Take large fine plums; perfect, and quite ripe. To every quart of plums allow half a pound of the best white sugar powdered, and a large pint of the best cider vinegar. Melt the sugar in the vinegar, and put it with the fruit into a porcelain kettle; all the plums having been previously pricked to the stone with a large needle. Lay among them some small muslin bags filled with broken nutmeg, mace, and cinnamon; and if you choose, a few cloves. Give them one boil up, skimming them well. Put them warm into stone jars, with the bags interspersed, and cork them immediately. Green gages may be done in this manner, first rendering them greener by boiling with vine leaves in the usual way.
Damsons Pickled.—Do these in the same manner as plums; but as they are much more acid, allow brown sugar of the best kind. Plums or damsons may be pickled plain, and with little trouble if full ripe, pricked with a needle, and packed down in a stone jar with profuse layers of brown sugar between the layers of fruit; the jars filled up with cold cider vinegar, and putting sweet oil at the top.
Pickled Cherries.—Take the largest and finest red cherries, fully ripe. Morellas are the best. Either remove the stems entirely, or cut them short, within two inches of the fruit. Have ready a large glass jar. Fill it two thirds with fresh newly-gathered cherries, and then fill up to the top with the best vinegar. Keep it well covered, and if both fruit and vinegar are of excellent quality, no boiling is necessary, and no spice, as the cherry flavor will be retained, and they will not shrivel.
Button Tomatos.—The small round tomatos, either red or yellow, will keep perfectly, if put whole into cold vinegar of the really best quality. You may add a bag of spice if you choose.
Nasturtion Seeds.—Keep a large glass jar of cold cider vinegar, and put in the green seeds of nasturtions after the flowers are off, and the seeds full-grown, but not hard. Remove the stalks. In this simple way nasturtions will keep perfectly well, and are an excellent substitute for capers with boiled mutton. They can be raised profusely, even in a city garden, and the blossoms are very beautiful. With pepper-grass and nasturtion flowers from your own garden, you can have a nice salad for a summer evening tea-table.
The three pickles above (cherries, button tomatos, and nasturtion seeds,) are cheap, easy, and palatable. Try them. To flavor them with spice, boil the vinegar with a bag of spice in it, and pour it on hot, leaving the bag among them in the jar.
