The Rural cook book

Boiled Sweet Cucumber Pickle. — Put cucumbers in cold weak brine (1½ cup salt to one gallon water) one day and night. Take out, dry on cloth. To one gallon vinegar add two cups sugar, nearly one ounce mixed spice. Heat these all boiling hot. Put in pickles and let boil up once. Put in cans immediately and pour the hot vinegar over them. They are nice and sweet, and will keep a long time, till eaten. These will not shrivel if you follow directions. One gallon vinegar will cover two gallons cucumbers. Steamed Sweet Cucumber Pickle. — Peel, steam as soft as liked and let stand over night in a weak brine. Next morning drain, put on vinegar enough to cover, and let sland over night Again in the morning drain off the liquid part. Now take one pint of fresh vinegar, three pounds of sugar and one ounce of cassia buds (no other spices). When this comes to the boiling point put in the cucumbers, let scald up and then . pack away in stone jars. Tested Cucumber Pickles. — Wash and fill two-quart can with freshly picked cucumbers of any desiied size. Add to them two heaping tablespoonfuls dry mustard; two heaping tablespoonfuls salt, and fill can with good cold cider vinegar. It doesn't mailer whether you have an airtight top or not; a cork with cloth tied over, or put in crock. If you like more mustard or salt it will do no barm. Pickles Without Cooking. — One cupful of sugar, one cupful salt, one goodsized root of horseradish, one tablespoonful alum, one tablespoonful white mustard seed, one gallon vinegar, mixed spice to taste. Boil the above ingredients. Then allow the prepared vinegar to become cold befort putting in the cucumbers. Use the smallest pickles, as the large ones do not always become thoroughly pickled, but for the small ones this way of preparing them is excellent. Spiced Currants.— Make a syrup of three pounds of sugar, one pint . of vinegar and water, half rnd half, two tablespoonfuls of cinnamon, one tablespoonful of cloves, half a teaspoonful of salt; add six pounds of washed, stemmed currants and boil half an hour. Seal in jars. Pickled Damsons, — This is a sweet pickle, and very good served with mutton or venison. Ingredients required: Three pounds damsons, one quart of vinegar, three pounds moist sugar, one-half ounce cinnamon, three blades of mace, one-quarter ounce allspice. The plums should be ripe, but not too much SO; the bloom is rubbed off with a piece of flannel or a clean cloth, and they are pricked a little with a needle. The vinegar, sugar and spices are boiled together for 10 minutes, then strained and poured over the fruil, in a large basin Next day the vinegar is boiled again, and again poured over the damsons, and on the third day the damsons themselves are simmered in (he vinegar for exactljf live minutes. They should be tied down while hot. A quicker method of pickling either plums or damsons is the following; Remove the stalks from the fruit ; wipe it and arrange in layers in a jar with good brown sugar sprinkled between. Fill up the jars with cold vinegar,, tie them down and bake in rather a slow oven till the plums are tender, then tie down for use. French ATustard. — Take six ounces of salt, four ounces of scraped horseradish, one clove of garlic, and two quarts of boiling vinegar; Sleep these together in a covered vessel for six hours, then strain and add mustard to the spiced vinegar sufficient to make it the proper consistency. These proportions are large ; they can be reduced if necessary, but the mustard will keep a long time, as it is made with boiling vinegar,