Choose small cucumbers, or gherkins, for this purpose. They are more tender, and look better on the table. Reject all over a finger in length, and every one that is misshapen or specked, however slightly. Pack in a stone jar or wooden bucket, in layers, strewing salt thickly between these. Cover the top layer out of sight with salt, and pour on cold water enough to cover all. Lay a small plate or round board upon them, with a clean stone to keep it down. You may leave them in the brine for a week or a month, stirring up from the bottom every other day. If the longer time, be sure your salt and water is strong enough to bear up an egg. If you raise your own cucumbers, pick them every day, and drop in the pickle. When you are ready to put them up, throw away the brine, with any cucumbers that may have softened under the process, and lay the rest in cold fresh water for twenty-four hours. Change the water then for fresh, and leave it for another day. Have a kettle ready, lined with green vine-leaves, and lay the pickles evenly within it, scattering powdered alum over the layers. A bit of alum as large as a pigeon-egg will be enough for a two-gallon kettleful. Fill with cold water, cover with vine-leaves, three deep; put a close lid or inverted pan over all, and steam over a slow fire five or six hours, not allowing the water to boil. When the pickles are a fine green, remove the leaves and throw the cucumbers into very cold water. Let them stand in it while you prepare the vinegar. To one gallon allow a cup of sugar, three dozen whole black peppers, the same of cloves, half as much allspice, one dozen blades of mace. Boil five minutes; put the cucumbers into a stone jar, and pour the vinegar over them scalding hot. Cover closely. Two days afterward scald the vinegar again and return to the pickles. Repeat this process three times more, at intervals of two, four, and six days. Cover with a stoneware or wooden top; tie stout cloth over this, and keep in a cool, dry place. They will be ready for eating in two months. Examine every few weeks.
Pickled Mangoes. ✠
- Young musk or nutmeg melons.
- English mustard-seed two handfuls, mixed with
- Scraped horseradish, one handful.
- Mace and nutmeg pounded, 1 teaspoonful.
- Chopped garlic, 2 teaspoonfuls.
- A little ginger.
- Whole pepper-corns, 1 dozen.
- ½ tablespoonful of ground mustard to a pint of the mixture.
- 1 teaspoonful sugar to the same quantity.
- 1 teaspoonful best salad oil to the same.
- 1 teaspoonful celery-seed.
Cut a slit in the side of the melon; insert your finger and extract all the seeds. If you cannot get them out in this way, cut a slender piece out, saving it to replace,—but the slit is better. Lay the mangoes in strong brine for three days. Drain off the brine, and freshen in pure water twenty-four hours. Green as you would cucumbers, and lay in cold water until cold and firm. Fill with the stuffing; sew up the slit, or tie up with pack thread; pack in a deep stone jar, and pour scalding vinegar over them. Repeat this process three times more at intervals of two days, then tie up and set away in a cool, dry place.
They will not be “ripe” under four months, but are very fine when they are. They will keep several years.
Pepper Mangoes. ✠
Are put up in the same way, using green peppers that are full grown, but not tinged with red.
They are very good, but your fingers will smart after thrusting them into the peppers to pull out the seeds. For this purpose I have used, first, a small penknife, to cut the core from its attachment to the stem-end of the pepper, then a smooth bit of stick, to pry open the slit in the side and work out the loose core or bunch of seed. By the exercise of a little ingenuity you may spare yourself all suffering from this cause. Should your fingers burn badly, anoint them with sweet-oil and wear gloves that night. Cream will also allay the smart.
Pickled Cabbage (Yellow.)
- 2 gallons vinegar.
- 1 pint white mustard seed. }
- 4 oz. ginger. }
- 3 oz. pepper-corns. }
- 1 oz. allspice. } pounded fine.
- 2 oz. cloves. }
- 1 oz. mace. }
- 1 oz. nutmeg. }
- 2 oz. turmeric. }
- 1 large handful of garlic, chopped.
- 1 handful scraped horseradish.
- 4 lbs. sugar.
- 2 oz. celery seed.
- 3 lemons, sliced thin.