OBSERVATIONS ON PICKLES

We are not fond of pickles: these sponges of vinegar are often very indigestible, especially in the crisp state in which they are most admired. The Indian fashion of pounding pickles is an excellent one: we recommend those who have any regard for their stomach, yet still wish to indulge their tongue, instead of eating pickles, which are really merely vehicles for taking a certain portion of vinegar and spice, &c. to use the flavoured vinegars; such as burnet (No. 399), horseradish (No. 399*), tarragon (No. 396), mint (No. 397), cress (Nos. 397*, 401, 403, 405*, 453, 457), &c.; by combinations of these, a relish may easily be composed, exactly in harmony with the palate of the eater.

The pickle made to preserve cucumbers, &c. is generally so strongly impregnated with garlic, mustard, and spice, &c. that the original flavour of the vegetables is quite overpowered; and if the eater shuts his eyes, his lingual nerves will be puzzled to inform him whether he is munching an onion or a cucumber, &c., and nothing can be more absurd, than to pickle plums, peaches, apricots, currants, grapes, &c.

The strongest vinegar must be used for pickling: it must not be boiled or the strength of the vinegar and spices will be evaporated. By parboiling the pickles in brine, they will be ready in much less time than they are when done in the usual manner, of soaking them in cold salt and water for six or eight days. When taken out of the hot brine, let them get cold and quite dry before you put them into the pickle.

To assist the preservation of pickles, a portion of salt is added; and for the same purpose, and to give flavour, long pepper, black pepper, allspice, ginger, cloves, mace, garlic, eschalots, mustard, horseradish, and capsicum.

The following is the best method of preparing the pickle, as cheap as any, and requires less care than any other way.

Bruise in a mortar four ounces of the above spices; put them into a stone jar with a quart of the strongest vinegar, stop the jar closely with a bung, cover that with a bladder soaked with pickle, set it on a trivet by the side of the fire for three days, well shaking it up at least three times in the day; the pickle should be at least three inches above the pickles. The jar being well closed, and the infusion being made with a mild heat, there is no loss by evaporation.

To enable the articles pickled more easily and speedily to imbibe the flavour of the pickle they are immersed in, previously to pouring it on them, run a larding-pin through them in several places.

The spices, &c. commonly used, are those mentioned in the receipt for pickling walnuts; which is also an excellent savoury sauce for cold meats.

The flavour may be varied _ad infinitum_ by adding celery, cress-seed, or curry powder (No. 455), or by taking for the liquor any of the flavoured vinegars, &c. we have enumerated above, and see the receipts between Nos. 395 and 421.

Pickles should be kept in a dry place, in unglazed earthenware, or glass jars, which are preferable, as you can, without opening them, observe whether they want filling up: they must be very carefully stopped with well-fitted bungs, and tied over as closely as possible with a bladder wetted with the pickle; and if to be preserved a long time, after that is dry, it must be dipped in bottle-cement; see page 127.

When the pickles are all used, boil up the liquor with a little fresh spice.

To walnut liquor may be added a few anchovies and eschalots: let it stand till it is quite clear, and bottle it: thus you may furnish your table with an excellent savoury keeping sauce for hashes, made dishes, fish, &c. at very small cost; see No. 439.

Jars should not be more than three parts filled with the articles pickled, which should be covered with pickle at least two inches above their surface; the liquor wastes, and all of the articles pickled, that are not covered, are soon spoiled.

When they have been done about a week, open the jars, and fill them up with pickle.

Tie a wooden spoon, full of holes, round each jar to take them out with.

If you wish to have gherkins, &c. very green, this may be easily accomplished by keeping them in vinegar, sufficiently hot, till they become so.

If you wish cauliflowers, onions, &c. to be white, use distilled vinegar for them.

To entirely prevent the mischief arising from the action of the acid upon the metallic utensils usually employed to prepare pickles, the whole of the process is directed to be performed in unglazed stone jars.

N.B. The maxim of "open your mouth, and shut your eyes," cannot be better applied than to pickles; and the only direction we have to record for the improvement of their complexion, is the joke of Dr. Goldsmith, "If their colour does not please you, send 'em to Hammersmith, that's the way to Turnham Green."

Commencing the list with walnuts, I must take this opportunity of impressing the necessity of being strictly particular in watching the due season; for of all the variety of articles in this department to furnish the well-regulated store-room, nothing is so precarious, for frequently after the first week that walnuts come in season, they become hard and shelled, particularly if the season is a very hot one; therefore let the prudent housekeeper consider it indispensably necessary they should be purchased as soon as they first appear at market; should they cost a trifle more, that is nothing compared to the disappointment of finding, six months hence, when you go to your pickle-jar, expecting a fine relish for your chops, &c. to find the nuts incased in a shell, which defies both teeth and steel.

Nasturtiums are to be had by the middle of July.

Garlic, from Midsummer to Michaelmas.

Eschalots, ditto.

Onions, the various kinds for pickling, are to be had, by the middle of July, and for a month after.

Gherkins are to be had by the middle of July, and for a month after.

Cucumbers are to be had by the middle of July, and for a month after.

Melons and mangoes are to be had by the middle of July, and for a month after.

Capsicums, green, red, and yellow, the end of July, and following month.

Chilies, the end of July, and following month. See Nos. 404 and 405*, and No. 406.

Love apples, or tomatas, end of July, and throughout August. See No. 443.

Cauliflower, for pickling, July and August.

Artichokes, for pickling, July and August.

Jerusalem artichokes, for pickling, July and August, and for three months after.

Radish pods, for pickling, July.

French beans, for pickling, July.

Mushrooms, for pickling and catchup, September. See No. 439.

Red cabbage, August.

White cabbage, September and October.

Samphire, August.

Horseradish, November and December.

_Walnuts._--(No. 116.)

Make a brine of salt and water, in the proportion of a quarter of a pound of salt to a quart of water; put the walnuts into this to soak for a week; or if you wish to soften them so that they may be soon ready for eating, run a larding-pin through them in half a dozen places--this will allow the pickle to penetrate, and they will be much softer, and of better flavour, and ready much sooner than if not perforated: put them into a stew-pan with such brine, and give them a gentle simmer; put them on a sieve to drain; then lay them on a fish plate, and let them stand in the air till they turn black--this may take a couple of days; put them into glass, or unglazed stone jars; fill these about three parts with the walnuts, and fill them up with the following pickle.

To each quart of the strongest vinegar put two ounces of black pepper, one of ginger, same of eschalots, same of salt, half an ounce of allspice, and half a drachm of Cayenne. Put these into a stone jar; cover it with a bladder, wetted with pickle, tie over that some leather, and set the jar on a trivet by the side of the fire for three days, shaking it up three times a day, and then pour it while hot to the walnuts, and cover them down with bladder wetted with the pickle, leather, &c.

_Gherkins._--(No. 117.)

Get those of about four inches long, and an inch in diameter, the crude half-grown little gherkins usually pickled are good for nothing. Put them into (unglazed) stone pans; cover them with a brine of salt and water, made with a quarter of a pound of salt to a quart of water; cover them down; set them on the earth before the fire for two or three days till they begin to turn yellow; then put away the water, and cover them with hot vinegar; set them again before the fire; keep them hot till they become green (this will take eight or ten days); then pour off the vinegar, having ready to cover them a pickle of fresh vinegar, &c., the same as directed in the preceding receipt for walnuts (leaving out the eschalots); cover them with a bung, bladder, and leather. Read the observations on pickles, p. 487.

_Obs._--The vinegar the gherkins were greened in will make excellent salad sauce, or for cold meats. It is, in fact, superlative cucumber vinegar.

_French Beans--Nasturtiums, &c._--(No. 118.)

When young, and most other small green vegetables, may be pickled the same way as gherkins.

_Beet Roots._--(No. 119.)

Boil gently till they are full three parts done (this will take from an hour and a half to two and a half); then take them out, and when a little cooled, peel them, and cut them in slices about half an inch thick. Have ready a pickle for it, made by adding to each a quart of vinegar an ounce of ground black pepper, half an ounce of ginger pounded, same of salt, and of horseradish cut in thin slices; and you may warm it, if you like, with a few capsicums, or a little Cayenne; put these ingredients into a jar; stop it close, and let them steep three days on a trivet by the side of the fire; then, when cold, pour the clear liquor on the beet-root, which have previously arranged in a jar.

_Red Cabbage._--(No. 120.)

Get a fine purple cabbage, take off the outside leaves, quarter it, take out the stalk, shred the leaves into a colander, sprinkle them with salt, let them remain till the morrow, drain them dry, put them into a jar, and cover them with the pickle for beet roots.

_Onions._--(No. 121.)

The small round silver button onions, about as big as a nutmeg, make a very nice pickle. Take off their top coats, have ready a stew-pan, three parts filled with boiling water, into which put as many onions as will cover the top: as soon as they look clear, immediately take them up with a spoon full of holes, and lay them on a cloth three times folded, and cover them with another till you have ready as many as you wish: when they are quite dry, put them into jars, and cover them with hot pickle, made by infusing an ounce of horseradish, same of allspice, and same of black pepper, and same of salt, in a quart of best white-wine vinegar, in a stone jar, on a trivet by the side of the fire for three days, keeping it well closed; when cold, bung them down tight, and cover them with bladder wetted with the pickle and leather.

_Cauliflowers or Broccoli._--(No. 122.)

Choose those that are hard, yet sufficiently ripe, cut away the leaves and stalks.

Set on a stew-pan half full of water, salted in proportion of a quarter of a pound of salt to a quart of water; throw in the cauliflower, and let it heat gradually; when it boils take it up with a spoon full of holes, and spread them on a cloth to dry before the fire, for twenty-four hours at least; when quite dry, put them, piece by piece, into jars or glass tie-overs, and cover them with the pickle we have directed for beet roots, or make a pickle by infusing three ounces of the curry powder (No. 455) for three days in a quart of vinegar by the side of the fire.

Nasturtiums are excellent prepared as above.

_Indian or mixed Pickles--Mango or Piccalilli._--(No. 123.)

The flavouring ingredients of Indian pickles are a compound of curry powder, with a large proportion of mustard and garlic.

The following will be found something like the real mango pickle, especially if the garlic be used plentifully. To each gallon of the strongest vinegar put four ounces of curry powder (No. 455), same of flour of mustard (some rub these together, with half a pint of salad oil), three of ginger bruised, and two of turmeric, half a pound (when skinned) of eschalots slightly baked in a Dutch oven, two ounces of garlic prepared in like manner, a quarter of a pound of salt, and two drachms of Cayenne pepper.

Put these ingredients into a stone jar; cover it with a bladder wetted with the pickle, and set it on a trivet by the side of the fire during three days, shaking it up three times a day; it will then be ready to receive gherkins, sliced cucumbers, sliced onions, button onions, cauliflowers, celery, broccoli, French beans, nasturtiums, capsicums, and small green melons. The latter must be slit in the middle sufficiently to admit a marrow-spoon, with which take out all the seeds; then parboil the melons in a brine that will bear an egg; dry them, and fill them with mustard-seed, and two cloves of garlic, and bind the melon round with packthread.

Large cucumbers may be prepared in like manner.

Green peaches make the best imitation of the Indian mango.

The other articles are to be separately parboiled (excepting the capsicums) in a brine of salt and water strong enough to bear an egg; taken out and drained, and spread out, and thoroughly dried in the sun, on a stove, or before a fire, for a couple of days, and then put into the pickle.

Any thing may be put into this pickle, except red cabbage and walnuts.

It will keep several years.

_Obs._--To the Indian mango pickle is added a considerable quantity of mustard-seed oil, which would also be an excellent warm ingredient in our salad sauces.