227. Select ripe cling-stone peaches. To one gallon of good vinegar add four pounds of brown sugar; boil this for a few minutes, and take off any scum which may rise. Rub the peaches with a flannel cloth, to remove the down, and stick a clove in each; put them in glass or stone jars, and pour the liquor upon them boiling hot. When cold, cover the jars and let them stand in a cool place for a week or ten days, then pour off the liquor and boil it as before, after which return it, boiling, to the peaches, which should be carefully covered and stored away for future use.
If your peaches are very hard, boil them in water till tender, before you pickle them, and they will be fit for use almost immediately.
PICKLED BEANS.
228. String-beans, or French beans, are the kind used for pickling. Take off the strings but do not break the beans; put them in strong salt and water for three or four days; cover them with a board and weight so as to keep them under the water. Then take them out, wash them, and put them in a preserving kettle with hot water enough to cover them, and put leaves or a cloth over them to keep in the steam. When they are green take them out, drain them and put them in jars; pour hot vinegar over them, with any kind of spice you may like best, and a small piece of alum in each jar.
Radish pods are pickled in the same way.
PICKLED MANGOES.
229. Cut your mangoes in half, take out all the seeds, tie them together with coarse thread, and lay them in strong salt and water for three or four days. Then wash and drain them, put them into a kettle with vine or cabbage leaves over the top, or they may be covered with a clean coarse cloth; pour in hot water enough to cover them, and let them stand near the fire to keep hot. When they are green take them out, untie them, turn the cut side down and drain them. Cut some horse-radish in fine slips, and mix with it some mace, cloves, pepper, allspice and mustard seed; fill your mangoes with this, and if you like it add a clove of garlic to each one, place the two sides together and tie them again. Put them in jars and cover them with vinegar. Cut off the threads before they are sent to the table.
PICKLED CUCUMBERS.
230. Select the small sized cucumbers for pickling. They should be free from bruises and of a fine green color, for if they are old and yellow when picked from the vines they will never be green when they are pickled. Wash your cucumbers in cold water to remove all the sand and grit, put them in your pickling tub, make a brine of salt and water strong enough to float an egg. Pour enough of this brine over the cucumbers to cover them; spread over the top a coarse cloth and over this put the lid of the tub, which should be just large enough to fit inside and slip down so as to press on the cucumbers, put a weight on the lid to keep it in its place. Let them stand in the salt and water till they are perfectly yellow, which will be in about nine days. When they are quite yellow take them out, wash them in cold water and examine each one separately; if you should find any soft or bruised reject them, as they would be likely to spoil the others. Put them into a preserving kettle, cover them with hot water and vine or cabbage leaves, or if you have no leaves a clean coarse towel will answer as well. Put a plate over the top and stand them where they will keep hot, but not simmer, as that would ruin them. When they are perfectly green take them out of the water, drain them, and put in your jars first a layer of cucumbers, then a tea spoonful of whole allspice, half a dozen cloves, some strips of horse-radish, and half a tea spoonful of mustard seed, then more cucumbers, and so on till the jar is full. Pour in as much good vinegar as will cover them, with a tea spoonful of pulverized alum to each jar. In a day or two examine them, and fill up the jars with vinegar if the pickles have absorbed it so as to leave the top ones uncovered.
If you do not wish to pickle all your cucumbers at once, (and they are much better when they are freshly pickled,) take them out of the salt and water, wash and drain them. Put the brine over the fire, boil and skim it; let it stand to get cold; wash the pickle tub, wipe it dry, put the cucumbers into it; examine each one that no specked ones may be put in the tub, pour the cold brine over them, wash the cloth and lid of the tub and replace them as before. Cucumbers will keep in this way all winter. They may be pickled a few at a time whenever they are wanted. They must be soaked twenty-four hours in cold water before they are pickled; if they are so long in salt and water they imbibe too much salt to green them without soaking.