The "Queen" cookery books: Pickles and Preserves

them perfectly, and cover down. This is a German recipe, and is an excellent way of using up the last melons of the season, which will not ripen properly. The melons should be about three days or so of being ripe. Mushrooms, to pickle. {Button.) — Take the tiny button mushrooms, and after well cleaning them with a flannel, lay them in cold white wine vinegar, and bring this very slowly to the boil, now drain them well, till cold, then put them in glasses and cover with white vinegar, previously scalded and left till cold. For this, choose the white meadow mushrooms, freshly gathered ; cut the stems off close, and wipe the mushrooms well with a damp flannel dipped in fine salt, throwing them as done into lightly salted water ; when all are done, dry them carefully between dry clean cloths. (Unless this is attended to the quality of the pickle will be weakened.) Now to a quart of vinegar put If teaspoonfuls of salt, ^oz. of white peppercorns, ^oz. of ginger, a saltspoonful of cayenne, and a good blade of mace. Let this all boil up well, then lay in the mushrooms, and let them cook from five to ten minutes according to size (it is well to have them as even in size as possible) ; now turn them into warm wide-mouthed bottles, cover with the vinegar, and divide the spice amongst them. When cold, cork down and seal. Store in a cool and dry place but beware of frost. Nasturtiums, to pickle. — Make a pickle by dissolving lfoz. of fine salt in a quart of white vinegar, and throw the nasturtium seeds into this as they become fit. They should be quite young. Mind they are well covered with the vinegar. Nasturtium flowers make a nice pickle in this way : Put the full blown flowers into a quart bottle with a minced shallot or two, and fil} up the bottle with cold scalded vinegar, let it stand for two months then rub it all through a sieve, bottle off, seasoning with cayenne and salt to taste. Onions, to pickle. — Choose the smallest onions possible for this, and peel them. For a quart of onions take a quart of best white wine vinegar and dissolve in it a good dessertspoonful of salt and a tablespoonful of whole white peppers, bring this to the boil, remove all the scum as it rises, then throw in the onions and let them cook till thev become clear, — which they do in about three or four minutes — then turn them into jars, and pour the pickle over them. Of course, if liked, other spice can be added to the vinegar at discretion, but that is entirely a matter of taste. Shallots are pickled in precisely the same way. Oysters, to pickle. — Scald some fine large oysters in their own liquor, with a small piece of butter to every hundred oysters. When they are plump and white, lift them out with a skimmer and spread them on a thickly folded cloth, When they are firm and cold, heat together half their liquor and the same quantity of good vinegar, now put the oysters into wide-mouthed glass jars, strewing each layer of oysters with a spoonful of ground mace, and a dozen each of cloves, whole peppers, and allspice, and pour the liquor over it all. Add a spoonful of sweet salad oil to exclude the air, and cover down close. These, if well closed and stored in a cool place, will keep good for months.