FoodNetArchive

Virginia Cookery-book

1884

Page 123 · 4 recipe records on this page

Presented as published in 1884. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
White walnuts are the best for this pickle, but English walnuts are very nice, and the common black walnut will do. Gather the nuts early in June, while the outer rind may be easily penetrated with a pin. Put them in a jar, and cover them well with boiling salt and water strong enough to bear an egg. Keep them thus nine days, changing the brine every three days. When you take them out, spread them on a large dish or dishes to dry in the air, turning them at least once. This exposure to the air will aid in turning them black. In the evening put them in fresh-water, and next day put them in a kettle, and covering them with vinegar, well flavored with black pepper, cloves, garlic, mustard-seed, and a dash of mace, VIEQINIA COOKEHYBOOK. 261 let them all come to a boil together. Next day pour off the vinegar, and let it boil alone, only scalding the pic- kles with it ; repeat this the third day, and when cold tie up very close. This pickle keeps admirably, and is as popular as any other made ; especially in the spring of the year is it acceptable with fish. HiDBN Salad. To one gallon of cabbage chopped fine add half a gal- lon of green tomatoes, one pint of green pepper-pods (first taking out the seeds), one quart of onions, all chopped fine. Strain off the juice, and throw it away ; then add four table-spoonfuls of mixed mustard, two table-spoonfuls of ground ginger, one table-spoonful of cloves, two ounces of turmeric, one ounce of celery-seed, two pounds of brown sugar, two table-spoonfuls of salt to two quarts of good vinegarHidden Salad. Boil slowly twenty minutes, and add to the other ingredients, which must be well mixed together. Chow-Chow, No. 1. (Very like what is Imported.) In making this admired pickle, so justly regarded as a delicacy, the rarer and more tender the vegetable the nearer it comes to the proper standard of excellence. Wide -mouthed glass jars should be provided for the putting away of chow-chow. The following recipe is for filling four quart-bottles : Take two large perfect heads of cauliflower, and divide them up into small but shapely pieces, so as to leave a little of the blossom unbroken on each one ; one quart of cucumbers, by no means over two inches in length, one dozen small green-pepper pods, and one quart of cloves, of garlic, or tiny onion-bulbs peeled; half a pint of nasturtiums are nice, but may or may not be included. Let the vegetables stay twenty-four hours in brine ; the garlic or onions to be scalded and left to 262 VIRGINIA COOKSET-BOOK. soak in a vessel by themselves ; next morning mix all to- gether, and let them drain two hours through a colander; taste, and if too salt pour a bath of hot water through them while still in the colander ; next put the vegetables in a preserving-kettle over the fire, sprinkling through them two ounces of turmeric, adding two table-spoonfuls of Cayenne pepper and a quarter of a pound of English mustardChow-Chow, No. 1 mixed smooth, with a teacupf ul of water that has been boiled but become lukewarm ; pour on enough of the best cider vinegar to cover well, and simmer until the vegetables are tender, watching and stirring from time to time. Imported chow-chow has no sugar; but to please American taste the house -keeper may add to suit the requisition of her own family. In deference to the great diversity of tastes, we give two other approved recipes for the same. Chow-Chow, No. 2. Chow-Chow, No. 2