Pickled Martinas

A three-gallon crock pickle from a household that put up produce by the bushel. The chief obstacles today are the vegetable itself and the fact that the quantities assume a scale almost nobody cooks at.

• What a martina is"Martina" is a variant of martynia, the young green seed pod of Proboscidea louisianica, also sold as unicorn plant or devil's claw. Only the immature pods, still soft enough to be pierced with a thumbnail, are usable; once the pod hardens and the hooked claw forms, it is fibrous and inedible. Seed is still available from heirloom suppliers, but you will not find the pods in a shop.
• ScaleThree gallons of pods is a very large quantity, though the weight depends entirely on how loosely they pack, and the spice list is proportioned to it. Divide everything by four to six for a quantity that fits an ordinary crock or a large stockpot.
• "Very strong brine" is not specifiedThe original gives no salt weight. Period household books often called for brine strong enough to float an egg, which is roughly a ten per cent solution, but the strength intended here is genuinely unknown. Treat the ten-day salting as the step that most needs a measured modern brine formula rather than guesswork.
• The two soaks do different jobsTen days in brine draws water out of the pods and firms them; the following ten days in plain vinegar presumably replaces that water with acid before the pods meet the sugar and spice. Shortening the vinegar stage is likely to give a limper, more dilute pickle, as the pods will go on releasing water into the finished liquor.
• "In three pints of vinegar, scald"The line is a heading for the list that follows: the spices, onion, pepper and sugar are scalded together in three pints of vinegar to make the pickling liquor. Bring it just to a boil and hold it briefly; a long boil drives off the volatile oils in the allspice and cloves.
• Vinegar strengthUse cider or distilled vinegar labelled 5 percent acidity. Older recipes often relied on homemade vinegar of uncertain strength, and the safety of the whole method rests on the vinegar being acid enough.
• "All beaten"Beaten means pounded in a mortar; the recipe does not say how fine. Powdered spice clouds the liquor and settles as grit, so cracked spice, ideally tied in muslin, is easier to manage and can be lifted out.
• The jar"The jar intended for them" would have been a crock or earthenware jar rather than a sealed canning jar. Nothing here is heat-processed, so the finished pickle keeps as a refrigerated crock pickle, fully submerged in vinegar; do not treat it as shelf-stable preserving.
• Yield and useAt full scale this makes several gallons. Pickles of this kind were served as a relish with cold meat and roasts, a few pods to a plate.