Cucumber Pickle

A spiced sweet vinegar pickle in the Anglo-Indian manner, written for a cook who already knew the preliminary steps. The chief difficulty is that two of them — the quantity of cucumbers and the method of "greening" — are left entirely to the reader.

• "Greening the cucumbers" — read this firstIn books of this period greening usually meant soaking in brine and then heating the cucumbers in a copper or brass kettle, sometimes with alum, to fix a bright green colour. The copper method works by forming copper acetate, which is poisonous, and should not be attempted; alum is legal but contributes nothing but a false crispness. Salt the cucumbers in brine for a day or two, rinse, and accept whatever colour they turn out to be.
• No quantity of cucumbers is givenThe recipe never says how many cucumbers it is for, and the spice and vinegar quantities do not settle it: only one gallon of the two gallons is boiled with the spices. The amounts point to a large crock batch rather than a jar or two, and if you are working with less you will need to scale the brine and spices down proportionally by eye.
• Teacup and cup"Teacup" was not a standardised measure; period equivalents run from about 1/2 cup up to 3/4 cup, and it is not certain the book meant anything different by "cup." On any reading, "1/2 teacup black pepper" and "1 teacup celery-seed" are enormous by present taste; halving each gives a pickle a modern palate recognises as heavily spiced rather than medicinal.
• A cup of garlicPresumably peeled cloves rather than minced paste — four or five heads, depending on size. The recipe does not say whether they go in whole or bruised, or whether they are meant to be strained out with the rest of the spices.
• The spices"Bruised ginger" is dried whole (race) ginger cracked with the flat of a knife, not fresh and not ground. Mace, cloves and turmeric were sold in pieces or as coarse powder; a half ounce of turmeric powder is about 1 1/2 tablespoons. "1 pod red pepper" is a single dried red pepper, most likely a cayenne type.
• Vinegar and vesselUse cider or distilled vinegar at 5 percent acidity; the strength of the "good vinegar" called for here is unknowable, and much of it would have been home-made cider vinegar of variable sharpness. Boil and store in stainless, glass or glazed stoneware only; the vinegar will attack aluminium, unlined copper and cast iron and pick up their taste.
• The two hot pouringsBoil the spices in one gallon of vinegar, presumably with the sugar, until the sugar dissolves, and pour it over the drained cucumbers boiling hot. "Do this twice" is not explained: it may mean reboiling the drained liquid a few days later, or boiling the second gallon of vinegar with the spices, which would account for the two gallons called for. Either way this is not a canned product: keep it in the refrigerator or a cold cellar, not on a shelf.
• TimingReady in a week as promised, but the ginger, mace and celery seed keep developing for a month or more. Cucumbers left in hot vinegar repeatedly will soften, so pour and leave them alone rather than simmering them.