer skin.
MADEIRA HAM.—Take a ham of the very finest sort; a Westphalia one, if you can obtain it. Soak it in water all day and all night; changing the water several times. A Westphalia ham should be soaked two days and nights. Early in the morning of the day it is to be cooked, put it over the fire in a large pot, and boil it four hours, skimming it well. Then take it out; remove the skin, and put the ham into a clean boiler, with sufficient Madeira wine to cover it well. Boil, or rather stew it an hour longer, keeping the pot covered, except when you remove the lid to turn the ham. When well stewed take it up, drain it, and strain the liquor into a porcelain-lined saucepan. Have ready a sufficiency of powdered white sugar. Cover the ham all over with a thick coating of the sugar, and set it into a hot oven to bake for an hour.
Mix some orange or lemon-juice with the liquor, adding sugar and nutmeg. Give it one boil up over the fire, and serve it up in a tureen, as sauce to the ham.
What is left of the ham may be cut next day into thin slices, put into a stew-pan, with the remains of the liquor or sauce poured over it, and stewed for a quarter of an hour. Serve it up all together in the same dish. Instead of Madeira you may use champagne. Bottled cider is also a good substitute.
Fresh venison, pheasants, partridges, grouse, or any other game, (also canvas-back ducks,) cut up and stewed with a mixture of Madeira wine, orange, or lemon-juice, sugar, nutmeg, and a little butter will be found very fine. The birds should first be half roasted, and the gravy saved to add to the stew.