The antiseptic power of vinegar is employed with advantage in domestic economy for preserving from decay a variety of fruits, roots, leaves, and other parts of vegetables, which by a species of refinement and luxury, are often considered as condiments to improve the relish of several kinds of food. Their qualities, no doubt, depends almost entirely on the vinegar, spice, or salt imbibed by them.

The art of preparing vinegar pickles consists in impregnating the vegetable substances with the strongest vinegar, to which are usually added a portion of common salt, and the most heating spices. To effect this object, the substance to be pickled is usually suffered to macerate, or slightly boiled with the acid, and afterwards kept infused in it, together with spices and salt.

It is customary to impregnate the article to be pickled first in a strong brine of common salt; but this is not absolutely necessary for the preservation of the pickled substance. To facilitate the action of the vinegar or salt, the articles to be pickled, especially such as walnuts, cucumbers, &c. should be punctured with a large needle or fork. To assist their preservation, and to improve their flavour, a variety of pungent and aromatic spices are added, which vary according to the fancy of the cook; pepper, pimento, cloves, mace, ginger, capsicum, and mustard, are the spices usually employed.

For the preparation of acid pickles, the vinegar prepared from wood, as in itself containing no substance liable to a spontaneous decay, is preferable to common malt vinegar, although the contrary has been asserted, because it is free from mucilage, which promotes the spoiling of common vinegar, and therefore the former is a better antiseptic than vinegar abounding in mucilage. We prepare our home-made pickles with this acid, and we are authorised to state that, although kept for years, they are inferior to none met with in commerce.

All pickles should be preserved in unglazed earthenware jars, carefully corked, and tied over with a bladder to exclude air. The vinegar used for preparing them should always be heated in an unglazed earthenware pan, it should never be suffered to boil, but poured over the substance to be pickled, just when it begins to simmer. The spices may be simmered with the vinegar.

PICKLED RED CABBAGE.

Put sliced red cabbage into a stone jar, and strew amongst it common salt; then heat vinegar nearly to a boiling point, and pour it over the cabbage, in a sufficient quantity to cover the sliced leaves. It is customary to add long pepper, allspice, and ginger, to the vinegar, which impart to the pickle a pungent taste. A small quantity of powdered cochineal is also frequently added, with an intent to give to the cabbage a beautiful red colour; the cochineal should be strewed amongst the sliced leaves previous to the infusion of the vinegar; two drachms are sufficient to one pound of cabbage. Red beet root is employed for a similar purpose, but the former pigment, which is perfectly harmless, is preferable. When the pickle is cold, it should be tied over with a bladder skin to exclude the air.

PICKLED ONIONS.

For this pickle the small white round onions, of the size of a child’s playing marble, are usually chosen. Having peeled off the exterior brown coat of the onions, simmer them in water, till their outer layers have acquired a semi-transparency, (not longer), then strain off the water, and suffer the onions to dry; put them into an unglazed earthen jar and pour over them so much colourless vinegar, previously heated nearly to the boiling point, as will cover them. The seasoning spices usually added are white pepper, ginger root, white mustard seed, mace, and salt.

PICKLED WALNUTS.

Take unripe walnuts; run a large needle through each in several places; suffer them to macerate for ten or twelve days, in a strong brine of common salt. When this has been done, decant the brine, transfer the walnuts into a stone jar, and pour vinegar, previously heated nearly to the boiling point, over them, in a sufficient quantity to cover them.

They may be seasoned with long pepper, capsicum, ginger, mustard seed, mace, and pimento. These substances should be simmered with the vinegar for a few minutes.

The walnuts will not be fit for use till when about six months old.

PICKLED CUCUMBERS.

Perforate fresh gathered cucumbers, with a needle, or fork, put them into a stone jar, and pour over them boiling hot vinegar. Season with salt, pimento, long pepper, and ginger. These substances should be simmered with the vinegar for a few minutes.

To this pickle is sometimes intentionally given a lively green colour, by copper, and numerous fatal consequences are known to have ensued from the use of such a practice.[36]

If pickled cucumber, or any other kind of vegetable pickle, be wanted of a lively green colour, it may readily be effected by soaking them when ready prepared, for a few minutes, first in tincture of turmeric, and then in a diluted solution of the colouring matter of indigo, dissolved in water.[37] This method of straining the pickle is perfectly harmless.

Samphire, French beans, tomatoes, capsicum pods, nasturtium and raddish pods, may be pickled in the same manner.

PICKLED RED BEET-ROOT.

Boil the root till sufficiently done; peel it and cut it into thin slices. Put it into a stone jar, and pour over it white vinegar, seasoned with long pepper, horse-raddish, cut into small slices, allspice, cloves, and salt.

PICKLED MUSHROOMS.

Having peeled small button mushrooms, put them in a strong brine of salt for three or four days; strain off the brine, and pour over them boiling hot vinegar: season with long pepper, ginger, and mace.

PICKLED ARTICHOKE.

Take large fresh gathered artichokes, boil and simmer them till they are nearly tender, remove the leaves and choke, and put the bottom part of the artichoke in a salt brine for about forty-eight hours; then strain off the brine, put the artichoke into a jar, and cover it with vinegar, previously heated to the boiling point, and seasoned with pepper, salt, eschalots, and mace.

SOUR KRAUT.

M. Parmentier has given a minute description of a process of making sour kraut on the large scale. The heads of white winter cabbages, after removing the outer leaves, are to be cut into fine shreds, by means of a knife, or with a plane, and spread out to dry upon a cloth in the shade. A cask is to be set on end, with the head taken out. If it formerly contained vinegar or wine, so much the better, as it will promote the fermentation, and give the cabbage a more vinous taste; if not, the inside may be rubbed over with sour kraut liquor. Caraway seeds are to be mixed with the shreds of cabbage, a good layer of salt is placed at the bottom of the cask, and then cabbage shreds evenly packed, to the depth of four or six inches. The layers are regularly stamped down with a wooden stamper, to half their original bulk. The same process is to be repeated, with additional layers of salt, and shreds, till the whole be packed. They are then to be covered with a layer of salt, or till the barrel be filled within two inches of the top, over which the outside leaves of the cabbages are to be spread. About two pounds of salt are required for twenty middling sized cabbages.

The head of the barrel, which should have been previously well fastened together, is lastly to be put within the barrel above the leaves, and loaded with stones, to prevent the mixture from rising during the fermentation. The mass thus compressed subsides, and the cabbage gives out its juice, which rises to the surface, it is green, muddy, and fÆtid. It is to be drawn off by a spigot placed two or three inches from the bottom, and re-placed by fresh brine.

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The following notice may serve to remind the reader of the time when the various articles for preparing pickles are in season.

• Nasturtium pods fit for pickling, are in season in the middle of July.
• Onions, by the middle and end of July.
• Cucumbers, the latter part of July and August.
• Capsicum pods, the end of July and beginning of August.
• Tomatas, or Love Apples, the end of July and August.
• Cauliflower, in July and August.
• Artichokes, in July and August.
• Radish pods, in July.
• French Beans, in July.
• Mushrooms, in September.
• Red Cabbage, in August.
• Samphire, in August.

MUSHROOM CATSUP.

The name of catsup is given to several kinds of liquid pickles, made of savoury vegetable substances, such as mushrooms, walnuts, &c. The following method of preparing mushroom catsup is copied from the Cook’s Oracle:—

Take full grown mushrooms; put a layer of them at the bottom of a deep earthen pan, and sprinkle them with salt, then another layer of mushrooms, put some more salt on them, and so on, alternately, salt and mushrooms; let them remain two or three hours, by which time the salt will have penetrated the mushrooms, and rendered them easy to break; mash them well and let them remain for a couple of days, stirring them up, and mashing them well each day; then pour them into a stone jar, and to each quart add half an ounce of whole black pepper; stop the jar very close, set it in a stew-pan of boiling water, and keep it simmering for two hours at least. Take out the jar, and pour off the juice clear from the sediment through a hair sieve into a stewpan (without squeezing the mushrooms); let it boil up, skim it, and pour it into a dry jar; let it stand till next day, then pour it off as gently as possible, through a tammis, or flannel bag, (so as not to disturb the sediment at the bottom of the jar.) Bottle it in pints or half pints; for it is best to keep it in such quantities as are soon used: in each pint, put a dozen berries of black pepper, the same of allspice, and a table-spoonful of brandy.

TOMATA CATSUP.

Mash a gallon of ripe tomatas; add to it one pound of salt, press out the juice, and to each quart add a quarter of a pound of anchovies, two ounces of eshallots, and an ounce of ground black pepper; simmer the mixture for a quarter of an hour; then strain it through a sieve, and put to it a quarter of an ounce of pounded mace, the same quantity of allspice, ginger, and nutmeg, and half a drachm of cochineal; let the whole simmer for twenty minutes, and strain it through a bag: when cold, bottle it:

Or, put tomatas into an earthen pan, and bake them very slowly in an oven. Rub the pulp through a hair sieve, to separate the seeds and skins. To every pound, by weight, of the pulp, add a pint and a quarter of vinegar, with a drachm of mace, ginger, cloves, allspice, and one ounce each of white pepper, and minced eshallot. Simmer them for half an hour, and strain off the liquid.

WALNUT CATSUP.

Take 28 lbs. of unripe walnuts when quite tender, reduce them to a pulp in a marble mortar; add to the mass two gallons of vinegar; let it stand three or four days; to each gallon of liquor, put a quarter of a pound of minced eshallots, half an ounce of bruised cloves, the same of mace and black pepper, one tea-spoonful of Cayenne pepper, and a quarter of a pound of salt: give it a boil up, and strain it through a flannel.

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