SOUR AND SWEET

When making pickles use good, sharp vinegar, or the pickles will be insipid. Ket-p them from the air and see that they are well covered with the vineg r. Boil in a porcelain kettle; never in brass or metal. Parboil the jjickles rtrst, then let them get perfectly cold, and pour on the scalding hot vinegar. A small lump of alum dissolved and added to the vinegar when scalding the first time makes them crisp and green. To make them sharp and crisp they should be parboiled in one vinegar, and then a second vinegar poured over them when ready to put in the crock. Keep in a dry, cool place, either in stone or glass. If put away in stone jars, put a plate or saucer over them so as to keep the pickles under vinegar. If white specks appear on the vinegar, drain off and scald, adding a handful of sugar to each gallon of vinegar.

Most people prefer their pickles highly spiced ; cloves and cinnamon put in bags are good for this, also bits of horseradish and red or green peppers. The horseradish helps to preserve the life of the vinegar, but if it will after this persist in losing its strength, pour off the old and

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replace by new, poured over the pickles scalding hot. Ginger is the most healthy of all spices, cloves are the strongest, after these allspice and cinnamon. Proportion these or the pickles will be black in color and too hot for the palate. Mustard seed is also an improvement. Never put up pickles in anything that has held grease, or do not let them freeze ; if they do they will be entirely spoiled.

Sweet pickles may be made of any fruit that can be preserved, includ- ing the rind of ripe cucumbers or melons. The proportions of sugar to vinegar is three pints to a quart. Make into a syrup and pour over the ripe fruit. With some fruits it is necessary that they may be scalded or steamed ; with others it is not. Very ripe peaches or plums do not need steaming, but pears, apples, cucumber and melon rinds are better steamed and the hot vinegar syrup afterward poured over them. With these it is also necessary the spices should be put in bags or the fruit will be much discolored. Crabapples make particularly good pickles, though many seem to think only of making them into jelly or preserves.

In making pickles use none but the best cider vinegar. The vinegar should always be two inches or more above the vegetables, as it is sure to shrink, and if the vegetables are not thoroughly immersed in pickle they will not keep. They should be examined every month or two and soft pieces removed. If there is much tendency to soften, it is advisable to strain ofT the vinegar, add to each gallon a cup of sugar, boil it and return it to the pickle jar while hot. The occasional addition of a little sugar keeps pickles good and improves them. Spices in pickles should be used whole, slightly bruised, but preferably not ground ; if ground they should be tied up in thin muslin bags. Most pickles, if well kept, improve with age by the vinegar losing its raw taste and the flavor of the spices improving and blending.

To strengthen weak vinegar, if in pickles, turn it off, heat it scalding hot, put it on the pickles and when lukewarm put in a small piece o/ alum the size of a filbert and a brown paper four inches square wet with molasses. If it does not grow sharp in two weeks it is past recov- ery and must be thrown away. If in winter, freeze it and remove the ice on the surface, for the water alone freezes, leaving the vinegar.

To keep up a constant supply of vinegar : Before the barrel is quite out, fill the barrel with one gallon of molasses to every eleven gallons of soft water. This mixture will become good vinegar in about three weeks. If the barrels stand on end, there must be a hole made in the top, protected with gauze to keep out insects. If standing on the side, the bung-hole must be left open and similarly protected.

A simple method of pickling is to merely put the articles into cold vinegar. This cold vinegar should be used for those that do not require the addition of spice, and such as do not require to be softened by heat, such as capsicums, chillies, nasturtiums, button

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onions, radish pods, horseradish, garlic and eschalots. Half fill the jars with best vinegar, fill them up with the vegetables, and tie down immediately with bladder. These are much better if pickled quite fresh and all of a size. The onions should be dropped in the vinegar as fast as peeled ; this* secures their color. The horseradish should be scraped a little outside and cut up in rounds half an inch deep. Bar- berries for garnish ; gather fine full bunches before they are quite ripe, pick away all bits of stalk and leaf and injuried berries and drop them in cold vinegar; they may be kept in salt and water, changing the brine whenever it begins to ferment, but the vinegar is best.

To put up cucumbers in brine : Leave at least an inch of stem to cucumbers and wash well in cold water. Make a brine of salt and water strong enough to bear an &^% ; put the cucumbers in this as they are gathered each day from the vines. Cut a board so as to fit inside of the barrel ; bore holes here and there through it, and put this board on the cucumbers with a weight sufficient to keep it down. Each day take off the scum which arises. When wanted for use take out what is necessary and soak them two or three days, or until the salt is out of them, and then pour boiling spiced vinegar over them. A red pepper or two is an improvement if one likes hot pickles.

To harden them after they are taken out of the brine, take a lump of alum and a horseradish cut in strips ; put this in the vinegar and it will make them hard and crisp. When you wish to make a few cucumber pickles quick, take good cider vinegar ; heat it boiling hot and pour it over them. When cool, they are ready for use.