The American Pictorial Home Book
or Housekeeper's Encyclopedia - online book

A reference manual of household management in Victorian times.

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192                                          PICKLES.
Green Cucumber Pickles.—Make a brine by putting 2 pints of rock salt into 2 gallons of boiling water and pour it over the cucum­bers ; cover tight to keep in the steam, and let them remain all night and part of a day; make a second brine as above, and let them re­main the same length of time ; then scald and skim the brine, as it will answer for the third time, and let them remain in it, as above; then rinse and wipe them dry, and add boiling hot vinegar; throw in a lump of alum as large as a nutmeg to every two gallons^ of pickles, and you will have a fine, hard and green pickle. Add spices if you like and keep the pickles under the vinegar. A weight on the top of the cover, which keeps the pickles under, has a tendency to collect the scum, which may rise.
Sweet Tomato Pickles.—Take 5 onions, 5 green peppers or chilis, sprinkle them over with a teacup of salt and let them stand during a night, then drain the water from them, adding to them one cup or more of sugar (if desired), 1 cup of grated horseradish, 1 1-2 tablespoonfuls of cinnamon, i spoonful of cloves, 3-4 of allspice, 1 tablespoonful of white ginger; more than cover with strong cider vinegar and cook until tender, with 2 gallons of sliced green toma­toes. Put in bottles.
Sweet Green Tomato Pickles —Peel and slice 2 gallons of green tomatoes, 3 gallons of whole mustard seed, 5 tablespoonfuls black pepper, 2 of ground cinnamon, 1 spoonful whole cloves, 1 of brown sugar and 3 gills of good vinegar. Boil until quite tender.
Pickled Cabbage.—Chop up, as for slaw, sprinkle with salt and let stand for a day and night; drain on a cloth to absorb the moisture. Put it into a jar with alternate layers of white mustard between and fill with cold vinegar.
Favorite Pickles.—One quart raw cabbage chopped fine, 1 of boiled beets chopped fine, 2 cups sugar, tablespoonful salt, 1 tea-spoonful black pepper, 1-4 teaspoonful red pepper and teacup of grated horseradish; cover with cold vinegar—cover very closely, to exclude the air entirely.
Cauliflower Pickles.—Take firm cauliflowers before they are quite ripe and cut away the bark of the stems and all the green leaves. Scald them for four minutes in a pan of boiling salt brine, and then drain and dry thoroughly, which will require at least 24 hours ; when dry pull them into perfectly-sized branches, cutting the stalks smoothly and pack them in jars with some pickle liquor, as directed for yel­low pickled cabbage, or color them with red beets in the liquor.