PICKLES.
Pickles should never be kept in potter's ware, as arsenic and other poisonous substances are used in the glazing; and this is sometimes decomposed by vinegar. Whole families have been poisoned in this way; and where fatal effects do not follow, a deleterious influence may be operating upon the health, from this cause, when it is not suspected. Pickles should be made with cider vinegar.
Cucumbers.
Wash and drain them in a sieve, but take care not to break the little prickles upon them, as the effect will be to make them soft. Lay them in a jar, pour boiling vinegar upon them and cover them close. The next time you gather any, take those from the jar, and put them into that in which they are to be kept, in fresh vinegar having a very little salt in it, and a small bag of spices. Take the vinegar from the first jar, boil it again, pour it upon the fresh cucumbers, and transfer them like the first to the larger jar, the next time you have a new quantity to boil. When you have gathered all you wish for, put a brass or bell-metal kettle[14] over the fire, with the vinegar in it which you have so often boiled, and add a little more to it,—no matter if it is not sharp. Lay in your pickles and scald them a few minutes. Take them out with a large skimmer, draining them, and lay them back into the jar of spiced vinegar. Look at them occasionally; they may need a little more vinegar. Keep them covered close.
Mangoes.
Select small musk-melons (the common kind are much better for this purpose than cantelopes); cut an oval piece out of one side. You must have a sharp knife, and be careful to make a smooth incision. Take out the seeds with a teaspoon. Fill the melons with a stuffing made of cloves, mustard-seed, pepper-corns, scrapings of horseradish, and chopped onion if you like it. Sew on the piece with a needle and coarse thread, or bind a strip of old cotton around each one and sew it. Lay them in a jar, and pour boiling vinegar on them with a little salt in it. Do it two or three times, then lay them in fresh vinegar and cover them close.
Peaches.
Select peaches that are ripe, yet not quite soft enough to eat; push a clove into each one at the end opposite the stem. Put two pounds of brown sugar to a gallon of vinegar, and boil it up; skim off the top, boil it up once more, and pour it, hot, upon the peaches. Cover them close.
It may be necessary to scald the vinegar again in a week or two; after that, they will keep any length of time. They retain much of the flavor of a fresh peach.