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Vinegar (1 dozen large white onions I)
1 peck green tomatoes 1 dozen large white onions 1 cup mixed whole spices 6 red pepper pods Cut the tomatoes in slices one fourth an inch in thickness; discard the small slice at stem and blossom ends. Cut the onions (peeled) in similar slices. Pack the vegetables in a jar in layers with salt between. Let them stand over night. Drain off the brine. Repack the vegetables, then cover with vinegar scalded with the peppers and spices. These will keep in an earthen jar, but may be stored in cans. The onions may be omitted.
This is a raw-packed, unprocessed vinegar pickle of the sort that filled autumn crocks a century ago, and it cannot be reproduced safely from the text as printed. The notes below explain what is missing and why it matters rather than how to salvage it.
- The recipe is incompleteThe heading has been cut off mid-line: the tomatoes, which are the main ingredient, carry no quantity at all, and neither does the vinegar or the salt. There is no way to know the vegetable-to-brine ratio the author intended.
- Unknown vinegar strengthSafe pickling depends on vinegar of at least 5 percent acetic acid, used in a measured proportion to the vegetables. Household vinegar of this period varied widely in strength, and the recipe specifies neither the type nor the amount, so the finished acidity is unknowable.
- Tomatoes and onions are low-acidSliced tomatoes and onions are both borderline or low in acid and release a great deal of water as they sit, diluting whatever vinegar is poured over them. An overnight salting and drain does not reliably compensate.
- No heat processing"May be stored in cans" means filled jars sealed and set aside with no boiling-water bath. A sealed, unprocessed, low-acid pack held at room temperature is the classic setting for Clostridium botulinum, which may give no smell, taste or other warning.
- The open crockAn "earthen jar" left in a cool cellar relies on surface skimming and constant vigilance against mould and yeast growth, conditions few modern kitchens can supply and which current preservation guidance does not support for an unmeasured pack of this kind.
- If you want this pickleUse a current tested recipe for tomato pickle from a food-preservation authority, which will give weights, vinegar strength and processing times.
Sliced tomato pickle, salted down in layers with onion and whole spice, turned a load of fruit into a winter relish. Whole mixed spice " \\ " " — usually mustard seed, allspice, coriander, cloves and broken cinnamon — suited this kind of work, since whole spices scald into vinegar without clouding it the way ground spice does. The instruction that the pickle "will keep in an earthen jar, but may be stored in cans" reflects a kitchen in which both vessels were still in use; the book offers both. Home canning guidance had not yet been standardised on laboratory testing, and recipes of this period routinely trusted vinegar and salt alone to do work we now know they cannot always do.