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White Cabbage, to Pickle

Take a firm white cabbage; remove the outer leaves, and sprinkle salt upon it, and leave it for a couple of hours. Wash it in cold water, drain it, and cut it into very thin shreds. Make some brine sufficiently strong to float an egg, pour this when cold over the shredded vegetable, and leave it for a fortnight. Stir every day. Boil for five minutes as much vinegar as will entirely cover the cabbage, with spices in the proportion of a quarter of an ounce of old ginger, a quarter of an ounce of black pepper, a quarter of an ounce of long pepper, a quarter of an ounce of cloves, a quarter of an ounce of turmeric mixed smoothly with a little cold vinegar, a tea-spoonful of mustard-seed, and a piece of alum the size of a pea to each pint of vinegar. A clove of garlic may be added if liked. Skim the vinegar, and pour it hot over the cabbage. Let it remain three days. Drain off the vinegar, boil it, and again pour it whilst hot over the cabbage. Put the cabbage into bottles or unglazed jars, divide the spices equally amongst these, and cover the pickle entirely with the vinegar. Add more vinegar (which has been boiled and allowed to get cold) as required.