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Spiced Vinegar
Put three pounds sugar in a three gallon jar with a small mouth; mix two ounces each of mace, cloves, pepper, allspice, turmeric, two ounces each of mace, cloves, pepper, allspice, turmeric, celery seed, white ginger in small bits, and ground mustard; put in six small bags made of thin but strong muslin, lay in jar, fill with best cider vinegar, and use it in making pickles and sauces.
A spice-and-sugar infusion meant to sit in the pantry as a working ingredient, drawn on whenever a jar of sweet pickles or a sauce was wanted. Scaling it down is the first thing most cooks will want to do.
- The duplicated lineThe phrase "two ounces each of mace, cloves, pepper, allspice, turmeric" is set twice in the original, a compositor's error rather than a doubled quantity. Use two ounces of each spice once.
- ScaleThree gallons is 48 cups of vinegar to 3 lb sugar and roughly 1 lb of whole and ground spice. A tenth batch -- about 5 cups vinegar, 5 oz sugar, and about two teaspoons of each spice in one small bag -- behaves the same; use a jar that holds at least six cups.
- The small mouthA narrow-necked jar limits the surface exposed to air, which matters when a vessel is opened repeatedly over months. A jar with a tight lid does the same job; keep it filled as you draw off vinegar.
- Spice bags are the hingeGround mustard and turmeric will cloud the vinegar badly if loose. Double the muslin or use a fine cheesecloth bag tied firmly, and expect the turmeric to tint everything yellow regardless.
- White gingerThis is peeled dried ginger root, sold whole or in cracked pieces at spice merchants. Cracked dried ginger is the closest substitute; ground ginger will muddy the liquid.
- MaceThe outer covering of nutmeg, still sold as blades or ground. Blades are preferable here since they infuse cleanly and can be lifted out with the bag.
- Vinegar strengthThe acidity of period cider vinegar varied, much of it being home-made. Use a cider vinegar labelled 5 percent acidity; anything weaker is not reliable for pickling.
- Time and useGive it two to three weeks in a cool dark place, shaking occasionally, then taste. The sugar makes it a sweet pickling liquor, not a table vinegar — it goes into sweet pickles, chutneys and brown sauces, and will read as cloying in a salad dressing.
Spiced vinegar of this kind was a household staple rather than a dish: made once in quantity, then drawn on through the pickling season as fruit and vegetables came in. The combination here -- mace, cloves, allspice, ginger, turmeric, mustard -- is close to what other nineteenth-century American sweet pickle recipes call for, and the turmeric and dried ginger were imported goods. The three-gallon scale suggests a household putting up a good deal of its own produce.