Harper's cook book encyclopædia

Muskmelon Pickles. — Pare the rind off ripe, spicy green melons, remove the seeds, and cut into thick slices. Weigh as for peaches, 7 lbs. of fruit and 3% lbs. of sugar, and put the sugar over with enough water to readily dissolve it. Boil and skim it till clear, and then pour it over the melon in a crock. Repeat this for three mornings, but on the third add a cupful of vinegar to each three pints of syrup and boil it up with a cupful of spices in a bag. Pour it over the melon in jars and seal at once. Nasturtium Pickles. — Pick nasturtium seed-pods, leaving short stems on them. Lay them in a weak brine for two days, and then in fresh water one day. Put in jars and turn over them boiling vinegar which has been heated with a slice of onion, a few bay-leaves, and a small cupful of spices tied in a bag. Seal and put away for a month before using. These may be chopped and put between bread-and-butter for nice pickle sandwiches in winter. Oysters, Pickled. — Take of oysters six quarts ; salt, four table-spoonfuls ; vinegar, half a pint ; of black pepper, whole, allspice, and mace, each two table-spoonfuls ; of cloves, two dozen. Drain all the liquor from the oysters, add the spices to it, boil fifteen minutes, skimming carefully, then put in the oysters and boil till they are done, which will be when they are nicely plumped. Peaches, Brandy. — One peck of peaches, 5 lbs. of sugar, one quart of brandy. Put the peaches into boiling water, let them remain three or four minutes, then take them out and throw into cold water. Wipe the peaches with a coarse towel, rub them smooth, then put them into another vessel of cold water. Make a syrup of the sugar according to recipe given for preserved peaches ; put the peaches into it, and boil until a straw can be run through. Take them out, add the brandy to the syrup, and boil for half an hour. Remove from the fire, put the peaches into glass jars, and pour the syrup hot over them. They will be ready for use in three months. Peach Mangoes. — Pour boiling salt water over four dozen peaches ; let them stand two days; drain, split them on one side, and soak in turmeric vinegar for twenty-four hours. Extract the seed. Prepare a filling of one dozen chopped peaches, I oz. each of celery-seed, white mustard - seed, turmeric, and black pepper, oz. of cinnamon, and one finely chopped onion. Stuff the peaches, put in a jar, sprinkle with brown sugar, cover with vinegar, and let stand six weeks before using. Peach Mangoes, Sweet. — Take five dozen large, firm peaches. Peel and take out the seed. Mash a dozen soft peaches, chop 1 oz. each of orange-peel, preserved ginger, candied cherries, and lemon ; mix with a teaspoonful of ground cinnamon, one grated nutmeg, and half a teaspoonful of coriander-seed. Fill the peaches, sew up, and put in jars. Make a syrup of a quart of vinegar and 4 lbs. of sugar, pour over the peaches boiling hot. Seal, and set in a cool, dark place. Peaches, Spiced. — Weigh 8 lbs. of freestone peaches after they have been halved, the stones taken out, and peeled. Put in a porcelain kettle with one pint of vinegar and 5 lbs. of sugar. Tie up in six or eight small cheesecloth bags a mixture of 1 oz. each of whole cloves, cinnamon, green ginger, and whole mace, and put these bags in the kettle. Simmer until the peaches are tender, and then take Pears, Pickled