Home › Vinegar, Pickles, and Pickling › Vinegar, Pickles, and Pickling: Hence

Vinegar, Pickles, and Pickling: Hence

Many people have a prejudice against deep green pickles found on the market, on account of the fear that poisonous substances may have been used in the manufacture. Hence homemade pickles of a good color and flavor usually find a ready and profitable local market.

To Test Pickles for Copper.-To find out if pickles are poisonous from having been cooked in brass or copper kettles, chop a sample of the pickle fine, place it in a glass bottle with a few drams of liquid ammonia diluted with about half as much water.

Shake thoroughly, and if there are any traces of copper in the pickles the contents will be of a deep blue color.

Vinegar for Pickles. - White-wine or sugar vinegar is perhaps the most VINEGAR, PICKLES, AND PICKLING suitable for a fine grade of pickles.

But any good quality of vinegar that is fully ripened and has been previously clarified may be used. The vinegar should be boiled and freed from mother or sediment that would cause the pickles to ferment.

To Clarify Vinegar. - Throw an ounce or so of shredded isinglass into each gallon of vinegar and let stand a few days to clear. Strain through cheese cloth.

To Keep Vinegar Free from Mold. -Lay a small bag of thin muslin containing mustard on top of the pickles. If the vinegar has been properly boiled and clarified, it will tend to prevent the formation of mold.

To Strengthen Weak Vinegar.- Pour it off the pickles, bring it to a boil, pour it back over them and add about 1 teaspoonful of alum and spread over the top layer a piece of brown paper soaked in New Orleans molasses.

Or boil down the vinegar with very gentle heat so as to allow it to lose its surplus water by evaporation.

Or allow it to freeze, and remove the ice before it melts. Acetic acid does not readily freeze. Hence the quantity of acid in proportion to the bulk of water becomes greater.

Spiced Pickle. -The following recipes are recommended for pickling liquids for cucumbers and other vegetables, mixed pickles, etc., including mushrooms, onions, walnuts, cucumbers, cauliflowers, samphires, green gooseberries, barberries, radish pods, melons, French beans, tomatoes, lemons, peaches, garlic, peas, codlins, beet root, and red cabbage without brine and with cold vinegar. The smaller and more delicate vegetables should not be soaked in brine as long as the larger and the coarser sorts, and may in some cases be pickled cold by pouring over them strong pickling vinegar without scalding.

Spices for pickles should not be ground, and should be slightly bruised or crushed in a mortar, which may be improvised by using a wooden bowl and a potato masher as a pestle, or the end of a hard piece of wood.

When ground spices are used they should be tied up in bags of thin ( muslin. To make spiced pickle add to 1 gallon of vinegar 1 cup of salt, 1 cup of sugar, 1 handful of horseradish, 2 tablespoonfuls of mustard, 1 green pepper.