Kentucky receipt book

Pare the rind and cut into thick slices. Boil 1 ounce of alum in a gallon of water, and pour over the sliced melon. Let stand on back of range 6 hours. Remove from the alum water, and put in cold water. When cold, drain. Take 1 quart vinegar, 3 pounds brown sugar, 1 ounce stick cinnamon, ^2 ounce cloves. Boil sugar and vinegar, strain, add the spices and rind and boil until rind is soft. Put in jar, and tie up securely. Pears and apples make excellent sweet pickle. Peach Sweet Pickle. Twelve pounds of peaches, 4 pounds granulated sugar, 1 quart cider vinegar. Season with stick cinnamon, put in a bag. Boil peaches in the syrup until tender. Onion Pickle. Take 1 peck small white onions and pour over them boiling water ; add a good deal of salt. Let them stand 3 or 4 days. Then skin, wash and pack in jars; putting 2 small red peppers in each jar. Boil enough vinegar to cover them, with 1 ounce white mustard seed, ^2 ounce celery seed, 1 ounce cinnamon bark, % ounce mace, sugar to taste. Pour this over the onions, and tie up while hot. Cucumber Pickle. If cucumbers are fresh from the vines, lay them in brine 24 hours ; then scald in vinegar with the same amount of water. For 1 gallon of cucumbers, add 1 heaping pint of sugar and enough vinegar to cover well; 1 ounce white mustard seed, 1 pod red pepper, % ounce grated nutmeg, 1 ounce celery seed. Boil all together and pour over the cucumbers. Tie up while hot. Always use a spoon in taking pickle from the jar. Oil Cucumbers. Take % peck cucumbers, pare and slice them, but not too thin. (326) — "" " ' " " '™™ " ' ^^"^^^ II 111 I I . I ' - ™ " — - I ■■■■■! - ■— I 11 -— — I I «^ Put a thick layer of cucumbers and a layer of white onions sliced thin ; a few pods of fresh red pepper, with seed removed and chopped fine. Sprinkle with salt, alternating cucumbers, onions, pepper and salt till jar is full. Let them remain 12 hours, if too salty pour fresh water over them for a few minutes, then put in cheesecloth bag and squeeze dry. Put the cucumbers, onions and red pepper in a stone jar. Have hot white wine vinegar, seasoned with celery and mustard seed. Cover the top of pickle with 2 inches of salad oil. Tie up securely. Fresh Figs. Fresh figs make delicious sweet pickle, in the same proportion as other sweet pickle. They also make splendid preserves. Peach Pickle. Eight pounds of peaches, 4 pounds of sugar, 1 pint vinegar. Stick 3 cloves in each peach, add a few sticks of cinnamon. Put in peaches and cook until tender. Pour on a dish to cool, let remain 6 hours; then put fruit in glass jars and pour over the syrup. Sweet Pickle. Take cantaloupes that are just beginning to ripen, remove the rind and seed, cut into tolerably narrow slices and put into stone jars. Fill a kettle with vinegar and 1-3 water, add to it a piece of alum the size of a partridge egg, boil it, and while hot pour over the melon. Let it remain 14 hours, then take out the melon and throw away the vinegar and water. Have a gallon of good cider vinegar and add to it 5 pounds of white sugar, 1 ounce of cinnamon, 1 ounce of mace, nutmeg and allspice, some cloves and orange peel. While the melon is draining put on the vinegar and spices to boil. "While hot add the melon and let cook until tender. Take off and pour into jar. White Cucumber Pickle.