Wash the beets carefully, taking care not to break the fibres, or they will bleed and lose their color. Boil them in plenty of boiling salted water for one and a half hours. Take them up, peel and cut them in slices an eighth of an inch thick, and put them into a stoneware jar. Boil one pint of the vinegar with the whole peppers, bay leaf, mace, cloves, ginger, and, when boiled for five minutes, add to it the other pint of cold vinegar. Strain over the beets in the jars; cover when cold.

PICKLED CHERRIES

Wipe the cherries, then stone and drain them. Tie the spices in a muslin bag and heat them with the vinegar.

When boiling, pour the vinegar over the cold cherries. Keep draining off and heating for four days.

Then heat all together in a casserole and seal.

PICKLED EGG-PLANT

Peel egg-plants into inch thick slices and soak them in salted water for three hours. Drain and place in water, add a little lemon juice, and leave for three hours. Drain and pour over the slices some hot spiced vinegar, allowing one cupful of sugar and one and a half tablespoonfuls of mixed spices to one quart of vinegar.