THE ART AND MYSTERY OF CURING, PRESERVING, AND POTTING ALL KINDS OF MEATS, GAME, AND FISH TEXT

juveniles, and for the aged, eaten with cream or milk. RED CURRANTS. Take currants for this purpose just before they have attained a perfect red colour. Select the nicest bunches, which keep separate, and accept no single ones but what are clear and sound. Boil these with the fruit until the colour of the vinegar is changed by it, Loaf sugar, sifted 2 lb. Bay salt, beaten fine ½ lb. Bay leaves, shred 1 oz. Sal prunelle ¼ oz. White wine, or palest vinegar 2 quarts skim it well, and let it get cold. Strain it now nicely, and press the fruit in a sieve, to obtain as much of the colour as possible. Boil it up again, and skim till quite clear. Now place the bunches and detached fruit into glass jars or tumblers, and pour the liquor hot upon them, so as to cover totally; then tie paper and bladder closely over. CELERY. The white part only is used for this purpose. Wash very clean half a dozen fine heads, and wipe them dry. Cut them into pieces to your taste, and make the following pickle: Bay salt 1 lb. Best ginger, sliced 2 oz. Mace ½ oz. Capsicums, red and green 1 oz. Best vinegar 2 quarts Put all these into a deep saucepan, and soon as they come to the boiling point, strew in the celery; let it boil again, not more than two minutes, then take it up, pour it through a sieve. When cold, place the celery in jars, and pour the liquor upon it, and make all safe with bladder, &c. &c. This will be found extremely useful in all families that live well. It will keep good a great length of time, and when the celery is all used, the pickle will be highly acceptable in dressing salads, &c. A few small onions may be added where they are not disliked, and omitted at pleasure. GRAPES. The foreign grapes, if got in the beginning of the importations to this country, for then they are less likely to be decayed or specked, answer extremely well for pickling, and are, of course, much cheaper than those grown at home. The white ones are generally chosen; but it appears to me that a mixture of the purple ones with them makes an agreeable change, as far as the appearance is concerned. Take ten pounds of the largest and soundest you can, and divide into little branches, which place in a deep straight-sided stone jar, embedded in vine leaves, and completely cover them with this mixture: Bay salt 1 lb. Sal prunelle 2 oz. Common salt 1 lb. Coarse sugar 6 oz. Water 6 quarts Tie leather over the jar, and set it in a saucepanful of water on the fire, and when it has boiled three quarters of an hour, pour off the liquor, which set aside to be well skimmed, and poured clean off the dregs. Return the liquor on to the fruit, cover up close, and let remain so for twenty-four hours; then take them up, and dry them well between cloths, not allowing the air to act upon them by keeping them covered up. Next make this pickle: Soft or river water 2 quarts White-wine vinegar 4 quarts Coarse sugar 2½ lb. Bay leaves, shred 3 oz. Laurel leaves, shred 2 oz. Boil these ten minutes, skim until quite clear, and let it get cold. Replace the fruit in the jar, and fill up with the pickle; you having laid plenty of vine leaves under, and also on the top of the fruit. After two days more see if the jar will hold any more of the pickle, which, if needful, must be added. Make all secure with bung and resin, and keep them in a cool airy apartment. You will please not to open them for six months, and will then be much delighted with so elegant and rich a product. CODLINS. These must be taken when about the size of hen-eggs, and none but perfectly sound ones accepted. Wrap them up singly in vine leaves recently plucked, and place them lightly in a saucepan, with plenty of leaves under, amongst, and above them, and thoroughly cover them with water. Boil them slowly until the peels begin to start, and separate, then carefully take them up, and drain them on a sieve. When cold, pare them carefully, and, replacing them in the pan, cover so well that none of the steam can escape, and continue the simmering until they are of a nice green colour. Now take them up, and let them drain, and get cold. Put them into little jars, and cover the fruit with white-wine vinegar, put a round of pasteboard on the top, and pour in melted mutton suet. Tie bladder over and leather above that, and keep them cool and dry for three or four months. They will be a good pickle at a little expense. BARBERRIES. These are more useful as garnishes than otherwise, and a great many are annually pickled for that purpose. Take half a sieve of fine, high-coloured fruit, pick out all the nice bunches that are sound, and keep them apart by themselves; the best of the single ones must also be had, but put in separate jars. Wash both in salt and water, and set them to drain. Now take two and a half pounds of bay salt to each gallon of water, and fill up the jars with the mixture, to running over; skim them daily for four or five days, and then pour the liquor away, and fill the jars again with a similar mixture of salt and water, adding half a pint of the strongest pickling vinegar. Let it merely steam over the fire, until it has become crisp and finely green, then take it off quickly, and let it cool, drain off the liquor, and put the fruit along with a light scattering of the following mixture into a jar, and cover it well with the liquor: Mace, beaten roughly ½ oz. Nutmeg, sliced 1 oz. Bay leaves, shred 1 oz. Saltpetre ½ oz. Close the jar with a bung and secure that with resin. In a month it will be ready for table. ASPARAGUS. Take two hundred of fresh cut asparagus, fully grown, take off the root ends so high up as to leave the remaining parts tender, and wash the green tops in cold water, slightly tasted with salt, then remove them into fresh water, and let them remain in it for about two hours. Put them next into a shallow pan with as much cold spring water as will just cover them, and putting it on the fire, watch them closely, so that the moment the water comes to the boiling point you will remove it from the fire, and taking out the asparagus heads very carefully, lest they break, lay them on a sieve to get cold, being covered over with cloths. Place them now in jars and pour upon them a pickle made of White pepper ½ oz. Nutmeg 1½ oz. Mace ½ oz. Bay salt 1½ oz. White-wine vinegar 4 quarts boiled ten minutes or more, and well skimmed, to be used hot. Tie leather over the jars, and let them remain for five or six days, when you will boil the pickle again, and pour over hot. When cold make up the jars securely with bungs and leather. GHERKINS. From out of three hundred gherkins of the markets you may probably pick two hundred that will suit your purpose, and they should be all nearly of the same size; put them into a pickle made of two pounds and a half of common table salt to one gallon of soft or river water, and let them remain in it for three hours if they run small, or four hours if large. Let them lie on a sieve to drain, and wipe them carefully quite dry, and place them in stone jars――glazed ware is objectionable on many accounts for pickles. Next make a pickle of Cloves 1 oz. Mace ½ oz. Allspice 1 oz. Two nutmegs, sliced White mustard seed 1 oz. A stick of horseradish Bay salt 8 oz. White-wine vinegar 4 quarts by boiling them fifteen minutes and skimming clear; when cold pour it over the gherkins, cover up closely, and let them remain so for twenty-four hours. Then put the whole contents into a saucepan, and let them simmer until they have acquired a bright green colour, then place them not too closely in jars, and pour the liquor with the spices over them. They must be totally covered with pickle, or more must be made for that purpose if you intend them to keep well and a long time. Cover your jars with wetted bladder, and soft leather over that. PICCALILLI. Take two perfectly fresh closely grown white cabbages, in preference to one large one, they must be quite sound at the hearts; cut them crosswise in slices, and then take a thorough grown white beetroot cut also the same way; divide a nice cauliflower into many small sprigs; some clear green radish pods, and twenty of the smallest gherkins. Place these apart from each other and strew three or four handfuls of common table salt over them. Expose these to the action of the sun if possible, or of a slow fire four days, or until you see that all the moisture has been drawn from them. Then put all into a large stoneware jar, and scatter over and amongst them two handfuls of sound bright mustard seed as you are packing them down. Now boil together Garlic, minced 3 oz. Eschalots, minced 1 oz. Bay salt 1 oz. Turmeric 2 oz. Best pickling vinegar 1 gallon Skim it well, and while boiling hot pour it upon the vegetables, and let them stand closely covered with leather, near the fire, until they have become of a nice yellow colour and saturated with the acid. Then make the following pickle: Mace, bruised 1 oz. Cloves, bruised 1 oz. Jamaica pepper, bruised ½ oz. Nutmeg, sliced ½ oz. White pepper 2 oz. Best vinegar 1 quart Let these boil fifteen to twenty minutes, skimming well, and when cold add it to the pickles. Make the jar safe with bladder and tie leather over that. This pickle requires three months at least to become superior, and that the different flavours may be assimilated. LEMON MANGOES. Take a couple of dozen of large thick-skinned lemons, cut off a piece from the blossom end of each, leaving a bare surface the size of a shilling, scoop out the whole of the insides, wash them in cold water, entirely freeing them of loose pulp, and immerse them in a brine of a pound of bay salt to the gallon of water. Rouse them about occasionally, change the brine on the third day, and let them remain so pickled three days longer. Now drain and wipe them dry, and fill them with this mixture: Horseradish, scraped fine 1 oz. Mustard seed, bruised 2 oz. Ginger, sliced thin 1 oz. Eschalots, minced 1 oz. Chillies, minced 1 oz. Stitch the pieces which you cut off on to their respective correspondents, neatly place the fruit closely together in a stone jar, and pour upon them, boiling hot, the following pickle: Best pickling vinegar 2 quarts The juice from the lemons Table salt 2 tablespoonfuls White peppercorns, bruised 1 oz. Ginger, bruised 1 oz. Mace, bruised 1 oz. The lemon juice must have been strained, and the vinegar put upon the pulp for half an hour, and then also passed through a fine sieve. The mangoes must be well covered by the pickle, and as some will be absorbed, it is desirable to let them remain just temporarily covered with paper for three days and then fill up with the pickle. These will be very fine in four or five months, but for present consumption they could not be recommended. Put bladder safely over the jars and cover with leather. LEMON PICKLE. Rub off with a fine tin grater the yellow rind of twenty fine large fresh lemons, recently unpacked from the chest, without disturbing the white part that lies underneath; next take the white part off with a sharp knife, and divide the fruit into two parts in the middle, and then again divide these pieces into slices, which will be each about an inch and three quarters thick. Rub these thoroughly with bay salt in fine powder, and set them on a dish to dry in a cool oven until the juice is completely taken up; put them then in a jar and pour upon them a pickle of the following ingredients, viz. Mace, in fine powder 1¾ oz. Cloves, in fine powder 1 oz. Nutmeg, in fine powder 2 oz. Garlic, minced 1 oz. Mustard seed, crushed 1 pint enclosed in a piece of muslin rag and boiled ten minutes with four quarts of white-wine vinegar. Make up the jar close with a bung, if it will admit of it, and put it on a hob by a fireside for ten days, agitating the contents three or four times daily. Now see that the fruit is perfectly covered with pickle, and secure the vessel with bladder and leather, and set it by for six months, by which time the bitter taste will be dissipated. It must next be bottled for store, effected thus: Turn the pickle and fruit into a hair sieve and press the liquor out into a large jug or jar, and on the next day pour the clear off from the lees through a muslin strainer into bottles, which should be corked well and the air excluded by sealing wax. You will still have remaining some sediment, upon which you may put half a pint of boiling rough cider or light vinegar, for an inferior lemon pickle, to be kept apart from your best. Better than the first product is rarely made, and it is an estimable pickle, generally admitted. MANGOES. An excellent imitation may be made by any dextrous person who wishes to excel in this branch. The cucumbers for this pickling must be gathered as soon as they have attained full growth, and the larger the better, but they must not be ripe or of a light yellow colour. Cut out a piece from the side of each and put them aside, take out nicely the seeds, and put both the cucumbers and the pieces which were taken from them into a pickle of two pounds of salt to a gallon of water, with half an ounce of saltpetre and one ounce of sal prunelle, so let them lie ten or twelve days, and until they come to a yellow colour; then put them in a pan with alternate layers of vine leaves, and dissolve half an ounce of alum in the brine they were pickled in, pour it upon them in the pan, which set upon a fire not too brisk, and let the cucumbers be subjected to a scalding process for about four hours, being attentive all the time that the pickle does not reach the boiling point. They should now be of a nice green colour. Set them on a sieve to drain, and then insert into each cucumber One stick of fresh horseradish Mustard seed ½ oz. Four cloves of garlic Peppercorns ½ oz. Replace the pieces of the fruit you cut out, and attach them by a needle and green silk. Make then the following pickle, by boiling for ten minutes: White-wine vinegar 6½ qts. Black peppercorns 3 oz. Mustard seed 6 oz. Garlic 2 oz. Shalots 1 oz. Mace 1½ oz. Cloves 2 oz. Long pepper 3 oz. Lay the mangoes in a deep straight-sided jar, and pour the pickle when cold upon them, covering completely, and an inch above at least, then make secure with bladder and leather. These will require three or four months at least before fit for use. GREEN WALNUTS. Get a hundred of fine large walnuts while the shells are yet tender, wrap them up in vine leaves separately, put them into jars along with plenty more vine leaves, and so that they cannot suffer by contact with each other, and cover plentifully with the best light-coloured vinegar; make secure from the air, and let them remain so for three weeks. Now pour off the vinegar, wrap up again the fruit in fresh vine leaves, and fill the jars with vinegar as before, this must be continued two weeks longer, when you may take off the leaves, put the fruit into jars, and make the following pickle for them: Pale vinegar, with enough salt in it to float an egg 3 quarts Garlic, minced 1½ oz. Cloves, bruised 2 oz. Mace, bruised 1 oz. Allspice, bruised 1½ oz. Nutmeg, bruised 2 oz. Let these simmer fifteen minutes, and pour the whole, boiling hot, over the walnuts; tie bladder and leather over the jars, and keep four months before breaking in upon them. WALNUTS PICKLED WHITE. Bespeak a hundred of the largest walnuts just when they will suit your purpose, that is, to admit of their being peeled down to the very white interior, the kernels; have ready a brine of one pound of salt to the gallon, and pop your walnuts into it, overhead, as you get them peeled, and when all done, keep them well covered in the brine four hours. Next put a pan of pure water over the fire, and just as it is coming to boil, lay in the fruit, which must not be boiled at all, only simmered, for about ten or twelve minutes. Then transfer them to a pan of cold water, with a trifling amount of salt in it; after being in this ten minutes, take them out, and remove them into a pickle of two and a half pounds of salt to the gallon, in this let them be kept half an hour, totally immersed in the pickle to protect the colour. Next take them out, and lay them between cloths to dry; each nut then must be wiped separately, and put into clean white earthenware jars, with this mixture―― Mace, bruised 1½ oz. Cloves, bruised 2 oz. White pepper, bruised 2 oz. Bay leaves, shred 1½ oz. Laurel leaves, shred 1 oz. ――scattered pretty plentifully throughout them. Fill up your jars with best white-wine vinegar, and secure them from the air with bladder and leather. PEACHES AND NECTARINES. The fruit should be gathered just as it is beginning to ripen, and needs to be perfectly sound, as any bruised or decaying ones would most likely spoil the whole, and, what is worse, the loss is not discoverable till a long time after. Let them lie covered over with a pickle of bay salt and water, one and a half pounds to the gallon, for three or four days, according to size; take them out and, wiping them separately, lay them in jars, and pour over them, when cold, this pickle: