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Pears, Pickled

Put three quarts of good vinegar into a tin saucepan with a dessert-spoonful of salt, twelve onions, and two dozen large baking pears which have been well rubbed with a soft cloth, but not pared. Simmer gently until the pears are tender without being broken, then take them out, and when they are cold pare and core them, and divide each one into six or eight pieces. When the onions also are soft take them out, and rub them through a fine hair sieve. Put into the vinegar a dessert-spoonful of pepper-corns, a small tea-spoonful of cloves, a small tea-spoonful of allspice, six blades of mace, two ounces of whole ginger, three dessert-spoonfuls of turmeric, two cloves of garlic; if liked, a dessert-spoonful of mustard-seed and a dessert-spoonful of coriander-seed may also be added. Let these ingredients boil for ten minutes, then stir in the mashed onion, and boil ten minutes longer. Put the pears into jars, and pour the seasoned vinegar over them. Divide the spices equally amongst the jars, and place them at the top of the pears. Tie the jars down with bladder, and store in a cool dry place. Time, about one hour and a half to stew the pears. Probable cost, 2s. 6d. Sufficient for a gallon of pickle.