The home cook book

Any fruit or vegetable that can be preserved may be made into sweet pickle. A very good proportion for the syrup is three pints of "coffee C" sugar to one quart of good cider vinegar. The spices commonly used for this variety of pickle are cloves and cinnamon, and the proportion two teaspoons of the former and four tablespoons of the latter to each gallon of fruit. The appended receipts if followed to the letter can not fail to give satisfactory results. SWEET APPLE PICKLES Sweet apples may be prepared in the way directed for "Sweet Pear Pickles," and are especially nice. SWEET BEET PICKLES Cook the beets till tender ; slip ofif the skins and cut into slices ; place in glass jars, fill up with spiced syrup, boiling hot, and seal. SWEET CANTALOUPE PICKLES Select melons that are not quite ripe ; open, scrape out the pulp, peel, slice, and lay in a weak brine overnight. Next morning boil in a weak alum water till transparent ; lift out, drain, wipe dry, then drop into boiling spiced syrup and cook twenty minutes, SWEET PEACH PICKLES Take four quarts of peaches of a gentle acid flavor and tender fibre. Peel, but do not stone. In a porcelain kettle boil a quart of cider vinegar with four pounds of sugar, a tablespoon of mace, a tablespoon of cloves, and a tablespoon of cinnamon broken small. Tie the spices in a bag of thin muslin, or if you prefer, tie the other spices and stick the cloves through the meat of the peaches. When the cider boils, drop in the peaches, and when they all boil up, skim and boil six minutes. Gently take the peaches from the syrup, lay them in the bottom of a crock. Boil the syrup fifteen minutes longer, pour over the peaches, cool and cover tight, and keep in a cool place. SWEET PEAR PICKLES Pare and halve the fruit; then drop it into boiling syrup, and cook until tender enough to pierce with a silver fork. Transfer to a stone jar, sprinkle with spices, cover with boiling syrup, let stand overnight; next morning finish as directed for "Sweet Peach Pickles." SWEET DAMSON PLUM PICKLES Scald together the vinegar and sugar; skim, add spices, boil up once, then turn over fruit. Draw off and scald the vinegar twice more at intervals of three days, the last time boiling the fruit twenty minutes. SWEET PRUNE PICKLES Soak a day in cold water after washing thoroughly two pounds of prunes. Then steam them till they are soft and tender. In an earthen kettle make a syrup of a pound of sugar, half a pint of vinegar, half an ounce of cinnamon and cloves, and a couple of pinches of ginger if your taste directs, but the ginger may be omitted. When the syrup boils, add the prunes and boil together fifteen minutes. SWEET STRAWBERRY PICKLES Place the berries in layers In a jar with spices between. Pour over them the boiling syrup. Let stand twenty-four hours closely covered ; then draw off the syrup, boil and pour over the fruit again. Let stand as before, then turn the whole into a preserving kettle and cook slowly, without stirring, for thirty minutes. Pickle other small fruits in the same manner. SWEET WATERMELON PICKLES