COUNTRY PLUMS.—
Gather your plums when perfectly ripe, and ready to fall from the trees. Split them with a knife, and remove the stones. Spread them out on large dishes, so as not to touch, and set them in the hot sun on a sunny roof or balcony; taking them in every evening before dark, and not putting them out till after the dew is off in the morning. Repeat this for three or four days. Then pack them down in stone jars with a large quantity of the best brown sugar, a layer of plums and a layer of sugar alternately, (sugar being at the bottom and top) and cover the jars closely. Let them remain undisturbed till February or March. When opened, you will have plenty of rich syrup among them. They make good spring pies, and will be prized for family use at that season.
Country Grapes.—The little wild grapes have a very pleasant taste after the first frost in the autumn, and should not be gathered till that time. Until frosted, they are too sour to eat. To keep them all winter, strip them from the stems and put them in stone jars with layers of good brown sugar, till the jars are three parts full. Then fill up to the top with West India molasses. They will make good winter pies, when cranberries, dried peaches, and dried apples are scarce.
Persimmon Jam.—Do not gather persimmons till late in the fall, when they are well sweetened with the frost. They are unfit to eat till all the leaves are off the trees, and till they are ripe enough to mash. Then pack them in jars with plenty of brown sugar. Maple sugar will do. In the back-woods they will be valued. When cooked they will be improved by the addition of a little sweet cider.
PICKLES.
For pickles the articles should all be fine and freshly gathered. They are generally too hard to be cut or eaten conveniently, and there is too much unnecessary fear of pickles proving soft. It is not now customary to keep them for weeks in salt and water; two or three days will be sufficient for this part of the process, and some kinds do not require it at all. The arts of both preserving and pickling are of late years much simplified. All pickles have nearly the same taste, and there is no use (and much trouble) in multiplying varieties, when a few sorts of the very best will be found amply sufficient for any table. One important point to be always observed, is to use none but the most wholesome vinegar, (the genuine cider,) as all that is made of drugs is unwholesome to the eater and destructive to the pickles. On no consideration boil them in brass, copper, or bell-metal—things which fortunately are now nearly exploded from all kitchens; iron lined with Delft, (called porcelain,) being universally substituted.
To green pickles boil them with a thick bed of fresh vine leaves, both under and over them. This will first render them yellow; then boil them again in a clean kettle with fresh vine leaves. If not green enough when you think they are done, repeat the boiling again, with fresh vine leaves and fresh water. Avoid eating pickles that are of a fine verdigris green. They are greened with copper, and are poisonous.
If you cannot obtain vine leaves, you may green pickles by boiling them with fresh cabbage leaves under and over. The first boiling will turn them yellow, the second with new leaves should render them green. But vine leaves are better and more certain. Put them up warm in stone or, glass jars with broad flat corks; and tie kid leather over them.