ILLINOIS COOK BOOK

Onion PicJtles.

In November take dried onions, small and round, peel them and throw them in salt water; let them re- main there a few days, drain them; put them in a jar and pour vinegar over them that has been boiled with cloves, allspice, cinnamon and mace in it. Some think a better way is to scald the onions, (not cook them,) and throw a little milk in the water, it keeps them white.

Cabbage Salad.

Rub together six tablespoonsful sweet cream and one tablespoonful mustard; butter can be used instead of cream. Set in a kettle of boiling water, and add two eggs, well-beaten. Then pour in, gradually, nine tablespoonsful of vinegar. Pour this over nicely cut cabbage while it is hot ; add salt, pepper and sugar, and more vinegar, if the mixture is not thin enough. This should be constantly stirred. It should be of the consistency of thick cream.

Tomato Catsup.

To every gallon of the pulp, after it has been cooked and strained, three even tablespoonsful of salt, two tablespoonsful black pepper, one tablespoonful ground cinnamon, two tablespoonsful mustard, one tablespoon- fnl allspice, one teaspoonful cloves, one teaspoonful ground ginger, two tablespoonsful sugar, one tea- spoonful cayenne pepper and one quart cider vinegar.

ILLINOIS COOK BOOK. 317

Boil all together until sufficiently thick. Bottle while hot, and keep in a cool place.

Ripe Cucumber Pickles.

Pare seven pounds cucumbers and cut in slices lengthwise. Soak two or three days in salt and water, after scraping out the inside ; then cook them in weak vinegar with a spoonful of alum until tender. Boil three pounds sugar, three pints vinegar and half a cupful spices of different kinds in a bag. Pour over the pickles while hot.

Peach Pickles.

Beat together cinnamon, cloves, allspice and race ginger; add a little turmeric. Wash firm freestone peaches and wipe them dry, cut in halves, remove the seed, then sprinkle a small quantity of the mixed spices in each half, and fill them with white mustard seed and a few celery seed 5 put them together and tie them; place them in a jar with slices of onions, cinna- mon, race ginger, allspice, cloves, celery seed and cayenne pepper. Stir into a half gallon of vinegar one pound of sugar, a half pint of salt, and enough turmeric to color the peaches. Pour over the peaches cold.

Pepper Mangoes.

Select white cabbage heads, chop them fine ; add salt, celery seed, white mustard seed, ground ginger,

318 ILLINOIS COOK BOOK.

turmeric, and mix the whole with a little pure olive oil. Seed and fill the peppers ; after washing and wip- ing them, sew the side of them with a white thread ; then place in a jar alternate layers of peppers, allspice, sliced onions, ginger and cloves. Stir into one gallon of vinegar half a pound of sugar, one pint of salt and half an ounce of turmeric. Pour over the peppers cold. In about six weeks pour off the vinegar and re- place it with salt, sugar and turmeric, as the first will probably have lost all the flavor.

Cabbage Pickle.

Quarter nice large cabbage heads ; place in a tray or tub alternate layers of cabbage and salt, let them re- main all night; next day cover them just as they stand with boiling water ; let them remain until cold enough to press the water out with a towel. Place in a jar alternate layers of cabbage, allspice, cloves, white mustard seed, ginger, celery seed, cayenne pep- per, (green and red,) and sliced onion. Add to the vinegar, sugar and salt, (if the cabbage should not be salt enough ;) have the turmeric in a bag and rub out in the vinegar; pour the vinegar over the cabbage.

Plum Catsup. .

( MRS. DR. RYAN. )

One gallon of plums, with a very little water; stand them on the top of the stove till they are cooked perfectly soft; then set the kettle off and let it cool

ILLINOIS COOK BOOK. 319

enough to be nibbed through the sieve, letting the juice and pulp both pass through the sieve ; when all is well rubbed through, put it again in the kettle and set it on the stove, adding two and a half pounds brown sugar to three quarts of the pulp ; let them boil together about an hour and a half, then add a pint of best cider vinegar, and spice to suit the taste — all- spice, cloves and cinnamon, about two tablespoonsful of each to that quantity. When done, bottle and cork tight, seal the corks over it, it is safer.

Damson Sweet fickle.

Four pounds damsons, one pint cider vinegar, one pound sugar, one ounce cloves, one ounce mace, two ounces cinnamon and two ounces allspice. Boil the vinegar with sugar and spices, and pour over the fruit while hot. This will have to be repeated several times.

Melon Sweet fickle.

Three pounds rind of melon, two pints best vinegar and ?>ne pound and a half sugar. Soak the rind one week in brine, then soak it in clear water till the salt is out; scald in alum water; then throw it in cold water several hours; boil the vinegar, sugar and spices, and scald the melon till it is clear. Use the same spices as for any other sweet pickle.

320 ILLINOIS COOK BOOK.

Chow-Chow.

One gallon unpeeled cucumbers, half a gallon cab- bage, half a dozen onions and half a dozon green pep- pers. Chop fine, salt separately ; let it stand to drain in a basket twenty-fours. Mix, scald in old vinegar; strain, and add sugar and spices as above, and cold vinegar.

Cucumber Catsup.

Slice and salt one gallon of cucumbers ; let them stand two or three hours, then press out all the water in a coarse linen. Add four tablespoon sful of best table oil, two tablespoonsful white mustard seed, one tablespoonful ground" mustard, one tablespoonful mace, two tablespoonsful black pepper, one-quarter of a teaspoonful of cayenne, one teaspoonful turmeric, one pint madeira wine, one cupful and a half loaf sugar. Mix this in a vessel and pour over the pickle cold.

Yellow Cabbage fickle.

One gallon vinegar, quarter of a pound mustard seed, half a teacup ginger, one tablespoonful pepper, a handful of horse radish, one ounce turmeric, garlic and onions to the taste. Keep the cabbage in brine three days, then wash it off in iresh water and drain. Boil all together three minutes.

PRESERVES .