Nasturtiums.
Gather the seeds while green, let them lie a few days, then throw them into vinegar. They need no spice except a little salt, being themselves sufficiently spicy. Boil the vinegar and pour on them. They are considered by many persons better than capers, and are much like them. They should be kept six months, covered close, before they are used.
Eggs.
Boil them twelve minutes, and throw them immediately into cold water, which will cause the shell to come off easily. Boil some red beets till very soft, peel and mash them fine, and put them into cold vinegar enough to cover the eggs; add salt, pepper, cloves, and nutmeg. Put the eggs into a jar and pour the mixture over them.
Peppers.
Take fresh, hard peppers, soak them in salt and water nine days, changing the brine each day. Let them stand in a warm place. Then put them into cold vinegar. If you wish them very hot, leave in the seeds. If not, take out the seeds of the greatest part of them. If peppers are put into the same jar with cucumbers, the entire strength of them will go into the cucumbers, and they themselves will become nearly tasteless. Half a dozen peppers will improve a jar of cucumbers.
Butternuts.
Gather them between the twenty-fifth and thirtieth of June. Make a brine of boiled salt and water, strong enough to bear up an egg after it is cold. Skim it while it boils. Pour it on the nuts, and let them lie in it twelve days. Then drain them; lay them in a jar, and pour over them the best of cider vinegar, boiled with pepper-corns, cloves, allspice, mustard, ginger, mace, and horseradish. This should be cooled before it is poured on. Cover close, and keep them a year before using them. Walnuts are done in the same way. The vinegar becomes an excellent catsup, by many persons preferred to any other.
Martinias.
Gather them when they are rather small, and so tender that you can run the head of a pin into them. Wipe off the down and put them into a cold, weak brine. Keep them in brine nine days, changing it every other day. Make a pickle of vinegar, allspice, cloves, mace, nutmegs, and cinnamon. Take the martinias out of the brine, wipe them, and lay them into a stone jar; pour the mixture of vinegar and spice, boiling hot, over them; cover them close, and let them stand one month, and they will be fit for use. There can be no finer pickle than this, and the plant is so prolific, that half a dozen seeds will produce enough to fill a large jar.