Tie a wooden spoon, full of holes, round each jar to take them out with.
If you wish to have gherkins, &c. very green, this may be easily accomplished by keeping them in vinegar, sufficiently hot, till they become so.
If you wish cauliflowers, onions, &c. to be white, use distilled vinegar for them.
To entirely prevent the mischief arising from the action of the acid upon the metallic utensils usually employed to prepare pickles, the whole of the process is directed to be performed in unglazed stone jars.
N.B. The maxim of “open your mouth, and shut your eyes,” cannot be better applied than to pickles; and the only direction we have to record for the improvement of their complexion, is the joke of Dr. Goldsmith, “If their colour does not please you, send ’em to Hammersmith, that’s the way to Turnham Green.”
Commencing the list with walnuts, I must take this opportunity of impressing the necessity of being strictly particular in watching the due season; for of all the variety of articles in this department to furnish the well-regulated store-room, nothing is so precarious, for frequently after the first week that walnuts come in season, they become hard and shelled, particularly if the season is a very hot one; therefore let the prudent housekeeper consider it indispensably necessary they should be purchased as soon as they first appear at market; should they cost a trifle more, that is nothing compared to the disappointment of finding, six months hence, when you go to your pickle-jar, expecting a fine relish for your chops, &c. to find the nuts incased in a shell, which defies both teeth and steel.
Nasturtiums are to be had by the middle of July.
Garlic, from Midsummer to Michaelmas.
Eschalots, ditto.
Onions, the various kinds for pickling, are to be had, by the middle of July, and for a month after.