PEACH PICKLES
Take ripe, sound, cling-stone peaches; remove the down with a brush like a clothes brush; make a gallon of good vinegar hot; add to it four pounds of brown sugar; boil and skim it clear. Stick five or six cloves into each of the peaches, then pour the hot vinegar over them, cover the vessel and set it in a cold place for eight or ten days, then drain off the vinegar, make it hot, skim it, and again turn it over the peaches; let them become cold, then put them into glass jars and secure as directed for preserves. Free-stone peaches may be used.
PEACHES AND APRICOT PICKLE
Take peaches fully grown, but not mellow; cover them in strong salt and water for one week. Take them from the brine and wipe them carefully, rubbing each peach to see if it is firm. Put to a gallon of vinegar half an ounce each of cloves, pepper corns, sliced ginger root, white mustard seed, and a little salt. Scald the peaches with this boiling vinegar, repeat this three times; add half as much fresh vinegar, and cork them up in jars. Keep them dark and cool. Light will spoil pickles or preserves as much as heat does. Apricots may be pickled in the same way.
GREEN PEACHES PICKLED
Brush the down from green peaches (cling-stones); put them in salt and water, with grape leaves and a bit of saleratus; set them over a moderate fire to simmer slowly until they are a fine green, then take them out, wipe them dry, and smooth the skins; take enough vinegar to cover them, put to it whole pepper, allspice, and mustard seed, making it boiling hot, and turn it over the peaches. Repeat the scalding three successive days.
PEACH MANGOES
Steep some large free-stone peaches in brine for two days, then wipe each peach carefully, and cut a hole in it just sufficient to allow the seed to come out; then throw them into cold vinegar until you make the stuffing, which is to fill up the cavity occupied by the seed. Take fresh white mustard seed which has been wet with vinegar, and allowed to swell a few hours, scraped horseradish, powdered ginger, a few pods of red pepper, a few small onions, or, better still, a clove of garlic. Mix all with vinegar, and add half as much chopped peach. Stuff the peaches hard with this mixture, replace the piece cut out, and tie it up tight with pack-thread. Boil a quart of vinegar for each dozen peaches; season it with the same spices as the stuffing. Boil the spices in a small bag, and then put in the peaches and let them scald ten or fifteen minutes, just long enough to be thoroughly hot all through. Place the peaches in jars, and pour scalding vinegar well spiced over them—the vinegar must cover them; add at the top a tablespoonful of salad oil. Cover the jar tight by tying leather over it.
MELON MANGOES
Get the late, small, smooth, green melons, they should not be larger than a teacup; cut out a piece from the stem end large enough to allow you to take the seeds from the inside; scrape out all the soft part, and when done, cover with the piece cut out and lay them in rows in a stone or wooden vessel as you do them. Make a strong brine of salt and water, pour it over the melons and let them remain in it twenty-four hours. Prepare the following stuffing: sliced horseradish, very small cucumbers, nasturtiums, small white onions, mustard seed, whole pepper, cloves and allspice; scald the pickles and cull them. Rinse the melons in cold water, then wipe each one dry and fill it. Put a cucumber, one or two small onions, with sliced horseradish and mustard seed, into each melon; put on the piece belonging to it and sew it with a coarse needle and thread; lay them in a stone pot or wooden vessel, the cut side up; when all are in, strew over them cloves and pepper, make the vinegar (enough to cover them) boiling hot, and put it over them, then cover with a folded towel; let them stand one night, then drain off the vinegar, make it hot again and pour it on, covering as before. Repeat this scalding four or five times, until the mangoes are a fine green; three times is generally enough. Be sure the melons are green and freshly gathered. The proper sort are the last on the vines, green and firm. If you wish to keep them till the next summer, choose the most firm, put in a jar and cover with cold fresh vinegar; tie thick paper over them.