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Pickling (This branch of domestic)

This branch of domestic economy comprises a great variety of articles, which are essentially necessary to the convenience of families. It is at the same time too prevalent a practice to make use of brass utensils to give pickle a fine color. This pernicious custom is easily avoided by heating the liquor and keeping it in a proper degree of warmth before it is poured upon the pickle. Stone jars are the best adapted for sound keeping. Pickles should never be handled with the fingers, but by a spoon kept for the purpose.

To Pickle-Onions.

Put a sufficient quantity into salt and water for nine days, observing to change the water every day; next put them into jars and pour fresh boiling salt and water over them; cover them close up till they are cold; then make a second decoction of salt and water, and pour it on boiling. When it is cold drain the onions on a hair sieve, and put them into wide-mouthed bottles; fill them up with distilled vinegar; put into every bottle a slice or two of ginger, a blade of mace and a teaspoonful of sweet oil, which will keep the onions white. Cork them up in a dry place.

To make Sour Krout.

Take a large, strong, wooden vessel or cask resembling a salt-beef cask, and capable of containing as much as is sufficient for the winter's consumption of a family. Gradually break down or chop the cabbages (deprived of outside green leaves) into very small pieces; begin with one or two cabbages at the bottom of the cask, and add others at intervals, pressing them by means of a wooden spade against the side of the cask until it is full. Then place a heavy weight upon the top of it, and allow it to stand near to a warm place for four or five days. By this time it will have undergone fermentation, and be ready for use.

Whilst the cabbages are passing through the process of fermentation, a very disagreeable, fetid, acid smell is exhaled from them; now remove the cask to a cool situation, and keep it always covered up. Strew aniseeds among the layers of the cabbages during its preparation, which communicates a peculiar flavor to the saur kraut at an after period.

In boiling it for the table, two hours is the period for it to be on the fire. It forms an excellent nutritious and antiscorbutic food for winter use.

Piccalilli-Indian method.

This consists of all kinds of pickles mixed and put into one large jar-sliced cucumbers, button onions, cauliflowers, broken in pieces. Salt them, or put them in a large hair sieve in the sun to dry for three days, then scald them in vinegar a few minutes; when cold put them together. Cut a large white cabbage in quarters, with the outside leaves taken off and cat fine; salt it, and put it in the sun to dry three or four days; then scald it in vinegar, the same as cauliflower; carrots, three parts, boiled in vinegar and a little bay salt.

French beans, reddish pods, and nasturtiums all go through the same process as capsicums, etc.

To 1 gallon of vinegar put 4 ounces of ginger bruised, 2 ounces of whole white pepper, 2 ounces of allspice, ounce chillies bruised, 4 ounces of turmeric, 1 pound of the best mustard, pound of shallots, 1 ounce of garlic, and pound of bay salt. The vinegar, spice, and other ingredients, except the mustard, must boil half an hour; then strain it into a pan, put the mustard into a large basin, with a little vinegar; mix it quite fine and free from lumps, then add more. When well mixed put it into the vinegar just strained off, and when quite cold put the pickles into a large pan, and the liquor over them; stir them repeatedly, so as to mix them all. Finally, put them into a jar, and tie them over first with a bladder, and afterwards with leather. The capsicums want no preparation.

To Pickle Samphire.

Put the quantity wanted into a clean pan, throw over it two or three handsful of salt, and cover it with spring-water twenty-four hours; next put it into a clean saucepan, throw in a handful of salt, and cover it with good vinegar.

Close the pan tight, set it over a slow fire, and let it stand till the samphire is green and crisp, then take it off instantly, for should it remain till it is soft it will be totally spoiled. Put it into the pickling-pot and cover it close; when it is quite cold tie it down with a bladder and leather, and set it by for use. Samphire may be preserved all the year by keeping it in a very strong brine of salt and water; and just before using it put it for a few minutes into some of the best vinegar.

Mushrooms.

Put the smallest that can be got into springwater, and rub them with a piece of new flannel dipped in salt. Throw them into cold water as they are cleaned, which will make them keep their color; next put them into a saucepan with a handful of salt upon them. Cover them close, and set them over the fire four or five minutes, or till the heat draws the liquor from them; next lay them betwixt two dry cloths till they are cold; put them into glass bottles, and fill them up with distilled vinegar, with a blade of mace and a teaspoonful of sweet oil into every bottle; cork them up close and set them in a dry cool place. As a substitute for distilled vinegar, use white wine vinegar, or ale. Alegar will do, but it must be boiled with a little mace, salt, and a few slices of ginger, and it must be quite cold before it is poured upon the mushrooms.

Another Method.