Should any of the cucumbers be left at dinner, you may serve them up another way for supper; cut the cucumbers in two, lengthwise, or, if you like, in round slices; add yolks of eggs beaten, and dust them all well over with crumb of bread rubbed very fine; fry them very hot; make them of a good colour, and serve them in a dish, with fried parsley.
Cucumbers, to preserve.
Take some small cucumbers, and large ones that will cut in quarters, but let them be as green and as free from seeds as you can get them. Put them into a narrow-mouthed jar, in strong salt and water, with a cabbage-leaf to keep them from rising; tie a paper over them, and set them in a warm place till they are yellow. Then wash them out, and set them over the fire in fresh water, with a little salt and a fresh cabbage-leaf over them. Cover the pan very close, but be sure you do not let them boil. If they are not of a fine green, change the water, which will help them; then make them hot, and cover them as before. When you find them of a good green, take them off the fire, and let them stand till they are cold: then cut the large ones into quarters; take out the seeds and soft parts, put them into cold water, and let them stand two days; but change the water twice each day, to take out the salt; put a pound of refined sugar to a pint of water, and set it over the fire; when you have skimmed it clear, put in the rind of a lemon and an ounce of ginger, scraping off the outside. Take your syrup off as soon as it is pretty thick, and, when it is cold, wipe the cucumbers dry and put them into it. Boil the syrup once in two or three days for three weeks, and strengthen the syrup if required, for the greatest danger of spoiling them is at first. When you put the syrup to the cucumbers, wait till it is quite cold.
French Beans. No. 1.
Gather them when very slender; string and parboil them in very strong salt and water; then take them out, and dry them between two linen cloths. When they are well drained, put them into a large earthen vessel, and, having boiled up the same kind of pickle as for cucumbers, pour as much upon your beans as will cover them well. Strain the liquor from them three days successively; boil it up, and put your beans into the vinegar on the fire till they are warm through. After the third boiling, put them into jars for use, and tie them down.
French Beans. No. 2.
Take from the small slender beans their stalks, and let them remain fourteen days in salt and water; then wash and well cleanse them from the brine, and put them in a saucepan of water over a slow fire, covering them with vine-leaves. Do not let them boil, but only stew, until they are tender, as for eating; strain them off, lay them on a coarse cloth to dry, and put them into pots; boil and skim alegar, and pour it over, covering them close; keep boiling in this manner for three or four days, or until they become green; add spice, as you would to other pickles, and, when cold, cover with leather.
French Beans. No. 3.
Put in a large jar a layer of beans, the younger the better, and a layer of salt, alternately, and tie it down close. When wanted for use, boil them in a quantity of boiling water: change the water two or three times, always adding the fresh water boiling; then put them into cold water to soak out the salt, and cut them when you want them for dressing for table. They must not be soaked before they are boiled.