PICKLES
HINTS ON THEIR MANAGEMENT
Pickles should always have vinegar enough to cover them; those intended for immediate use should be kept in wide-top stone-ware jars. Keep a cloth folded upon the pickles, and the jar covered with a plate or wooden vessel; they should occasionally be looked over, and the softest and least likely to keep, used first. Pickles intended for use the following summer should be assorted from the remainder when first made; choose those most firm, and of equal size; put them into stone, or glass-ware, with fresh vinegar to cover them; cover the vessel close, with several thicknesses of paper, or a tin cover, or if wide-mouthed bottles are used, cork them tightly.
Cucumbers may be put down in a strong salt and water brine, to be greened and pickled as they are wanted. Keep them under the brine. When wanted, freshen them in two or three changes of water, for two or three days, until by cutting one open, you find it but little salt; then pour scalding vinegar over them three times, and keep them covered; add spices and seasoning to the vinegar, to suit the taste.
The vessels in which pickles have been, whether of glass, wood, or stone, will never be fit for preserved fruit; they will surely spoil if put in them. After pickles are used, throw out the vinegar, wash the vessels first in cold water, then pour hot water into them, cover and let it remain until cold, then wash, wipe, and dry them near the fire or in the sun, and set them away for future use. Wooden ware will require to be wet occasionally, or to be kept in a damp place, that it may not become leaky. Should catsups seem frothy or foamy, put them in a bright brass, or porcelain kettle, over the fire; boil slowly, and skim until no more scum rises, then turn into an earthen vessel to cool, after which put in bottles and stop them tight.
TO PICKLE CUCUMBERS PLAIN WITHOUT SPICES
Take one hundred small cucumbers, or more, if you wish, salt them freely, and let them remain eight or ten hours; then drain them, put them into boiling vinegar enough to cover them, and place vine leaves among and over them to green them; let them scald a few minutes in the vinegar, and take them from the fire, but place them near it to keep warm and become green; if the leaves turn yellow, put fresh ones among them. When green you can pack them away in jars; season them at any time you may desire, as they will keep well if scalded thoroughly with the boiling vinegar.
CUCUMBER PICKLES IN WHISKEY
Prepare your cucumbers as usual by letting them stay a few days in brine, or if time is an object scald them in brine, and then proceed to pickle them. The same brine may be used many times, pouring it boiling hot on each mess of cucumbers. If you have no vinegar convenient drop your scalded cucumbers into a mixture of one part whiskey and three parts water. Secure them carefully from the air, and by Christmas they will be fine, firm, green pickles, and the whiskey and water will be excellent vinegar. Add spices after they are pickled. If you do not wish all your pickles spiced, keep a stone-pot of well-spiced vinegar by itself, and put in a few at a time as you want them.