Harper's cook book encyclopædia

Walnuts, Pickled. — Take the walnuts when they are well filled out, but tender. Pierce each one with a strong needle three or four times and lay them in a brine which completely dissolves its salt, changing it for fresh every day for nine days; then spread the nuts in the air till they become black. Put them in crocks and pour over them this mixture, boiling hot : A gallon of vinegar, 1 oz. each of ginger-root, allspice, mace, and whole cloves, and add 2 ozs. of peppercorns, boiled all together for ten minutes. Cover, pressing the nuts under the vinegar with a plate, and let them stand six weeks before using. Another way : — This is a very favorite pickle, but growing rare, because the nut is difficult to obtain just in the right condition for pickling. The long, white walnut is the proper kind for pickling and making catsup, but is only to be found in the forests, and is seldom brought to market. They should be gathered early in June, while very young and tender. The English walnut, however, also makes a fine pickle and catsup. The flavor of either is so piquant that one is well rewarded for a little trouble in getting the materials for its concoction. Lay the walnuts in strong salt-water for two weeks. Then take them out and rub them dry with a coarse cloth, and put them in fresh water for one night. Meanwhile prepare a vinegar for them by adding to each quart two onions, chopped fine, a pod of red pepper, a teaspoonful of whole white pepper, a teaspoonful of cloves, the same of allspice, and a table-spoonful each of celery-seed, and white and black mustard. Put the walnuts in a kettle over the fire, covering them with the spiced vinegar, and boil until the nuts are well impregnated with its flavor. Cover up the jar tight, and at the end of a week try your pickles, and, if not ripe enough, pour off the vinegar, boil it, and return it to the pickle scalding hot, at the same time sealing up close. Watermelon Rind. — Pare off the green outside and cut out the pink inside, slicing the white part in thick strips. Weigh 8 lbs. and put it in the preserving-kettle. Boil 1 oz. of alum in one gallon of water till dissolved, and pour over the rinds ; stand on the back of the stove for three hours. Have some ice -water ready then, and lift them out into this, letting them lie for half an hour. Then take 4 lbs. of brown sugar, one quart of vinegar, and a cupful of mixed spices tied in a bag, and boil together for three minutes, skimming it ; cool a little, and drop in the rinds, and simmer gently for half an hour ; put in jars, boil down the syrup, and pour it over. Yellow Pickle (Virginia recipe).-- Put all the articles desired for the pickle into a jar — tiny cucumbers, onions, cauliflower cut into pieces, ears of young corn about an inch or two long, etc. Cover wifh boiling salt and water, allowing them to remain in it for forty-eight hours. At the end of that time take out of the water, place them on a thick cloth, expose to the sun to dry, turning them over occasionally. When thoroughly dry, place them in a jar and cover with cold vinegar, to which has been added a small quantity of turmeric, to color them; let them stand in this for two weeks to drain out the water and plump them ; then pour off this vinegar and add the prepared vinegar. In three months they will be fit to use. Catsup, Creole